Ipsarion is the highest peak on Thassos (1204m) on the same name mountain.

In order to walk to the top of the mountain the best place to start from is Potamia. It will take you about 3 hours walking at a normal pace to reach the top. The way is clearly marked, paths are narrow and steep so you should be very careful.

The important thing is to start early in the morning because as soon as the sun shines brighter, the view from Ipsarion is not that clear. Another reason why you should go from the Potamia side is that the nature is more picturesque.

If you are not a fan of walking but you would like to see Ipsarion, another option is to go from the Maries village. It is 11km away from the top of the Ipsarion mountain.

The road is suitable for jeep, but if you are enthusiastic enough you can handle a few critical spots with your own car, the locals say. At one point above Maries, the road connects the road from Theologos. It means that another way to Ipsarion is from Theologos, but that road is even worse than the one from Maries and is about 15 kilometers long. If you start from Maries with your car, you can get as far as 100 meters from the top of Ipsarion.

Be aware of the fact that there are snakes on Thassos, especially in the mountain areas, so be careful.

On the internet, there is information that on the road for Ipsarion you can see some rare bird species.

After you arrive at the top of the Ipsarion, don’t forget to write your name in the impression book and that way make your small mark in time.

Because of the mountain Ipsarion and many other hills, Thassos has very pleasant weather conditions. Nights are fresh, and during the day there is almost always a light breeze, which helps you handle high temperatures, without bothering you.

The view on Skala Potamia and Golden beach is worth walking, but if you want to see the sea perfectly clear, you must start for Ipsarion before 05:00am.

The interesting description of a trip to Ipsarion has been given by the member gnjavatorix, at one of the traveling forums and this is what it said:

“Woke up at 07:15am, went to a bakery and we strat. It was the day when we promised ourselves to reach the highest peak of the island – Ipsarion, 1206 meters high. We arrived at Potamia at 09:00am, found a sign for the Mountain Walkway to Ipsarion and the adventure began.

We actually didn’t know what to expect. We expected about 3 hours of walking to the top, along the path. But those 3 hours with our tempo (to be exact – my tempo) became 4, but you should take into consideration that the paths were not that great either. When you reach the end of the path where are wooden signs, continue to follow the red marks on the rocks and stones.

Forget the fence, it does not exist, only grass separates you from falling. Just before the peak is a hiker’s cottage (one Czech hiker said “300 meters” and he jumped away, we just expected that we are close, a then we climbed one more hour…maybe he thought 300m high…we will never know). The fact that someone had been here before you, somehow comforts you. Walking to the top you will be surprised to see the landscapes that you have not seen in tourist brochures of Thassos…at least not in our agencies.

The Czech and Germans come to Thassos because they know that there they can swim and mountaineering. The goat trails we found hard to walk on, but they are jumping around. After 4 hours, with dry noses and lips from the wind that blows constantly, after the sign which we thought had 200m written on it, we realized that it said 2000m (a crisis like - I cannot do this, I cannot go further, and he just said – it is just right behind the corner), then came sweet satisfaction – finally, we realized that we were on an island and there was water all around us, and only water, nothing else. In the distance you see Keramoti, Mount Athos…everything.

And just when you feel the satisfaction of achieving something great, you see that the site is full of German tourists who take advantage of the benefits of civilization and came to the top by jeeps…grandmothers in flip-flops…flip-flops! And I was wearing 2 t-shirts, a sweatshirt and a plastic jacket…and she is in her slippers! But still, the feeling of achieving something cannot be measured. We enrolled in the impression book.”

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