Thermes de Nisyros

Nisyros is a volcanic island in the Dodecanese of the southeastern Aegean, the only inhabited European island whose inhabitants live directly within and upon an active caldera — the Stefanos crater of the Polybotes volcano, whose sulfurous fumaroles, boiling mud pools, and crystalline yellow sulfur deposits are accessible to visitors on foot within the crater floor. The sulfurous thermal springs at Loutraki on the northern coast receive water heated and mineralized by the same active volcanic system that powers the Stefanos crater, providing therapeutic hydrogen sulfide-rich baths in a landscape of extraordinary geological drama at the western edge of the Dodecanese island chain. Bathing in the Nisyros thermal waters while the active crater — surrounded by fields of yellow sulfur crystals, steaming vents, and caldera walls rising to 260 metres — sits within walking distance represents the most volcanically immersive thermal experience available anywhere in the Greek islands.