A road untravelled

Not many people say, "Let's go to Thraki for our holiday." Greece has so many fabulous top-ranking destinations waiting at the end of an easy charter flight, why make the extra effort to visit its obscure north-eastern corner?

Not many people say, "Let's go to Thraki for our holiday." Greece has so many fabulous top-ranking destinations waiting at the end of an easy charter flight, why make the extra effort to visit its obscure north-eastern corner?

One reason is precisely that: the lack of charter flights. Thraki, the Aegean home of the ancient Thracians and the one place in Greece where a large Turkish Muslim community remained after the traumatic 1923 exchange of populations, offers plenty of what the French call dépaysement. That is, a sense of being somewhere different - not always the case when you're surrounded by dulcet British voices on Corfu or Zakynthos.

Thraki has all the Greek basics - sunshine, tavernas, seafood, bouzouki music - but with a twist: many villages boast both Orthodox churches and mosques, crowned with a tonsure of stork's nests. UK papers? The day before yesterday's, if you're lucky. CNN? Most people have never heard of it. In Thraki, even the tourists are likely to be a bit exotic, like the Bulgarians frolicking on the miles of Blue Flag beaches west of Alexandroupolis.

This city, renamed in 1919 to honour Greece's King Alexander (the year before he died from a bite by his pet monkey) is the last town before Turkey, a fact that made it something of a poor relation among Greek provincial capitals for decades. But in recent years, amid warming Graeco-Turkish-Bulgarian relations, Alexandroupolis has become a frontier outpost of the EU as well as a major port, and is poised to become a very big fish in the local pond. The buzzing café-lined waterfront, with a landmark lighthouse in the middle of the street, sees the local talent strut its stuff every evening, while ferries and hydrofoils depart for the laid-back, low-key and very Greek island of Samothraki beckoning on the horizon like Bali Hai.

And this one is a special island. Samothraki's mighty "Mountain of the Moon" (5,459ft Mount Saos) made it a navigational landmark in antiquity; Poseidon sat on top of it to watch the Trojan War. Its Sanctuary of the Great Gods (Hellenised Thracian deities of the underworld) attracted people from across the Mediterranean, who came to be initiated in their night-time mysteries - Alexander the Great's parents met while in attendance.

Today, the Sanctuary's evocative ruins (including the fountain where the Louvre's famous Victory of Samothrace was uncovered) are grouped in an idyllic setting, minus any tour group chatter; the jingle of goat bells in the nearby groves is the only sound to disturb your reveries (00 30 255 104 1474, open daily, 8.30am-8.30pm).

Just east of here, at the mini spa of Loutra, you could easily imagine nymphs haunting the forest of massive plane trees, shading laughing streams and little waterfalls - not something you see every day on a Greek island. Footpaths lead up Mount Saos, a botanical wonderland of rare flora.

Nature is one of the glories of Thraki: its rivers, lakes, marshes and wetlands flowing out of the Rodopi mountains attract hundreds of thousands of pelicans, herons and flamingos, and rarities such as spur-winged plovers and slender-billed curlews. Just east of Alexandroupolis, the Evros Delta wetlands are home to some 304 different species of bird, as well as rare amphibians and reptiles.

To visit the eastern part of the Delta (which is in Turkey) you need a special permit, obtainable from the Evros Delta Visitors' Centre in Traianoupolis. E-mail or fax your name, nationality, date of birth and passport number two weeks in advance, and the helpful, English-speaking Andreas Adanasiades will sort you out. Guided tours (including a boat trip), for groups of up to seven with their own car, last three hours.

There's more. Head north up the river Evros (Meriçi in Turkish) and you come to Feres, home to the handsome imperial Byzantine church of Panagia Kosmosotira ("Our Lady the Savior of the World"), built in 1152; just beyond is the forest reserve of Dadia, home and favourite halting place of 36 of the 38 species of birds of prey that live in Europe, including the extremely rare black vulture; spring and autumn are the best times to visit. The Dadia Ecotourist Centre, set up by the World Wildlife Federation, has a carrion feeding table, and also offers maps of the forest paths, bus tours and guided walking tours.

Soufli, 14km from Dadia, was and remains an important silk-making centre, and has the mulberries and fine old mansions to prove it. One of these, the Kourtidis Mansion, has been set up as a Silk Museum to show how the little worms do it, and shops in the village offer souvenirs made of the stuff.

In ancient times, the coast west of Alexandroupolis was far more populous than it is now, and seeking out the ruins between beach halts is a fine way to spend a day or two. Neolithic dolmens (rare in Greece) are found near Makri, along with a "Cyclops' Cave", one of several candidates for Polyphemus' lair. Further west there's a good beach at Mesemvria, by the ruins of a Samothracian colony founded in the seventh century BC; not long after, other colonists, from Chios, founded the larger city of Maronia just west of here.

Named after the priest of Apollo who gave Odysseus the wine he used to intoxicate the Cyclops, Maronia's remains include a Hellenistic villa with mosaics, a gate built by Hadrian, a little theatre and a temple of Dionysos (this is the one part of Thraki where vines thrive). Continuing west, there is another pelican-filled lake, Vistonida, and west of that is another ancient city to explore, Abdera, the birthplace in 460BC of the philosopher Democritus, "the father of atoms".

TRAVELLER'S GUIDE

Getting there: British Airways (0870 850 9 850; www.ba.com), Olympic (0870 606 0460, www.olympic-airways.co.uk) and easyJet (0870 6000 000, www.easyjet.com) fly from London to Athens. In the second half of August expect to pay about £350 with BA, £250 with easyJet and £320 with Olympic; fares will fall sharply from September onwards.

There are three flights daily (return fares from €90/£64) from Athens to Alexandroupolis on Olympic and two daily on Aegean Air (00 30 2 109 988 350, www.aegeanair.com). Or you could fly directly from Heathrow to Thessaloniki on Olympic for a fare of about £300; from there, buses run reasonably frequently to Alexandroupolis.

Where to stay: The Alexander Beach (00 30 255 103 9290; www.alexbh.gr) 2km west of Alexandroupolis, is a new hotel, open all year, with a seawater pool and tennis courts. Doubles cost €80 (£54).

Kastro Bungalows (00 30 255 108 9400), near Loutra, Samothraki, is the island's top hotel, open Easter to October. Rooms from €87 (£62).

The Dadia Ecotourist Hostel, (00 30 255 403 2263) offers pleasant, simple rooms in Dadia forest, perfect for buzzard watchers. Open all year, a double including breakfast costs €36/£25.

The Hotel Roxani, Maronia, (00 30 253 304 1391; www.ecoexplorer.gr) is 3km from the beach but is a lovely place to stay (€40/£28.50) and eat, with a restaurant featuring local products. It is open all year. A double costs €40 (£27). The owners can arrange activities such as star-gazing, birding and mountain biking.

Further information: Greek National Tourist Office, 4 Conduit St, London W1S 2DJ (020-7495 5300; www.gnto.gr).

The Evros Delta Visitors Centre is in Traianoupolis, just off the main highway to Istanbul (00 30 255 106 1000; www.evrosdelta.gr).

WWF Ecotourist Centre in Dadia village (00 30 255 403 2210) offers maps of the forest paths, bus tours (€3/£2) and guided walking tours (€30).

The Silk Museum (00 30 255 402 3700, is open daily except Tuesday, 10am-2pm and 5-7pm.

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