Olympos clings to a knife-edge ridge in the uninhabited north of Karpathos, and getting there is half the experience. Most visitors arrive by excursion boat from Pigadia to the tiny harbour of Diafani, then take a minibus up the mountain track. The village sits at around 500 metres, overlooking the Aegean on both sides, with windmills turning on the ridge above.
What you find is extraordinary: a community that has preserved its customs and costume more completely than almost anywhere else in Greece. The women bake bread in communal wood-fired ovens, grind grain in the old mills, and weave cloth on hand looms. Kafeneions serve local wine and cheese. It is not a museum — it is a living village that simply never modernised at the same pace as the rest of the country.
Allow a full day. Spend the morning in Olympos, eat at one of the village tavernas (the lamb and the local cheese are both worth seeking out), and take the afternoon boat back to Diafani before the final boat returns to Pigadia.