This Greek island is located 1500m from the Aegean coast (1,5 hour journey) and was in the Antique times member of the Ionian Federation. The first inhabitants of the island were Pelagic people who worshipped the goddess Hera. According to the mythology Hera was even born on this island. The name “Samos” could be a word of Phoenician origin standing for “a place somewhere high”. The first mythological king, Ageos, a hero of the Argonaute Expedition, built the first wooden temple to Hera. The island developed hence in commerce, education, art and navy. After the Persian and Greek occupation, Samos became a Roman city around 129 b.C. and in 40 a.D. a Byzantine colony. After the Turkish invasions in 1475 it only got its Greek identity. 
The village one can visit today date back from the XVIII and XIXth centuries : monasteries, neoclassical buildings, tobacco units, wine cellars.
The ferry (daily from 01/04 till 31/10) stops in Samos-city (Vathi) and gives you time for shopping or an excursion to Pythagorion, the capital of the island. The island does not offer much beach opportunities.