5 European Islands I Slept On

Down the years I have backpacked through every UEFA recognised European country, plus many unrecognised European countries. Within some of these countries, I have toured islands but not every island was slept on. Examples of islands I visited but didn’t sleep on are Brownsea Island, Suomenlinna, Sark, Lido and Herm. But the 5 on this list, I actually stayed overnight.

1.Cyprus

Officially I have been to Cyprus 3 times and Northern Cyprus once. In all those visits, I only stayed on the Cyprus side, I was based at the Hostel Costas Action, which at the time was the only hostel in Nicosia. Cyprus is quite a big island and officially has three countries on it, as there are also two British bases there – The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia is a British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus.

Then there is the city in two countries – Nicosia which has a border where you cross into Turkish Nicosia, Turkish Cyprus, Northern Cyprus. As a geek fact, former Colchester United and Norwich City footballer Jeremy Goss was born in the UK, but born in Cyprus! Goss would eventually score away goals in wins at three former European Cup finalists – Leeds United, Liverpool and Bayern Munich. His winner at Liverpool was the last goal to be scored at the old kop end of Anfield.

2.Gozo

Malta has a few islands in the country and I managed to visit three of them – Comino, Malta and Gozo. I slept on Malta and Gozo. I toured the sights of Victoria and slept in the Downtown Hotel in Gozo’s capital.

Malta itself was a surprise country to visit, having some really quirky places including the quite impressive Popeye Village and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, itself a separate country.

3.Mallorca / Majorca

I’ve been to Spain quite a few times and although the country boasts loads of islands, I seem to believe that I have only ever been to two islands in Spain – Menorca and Mallorca – both in the Balearic Islands group. Mallorca is famous for a personal reason as Northern Ireland footballer Gerry Armstrong once played for the team here. It’s quite a swanky place too, there are some luxury villas in Mallorca as well as having a great clubbing and party scene.

4.Guernsey

I spent two seasons working on car ferries and this meant I was able to visit quite a few islands – both with work and outside of work. The islands I visited were Isle of Wight, Jersey, Guernsey, Sark and Herm. I slept on three of those, including at the Ommaroo Hotel in Jersey.

Guernsey was an interesting place to visit. I toured a lot of the war sights and even visited Lihou Island, off the coast. I stayed at the swanky St. Pierre Park Hotel.

5.Deyna Island, Starogard Gdański

Perhaps a surprise inclusion on this list is an island within a city, in the town of Starogard Gdański. I toured here after getting travel tips from a local lady here and weirdly I noticed that my hotel, the Noclegi Rekord was actually on an island, yet many locals didn’t even know about that!

My travels will no doubt take me to some more islands, I still haven’t been to the Isle of Man, the Shetland Islands, many Caribbean Islands, Bornholm, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, The Canary Islands and the Azores.