Opening

Milos is a special island in many aspects. First of all I'm thinking of its magnificent gulf, providing a natural harbour, maybe the largest in the Mediterranean. Secondly the island's vast wealth of mineral which is playing a major role in the economy, culture and development of the island society.

Another important thing is the multitude of beautiful beaches. There are said to be about 50 of them. Many of these beaches are spectacular to approach, with their glistering white sand, clear blue waters not to mention the rocks; chalky white, terra-cotta, ochre and black rocks, the like of which not can be find elsewhere in all Greece!

Most of the inhabitants live in the 8 villages, in the northern part of the island.

The year of 1994 I was planning to visit Milos, after my stay at Folégandros that I paid a visit to for the first time. If you read my information on Folégandros, you will understand why I never made it to Milos that year.

But 1995 it was time!

Map

Piraeus 1995

I flew to Athens this year, because I was a little disappointed on the conditions at the Santoríni airport from the year before. Mostly because it was difficult to catch a cab to be able to leave for the harbour, or whatever you wanted to go! And the air terminal isn't intended for so much travellers.

I must add that I now have better experience from Santoríni. 1996 and 1997 was acceptable regarding transportation from/to the airport! But the airport is still overcrowded!

Back to Piraeus 1995! When you go by air charter from Sweden you generally leave early in the mornings, at least this is my experience. That means that you are at Piraeus in the middle of the day. You have to except that most ferries leave in the morning or the evening. This year my plan was to go to Milos first, and there was a late ferry departure, which meant that I have to spend about 8 hours in Piraeus.

What to do in Piraeus? I must admit that I don't really like that town. It's noisy, dirty and crowded by people everywhere!

Anyway I have to kill a couple of hours, so I left my luggage at a travel agency; got some proposal on what to do, or actually how get to the waterfront outside the docks.

After 15-20 minutes of walking I reached a nice harbour where you can find exclusive yachts, and I was strolling around there for a while. Close to the harbour I found a tavern and sat down to have some lunch and at the same time just look at people passing by. I don't remember what I had for lunch, probably some kind of Greek Salad. On the other hand I remember that I had some coffee afterward, just to let the time pass by.

A little later I continued to walk and reached another tavern above a beach. My intention was to go down to the beach, not to swim in the dirty water, but to begin to work with my tan. But first I sat down at the tavern to relax and get me something to drink.

After a while a Greek man started to talk to me. Of course he noticed that I wasn't from Greece. He was a very talkative person. "I don't understand why you are not married or have a girlfriend" he said. I couldn't convince him that it's possible to lead a life as single.

He was very found of women and was married to one! But it wasn't enough for him. This very afternoon he was going to meet two Russian girls. He considered this to be very naturally thing for men. "What about your wife?" I asked? Unfortunately I didn't get a clear answer on this one!

This isn't my way to tell that all Greek men are like this when it comes to relationship and sexuality. But I think we have a quite different outlook on these things, much depending on the environment we have been brought up in.

Some hour later the man has to leave for his date with the Russian girls, and I went down to the beach. There were some people swimming but I was gladly waiting until I sooner reached the clear waters of Milos!

Later I returned to the travel agency to get my things and put on some more clothes. Then I had some dinner in the restaurant located in the new ferry terminal.

There were still some hours for the ferry departure, so I sat down outside in the port looking at the street life.

About 10 p.m. I embarked the ferry and was showed to my shared cabin. This year I wanted to get some sleep while travelling and it was alright, even if one of the room fellows sounded a bit strange; snoring or something.

Early in the morning we reached the port of Milos, Adámas.

Where to stay?

In one of my travelling guides, they advice visitors to Milos to try find a room in the village of Tripití, if you like a village environment as a base. However it is hard to find a room here!

Another nice village is Pláka, official capital of the island, where you besides rooms to rent also find a post office, several motorbike rentals and some nice taverns. Furthermore is Castro, the old fort located here, from where you have a fantastic view in several directions.

You find most accommodations down by the port, Adámas. This village isn't particular picturesque as many other ports in the Cyclades. It's a rather busy place. On the quayside, and the street along the waterfront, are several travel agencies, taverns and banks and other services like motorbike rentals and bus station.

If you are into windsurfing I suggest that you try to get a room in Pollónia, the north-eastern corner of the island, because this is the windiest spot on Milos.

Room in Tripití

My first choice of place to find an accommodation was Tripití. So I found a local bus in the morning to get there. I followed the directions in my travel guide, and found the way to the area where there should be some rooms to rent.

Then I was walking around for a while and discovered that it was rather difficult to see in what house they had rooms to let. There was hardly any advertisement boards to guide you. After a while I entered a place and there was a woman, speaking Greek only.

Anyway we were able to communicate tolerably, and she offered me to sleep in the kitchen for one night, and after that I would get a room of my own. I was satisfied with that solution. The woman offered me coffee, which I of course accepted. She got my passport and everything seemed to be great!

But suddenly the woman made it clear that she hasn't any room to offer. In other words I will have to leave. I was very surprised and disappointed, but what could I do but take my backpack and leave.

After more searching for a room in Tripití, I gave up and took a bus to Pláka, where I was able to find a decent room.

Transportation

I consider the best way of getting around the island is to hire a motorbike or another vehicle of your choice. Mainly because you will be shout out many of the wonderful beaches in the south if you have to depend on the local buses.

The main roads are in good condition, but the dirt roads nearest some of the beaches could be rather trying. In the eastern part of the island the are not many roads and they are often in a bad shape.

Beaches

I love beaches, especially if they are like in Milos, beautiful and often very spectacular to watch at. Maybe 50 beaches is to much to cover in one week, but I think I visited the most important, with the limitation of not having a boat.

North

If we start in the North, Plathiéna is the closest beach to Plaka, and is rather well protected and partly shaded by tamarisks. It's rather clothing optional, at least of season.

A beach to avoid is Nerodafni, the most northerly beach, with a very destroyed environment because of the mineral industry. The beach itself is nothing much; has no shadow to offer and consists mostly of rather big stones that are very uncomfortable.

Sarakiniko on the road to Pollónia, is a special beach in the sense that the light rocks, polished by wind and water, looks like a moonscape. I just took a quick glance on this beach, since it was terrible hot in the middle of the day. Probably you should keep your swimming wear on when spending time on this beach!

Close to the ruined ancient city Philakopi, there is another special beach, Papafrangas a dramatically shaped cove. After some difficulty to reach down, a swim from the tiny beach at the bottom is welcomed experience.

Pollónia 12km Northeast of Adámas is the second resort on Milos after Adámas. It's nice to visit one of the open-air restaurants by the waterfront, enjoy a nice meal and feel the relaxed atmosphere.

This is a windy place and therefore popular among wind surfers. The beach is rather long but narrow with tamarisks, which offers shadow.

Ormos Milos

The big gulf, Ormos Milos, offers some decent beaches. However Papakinos in Adámas, along the road to the airport doesn't belong to my favourites. It's to close to the road and the buildings. If that doesn't disturb you, you can find shadow on this beach and the possibility to get you something to eat.

The best beach in the gulf is Hivadholímni, found in the southern part, which is a wide beach that invite you to nice walks along the water. The Eastern corner of the beach is good for snorkelling. Unfortunately it's hard to find any shadow on this beach.

South

In the South you probably find the nicest beaches on the island.

Starting in the East we have Paliochora. To get here you have to start in Adámas and drive towards the airport, but before you reach the airport you have to take the roads heading for the village of Zefíria. In the village you take to the right.

This beach are divided in three parts: the main part in the middle with some taverns close by.

Another part to the east, separated by rocks rather easy to pass by. This Eastern part is considered to be clothing optional.

If you instead take to the right or in Western direction, you find a marvellous beach reachable through a tunnel in the rocks. This tunnel is not so easy to find, but you are plentiful rewarded if you make it! When I was here out of season I was the only one on the beach. In this situation you don't have bother about any clothes. Just enjoy the sun, wind and water on your naked skin!

It's possible to reach another beach not that far from Paliochora, if you after the village of Zefíria, take to the right and when the roads is divided in a fork, you take to the right yet another time. After a rather tricky drive with motorbike, thanks to the loose dirt on the road you will reach Agia Kyriaki beach. It's a sandy beach with rather small tamarisks.

To reach the next group of beaches on the south cost of Milos, you pass the airport and most of the Hivadholímni beach, were the road is divided and you are heading to the south (left).

Tsigrado consist of some rather small sandy beaches, with steep rocks above. There are rather few people here of season.

One of my favourites is Firíplaka beach; a nice sandy beach divided on two to three sections. Behind the beach there are rocks in chalky white, terracotta and ochre colours. Here I consider naturism rather accepted, at least of season. Take a look in my Image section further down on this page, were you would find two pictures from this beach!

The only not so fun about this beach is that you have to pass cement works on you way to the beach, with a dusty and damaged environment.

Next beach is Provatás with a big hotel complex just above the beach. I had a splendid tomato salad for lunch here one day, but I never spend any time one the beach, since I do not like developed beaches!

Not far from Provatás you will find some small beaches with the common name of Agios Sotis. I visited one of these beaches for several times, during my stay at Milos. Just above the beach was a small tavern, which is very handy and the beach was mostly populated by naturists. A beach in my taste!

Nice view

One day I was spending a few morning hours on Agios Sotis beach. Then I decided to try to reach the highest top on the island, which is the mountain of Profitis Ilías. It's 751 meters above the sea level.

I was renting a motorbike during my stay on Milos, which in this case, made it easier to reach the top, since I was able to drive uphill rather much of the distance. This was to take a chance, as the renting company didn't have any support if something happen with my moped in that part of the island. The road was in a very bad condition so I was perhaps lucky to avoid stones that easy could result in a flat tire. Actually I had a flat tire the day after, likely caused by my drive the day before.

The last part of the distance I had to walk often on very steep paths. It was a very nice walk though, with very colourful scenery, sometimes with strong green and yellow vegetation (see picture bellow).

On the top I found a small church and this seems to be very common in Greece. The view is breathtaking; you have the complete island beneath your feet.

As I was on the top I discovered that there was a road construction going on from the western direction, so I suppose that it's possible to drive all the way to the top today. Anyway, I prefer to walk, since this is a complete another experience. When you walk you would feel the heat, smells, sounds and surroundings to the fully extent.

Pictures