Milos, the island with the pirates stories and the fishing experience (separate post coming)

The last years Milos receives more and more people. We were there in May and it was a quite easy going experience even though we found people almost everywhere.

Sarakiniko has also some plants on the moon-like rocks

At Milos you can find some thermal springs right next to the street, the thermal springs of Alykes. It is very close to the electricity factory, so it is not scenically beautiful the place but still it is very interesting to see the bubbles of warm water exiting from the sand on the bottom of the sea. You might need to stir the sand a bit but be veeeryyyy careful, cause the water is really hot and you could burn yourself. There are several spots around the place marked in google where you can see the bubbles in the water. Just search a bit and we will upload also a video with the bubbles probably in our youtube channel.

You have several different choices of beaches to choose from. Beaches where you can easily access like Sarakiniko, that is also one of the most famous ones or “Tsigrado”, where you need to use your climbing skills and probably go also at a moment of the day, that you will not suffer from the warm weather/sun.

“Tsigrado” beach gets also lots of people but pay attention, that this is a very small beach. You can maybe guess the amount of people, that are already there, cause they park the cars directly on the street before going down to the beach.

You can see the effort, that you need to put. You have 2 ladders and some very closed path in order to go down and of course afterwards you need to come up!

The beach “Thiorihia” is a bit different also from the rest cause you have an old sulfur mine… The street to arrive there though is really not good and you need to be very careful. Or hike there but have in mind that there are no trees on the way, so you will be constantly under the sun. There were people hiking there but it is a long way. Be properly prepared, if you want to go walking, have sun protection and lots of water.

At Paleohori beach you can arrive very close to the beach and park. You have a bar/restaurant on the beach, whicheven if it doesn´t have the typical Greek flair, we ate quite well. They offer food cooked inside the hot sand.

A very weird entering has also the beach ”Fyriplaka”, where you can also rent a boat (without a professional boat license). You will have on your back huge staggering rock and a quite big beach.

There is a lake, Achivadolimni, where you have sweet and salty water mixing, cause there is an exit/entrance to the sea. This is the biggest wetland of Cyclades and extremely important for the migratory birds. It is very interesting to see plants that favor sea water closer to the part of the sea and on the opposite side where the sweet water comes, you have plants that need sweet water. Of course you have lots of wild life there. You will see quite easily a lot of birds (check the link of ebird in the bibliography) but also lots of lizards. It is of course a natura area together with the biotope where the red viper of Milos (Macrovipera schweizeri) is (western part of the island) and the part of SW part of Milos where it protects the monk seal. This wetland in August has no water and this brings us to the next point.

What is very important to note is that the island has no spring water. It has only wells, cisterns and a desalination plant since 2000. Please do not let the water go down the drain.

Across the lake, there is also a beach named after the lake Achivadolimni, which actually means the lake of clums (limni is lake in Greek and achivades are clums).

At the small places Firopotamos and Klima, you can see the traditional Syrmata. The small 2 stories houses, that are almost attached to the sea. Small but colorful, you will see lots of them being in good condition or getting prepared. These used to be the parking spots of the boats during the winter. Usually the back part was a part of a cave and the front part/entrance was being built from people. The vicinity to the sea though together with the different coloration makes them a “must see” at the island.

At Firopotamos we saw also lots of very small boats, that were very cute. At Firopotamos you have a bar on the beach and on the other side of the village also a small church and a small place, where you can sit and have as your view the cute beach of Firopotamos.

At Klima you have a huge restaurant almost on the beach. They have a parking right next to their place but for the rest of the people, there is a parking a bit before arriving to the beach. You will see the signs.

Which food is typical?

Of course all over Milos you will find the typical cycladic cuisine and of course you know a lot of dishes. But there are specialities, that you cannot find so easily in other places, so here we help a bit.

You cannot leave the island without trying pitarakia. These are small cheese pies but every place makes them differently. So the dough is different, the way to cook is different, the herbs are different and of course the cheese filling varies. You really must taste them.

Then Milos has also lots of fantastic cheeses. From the easy going “anthoteero” to “skoteeri” which we found especially good.

Going to the sweets, there is the “kufeto”, which is a sweet with pumpkin.

We close with the traditional karpuzopita, which is water melon pie! Sounds strange? Well give it a bite!

Recommendations

We can recommend the following places, where we will also go back.

For a beer visit the “Syrma beer shop” at Hora, where you have lots of different draft beers and very friendly staff. The place is also very beautiful with barrels on the exterior. Located in a kind of “corner” in Hora.

For a cocktail we recommend the bar “mikro café bar” (below on the left you can see the view). Fabulous view of the port, very nice staff and good cocktails. Try the one with mastiha and ginger beer. Very good!

At the restaurants “Archontoula” in Plaka and “Heliovasilema” (below right lower part) a bit outside Adamas we ate very well and we were treated also very well. Reasonable prices and good quantity of food.

Our highlight though regarding food was “Zygos” (above on the up right). It was a recommendation of local people and we ate the best kontosuvli of our entire Greek life. The rest of the dishes we had were also very tasty with very fair prices (not like the average of the rest of the island). But the food alone wouldn´t make the experience that good. The lady and the rest of the people there, that attended us were so friendly, nice and smiling to us, that we felt very heartly welcome. It is a family grill restaurant with fantastic meat and you will feel the real Greek hospitality in its real definition. You must book. The place gets very full (even in middle May).

Two more places worth mentioning are the “Bakalikon Galanis” and Kafeneio Perros, where we ate quite well. We recommend at Kafeneio Perros the octapus and if at the Bakalikon Galanis you are lucky like us and that day they have ray, try it.

For more recommendations or what to avoid in Milos ask us. We might be able to help and please keep the beaches and the environment clean. Do not leave garbage behind and if you can, be so kind to take garbage that is already at the beach. This garbage is not necessarily there left from other people. It might arrive from the sea with a wind facing the beach and bringing out garbage.

History

Before finishing this post, let´s see a bit of history and a sunset tip.

The famous aphrodite of Milos is dated from the 2nd century BC. It was founded by a greek farmer and nowdays it is being displayed at the Louvre Museum in France. You can go walking from the village Tripiti and admire a copy of the statue and see the exact place where it was found. It is a quick and nice walk. Here the link in google maps:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/zi2uCzPMGtuAnF957

Let´s talk about the 13^th century venetian castle that is on top of the second highest peak (280m) of Milos. Back in 13^th century is when the main village of the island (Chora was called earlier but nowdays Plaka) started as a small village. After the Greek revolution of 1821, the castle was abandoned and was again used from the germans during world war II as a base.

The castle is one of the best places to watch the sunset. But there are loooots of steps in order to arrive on top, so have enough water and patience with you. You will have a 360 degrees view of the Aegean from there. It is quite breathtaking.

In the 17th century there were pirates at Milos and it is said, that they were hiding with their ships at the rocks at Kleftiko, one of the most famous spots to visit with a private boat. You have also lots of caves there, so makes hiding easier.

The port of Milos, Adamantas has very easy access and it was one of the reasons also for the pirates staying in the area.

How to arrive

Milos has an airport where you could fly from Athens. There are several flights especially in the summer.

You can also reach the island with different ferries and the port of the island is called Adamantas. If you wanna do island hopping, check very well the time you will be spending in the ferry and have in mind also the packing/unpacking time.

The island has one more port, Pollonia and from there you can get the ferry to arrive to Kimolos. Stay tuned! There will be also a post about Kimolos.

We will also write a separate post with the fishing experience tour we did. We were super lucky and we spotted also dolphins!

Bibliography

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