After three amazing nights, we left Sifnos on the afternoon ferry for our next stop, the Island of Milos. Milos is widely known for having some of the best beaches in Greece, and the same beautiful blue and white houses as Santorini and Mykonos, but without the crowds.
We stayed in the small village of Pollonia and our hotel room had a beautiful view, looking right out onto the water. Milos doesn't have the quite the same immediate beauty of Sifnos, and when we first arrived I have to say we were disappointed to have left such a beautiful island for somewhere where the main beach in town seemed to be full of oil from the boats in the harbour.
The charm of Sifnos is easy to spot, it's right there as you come into the harbour, but with Milos we discovered the charm is there, perhaps even more so that Sifnos and Santorini, it just took longer to discover.
We were picked up on arrival at the port town of Adamas by the owner of our hotel in his tiny old Datsun Sunny, and driven across the island to Pollonia. Without a car, Adamas is probably the best place to stay, Milos doesn't have the same amazing bus network as Sifnos, and most of the buses originate in Adamas. We had a quick look at the bus timetable while we were there, and there only seemed to be a few buses going from Pollonia during the day.
For such a small town, Pollonia has some great places to eat, we stayed three nights and didn't have a bad meal the entire time we were there. After dropping off our bags we headed into Pollonia for lunch, before further exploring the town and surrounding beaches.
The main Pollonia beach is nothing to write home about, but it is the most popular. We found the water left a slightly oily film on our bodies when we got out. There are some much nicer places to swim just outside of the town, where the water was much nicer and with only a couple of other people on the beach with us.
This beach is just round the corner from Pollonia town, just follow the road around past the restaurants. We spent the rest of the day swimming here with only a few locals for company. We could see another beach with umbrellas and loungers further along, but we were content to stop where we were.
To fully explore Milos and discover the best beaches, you really need a car, though there are tour companies on Milos and taxis that will take you around. There are several car hire places on Milos, and we stopped in to Europcar in Pollonia and booked a tiny car for the next two days.
The first stop on our island tour was Papafragas Beach, a tiny strip of sand surrounded by beautiful rock formations dotted with caves where pirates used to hide.
The walk down is quite slippery with lots of uneven surfaces and rocks, so we went very slowly until we were on the beach, looking down the long fjord toward the ocean. There weren't too many people on the beach, most were in the water, swimming way out through the narrow opening and into the open sea. I was content to swim in the sheltered cove, and the water was clear and warm.
Our next stop was Mytakas Beach, which was our favourite beach on the island. Just a few kilometres down the road from Papafragas, but almost completely empty of people. There are two beaches here, right next to each other. We parked the car and ignored the main beach and continued heading over the rocks to the second beach, which was completely empty. We stayed here the longest, the water is shallow with little coves carved into the rocks, so you can have your own little swimming pool, or just lie in the soft sand and let the water wash over you.
Sarakiniko is probably the most famous beach on Milos. The landscape gives the impression that you are in another world, perhaps even the surface of the moon given its lunar feel.
The entire landscape is volcanic rock, but with no shade or shelter it's best to visit this early or late in the day. Visiting during these times means you can avoid the crowds as well.
There is a tiny beach here, but most people lie their towels on the rocks instead. With the beach being so small, and being such a big tourist attraction, the beach itself is littered with rubbish and the water in the shallow areas can be quite murky. If you swim further out however, the water is much clearer, and very warm due to its sheltered position.
The erosion of the rocks by the water has created lots of small coves and caves, and there's plenty of exploring to be done. The rock is limestone, so easy to walk on and not slippery even in wet jandals!
I swear we are wearing swimsuits in this photo
We didn't spend too much time actually swimming in Sarakiniko, most of our time was spent exploring the rocks and taking hundreds of photos of the surreal landscape.
Having explored our fill of beaches for the day, we drove on toward Plaka, which is the islands capital and Old Town. Plaka is very reminiscent of Oia in Santorini, with its twisting alleyways, and blue and white houses. Being higher than the other villages, we got some great views out over Milos and the surrounding islands.
Much of Plaka was closed as, during the hours of 1 p.m. and 4.30 - 5.30 p.m., almost everything shuts on the islands as it's the hottest part of the day. What was open though was the hospital, where we popped in for a quick visit. Having been bitten by a mosquito or something similar on my legs on Sifnos, my bites were starting to become infected with a slightly worrying red line drifting from one spot. I was in and out of the hospital in about 15 minutes, with a prescription for a couple of different creams which quickly took care of the problem.
Afterwards we headed back to Pollonia for dinner, it's amazing how tired you can be from just visiting beaches!
The next day we hopped in the car and explored some of the beaches on the other side of Milos. Our first stop was Fyriplaka, a long beach surrounded by huge cliffs of volcanic rock with the most amazing colours.
It was very windy when we arrived and the tide was all the way in. We parked at the top of the cliff and made our way down towards the beach.
With the tide being in we had to wade through the shallow water around the rocks to reach the beach, every so often a rogue wave would come in and we'd get splashed with water.
The photos we'd seen of this beach show it as usually having quite calm waters, but the wind must have been blowing from the South as the water was super rough and choppy. The beach has a cafe and sun loungers, and people seemed to be making the most of these, but there was almost no one in the water.
Being too windy to sunbathe, and too rough to swim we contented ourselves with a long walk up the beach, stopping to admire the amazing reds and yellows in the rock.
We set off for the next stop of the day, Paleochori Beach, with a lovely long stretch of golden sand, again surrounded by multi-coloured cliffs.
The water here was just as rough as at Firiplaka, and no one was swimming. There were a few sun loungers at one end of the beach, but all the others had been taken inside due to the high tide and strong winds.
We decided that since there was obviously going to be no swimming on this side of the island, that we'd stop for lunch instead at a small restaurant called Siroco that was right on the beach.
After lunch we headed back to the other side of the island, where the sun was shining and there was no wind. The good thing about Milos is that no matter where the wind is blowing, there's always a beach to escape it.
We stopped at the tiny beach of Mandrakia, a very small village with an even smaller beach. We stopped here for a while to bask in the sunshine, before moving on to Mytakas, our favourite beach from the day before.
We spent the rest of the day lying on the beach in the sun, pleased to relax now we had explored the island and discovered our favourite parts. It seemed crazy that we had arrived only a couple of days earlier unimpressed with our first glimpse of Milos. I think even if we'd stayed for longer than three nights, we'd have been coming back to this beach everyday.
So our final impression of Milos is that it's one of the most beautiful islands in Greece, and certainly one of the most unique with its amazing multi-coloured landscapes and hidden beaches. Well worth a trip, and with its own airport, also one of the easiest to get to.
what a great place to visit,we didn't do the islands I see they are well worth the visit
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