Greek Island villages and towns | MY GREECE TRAVEL BLOG

Category: Greek Island villages and towns (page 17 of 33)

More weather woes as wind & waves thrash the Greek Islands

The ancient Temple of Apollo monument on Naxos is barely visible as winds carry sea spray up and over the Palatia peninsula. This amazing shot was one of three photos shared on Facebook by Manolis Lykouropoulos.

Wild winter: While it was the ongoing economic turbulence and political bluster in Greece that made headlines around the world this week, surprisingly severe winter weather conditions in many parts of the country were just as wild, crazy and unpredictable.

For several days, and especially on February 10 and 11, Mother Nature thrashed many of the Aegean islands and parts of mainland Greece with an unusually vicious torrent of wind, waves, rain, sleet, snow and cold temperatures.

The latest barrage of bad weather came slightly more than a month after a similarly brutal storm system brought icy temperatures, freezing rain and heavy snowfalls to many of the Greek Islands in early January (see my posts Wild winter weather wallops Greece and Snow scenes from the Cyclades to view photos and videos that were shared on social media during and after that storm).

Snow falls on the Parthenon (top) while two pedestrians walk past the Odeon of Herodes Atticus next to the Acropolis in Athens. Flowmagazine posted this photo on its Facebook page February 11.

This week’s weather disturbances dusted Athens and surrounding areas with light snow, while various islands including Skiathos, Samos, Karpathos, Crete, Naxos and Tinos experienced either light flurries or significant snowfalls in some regions, particularly in mountainous areas. Freezing rain accompanied chilly temperatures in many places.

But it was relentless gale-strength winds that wreaked the most havoc, flooding popular waterfront tourist areas on Crete, Samos, Mykonos and Naxos.

Gusts registering force 10 and higher on the Beaufort wind scale raged across the Aegean, pushing powerful waves against coastlines, ports and harbours. Particularly hard-hit were the Chania harbourfront on Crete, the Little Venice seafront of Mykonos Town, the Naxos village of Apollonas, and the Long Beach area of Kokkari village on Samos, where seawater surged ashore, flooding streets, shops and restaurants and leaving muddy debris — and even the bodies of drowned animals — in its wake. The winds and water also caused extensive damage to the port of Evdilos on Ikaria.

Waves and water damage at the Chania waterfront on Crete are shown in these photos posted to Facebook by βαγγέλης διαμαντακης

Please click on the link below to continue reading page 2 of this post, which includes more news, photos and videos of storm activity and damage on several islands.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Bay watching on Milos

January 31, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

Halara Studios view of the Bay of Milos and the island’s west side

Scenic viewpoints: Several readers recently asked about places to stay or visit on Milos to enjoy amazing views and scenery. On our last trip to the island we stayed at Halara Studios in Plaka village, where we had inspiring views of the Bay of Milos from our windows and from the long terrace outside our room. (Plaka is the capital of Milos island.) Another option for accommodations is Studios Betty, about which I’ve heard good comments. It’s located only a few meters from Halara, and offers substantially similar views.

But the best vantage point on the island is Kastro, the summit of the peak that rises a few hundred feet above Plaka. If the thigh-burning uphill hike to Kastro doesn’t take your breath away, the views from there certainly will — especially at sunset. (If your legs and lungs can’t handle the hike all the way to the top, the terrace outside Thalassitra church part way up is a good viewing spot, too.)

And if you have mobility issues and can’t climb the steep stairs to either Thalassitra church or Kastro, head for the Korfiotissa church in Plaka. The wide terrace on the west side of the church offers marvellous views as well. Want to sit back and sip a drink or glass of wine while watching the sun go down? You can’t beat the patio at Utopia Cafe (see my April 4 2012 post about sunset watching from the bar.)

Below are several pics showing some of the Bay of Milos views from Halara Studios, Plaka and Kastro. You can view additional photos in the Milos 2011 photo collection on the MyGreeceTravelBlog Flickr page. Take a look, in particular, at the Halara Studios, Plaka village and Kastro at Sunset albums.

Also visit the Plaka Milos Facebook page for more photos and information.

Another Halara Studios view of the Bay of Milos

Kastro view of Plaka village and the Bay of Milos

Kastro view of Plaka (right), Tripiti village (center) and the bay

The church of Kimisi of Theotokou (Assumption of the Virgin church) is a superb sunset viewing spot on Kastro, high above the Bay of Milos (left)

Thalassitra church sits roughly halfway up the mountain peak between Plaka and Kastro. Its terrace is an excellent place to view the sunset if you can’t make it all the way up to Kastro.

Looking down some of the steps on the mountainside below Kastro. At left is the Thalassitra church.

A great view of the Bay of Milos from steps farther down the hill

The terrace at Korfiotissa church in Plaka is an excellent place to take in the sunset and the superb Bay of Milos scenery

An afternoon view from Plaka toward Cape Vani, the rocky point at the mouth of the Bay of Milos (upper left), and nearby Antimilos island

Sunset’s glow at Roditses beach on Samos

January 19, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

The setting sun casts a warm golden glow on Roditses beach (foreground) and nearby Vathy, the capital and main commercial center on Samos island

Roditses beach is about a 15-minute walk from Vathy, in a predominantly residential area with apartment buildings, elegant holiday homes, rental studio accommodations and a few hotels. It’s also the location of Tasos Taverna, whose open-air dining terrace is visible at upper left.

Roditses is a rather unremarkable small beach, with a surface comprised mainly of stones and pebbles. There are scores of beautiful and more scenic beaches on Samos, but Rodises is quick to reach on foot from Vathy, and it’s suitable for some quiet time or sunbathing.

Two big apartment buildings on the hill behind Roditses beach

Looking toward the Tasos Taverna seaview dining terrace, from the rocky southeast end of Roditses beach. Tasos is the #1-ranked restaurant for Vathy on TripAdvisor.com, where reviewers praised the reasonably-priced Greek cuisine and the taverna’s views of Vathy Bay and the sunset.

Although Roditses beach is far from spectacular, that’s not the case for the views from Tasos Taverna, where diners can watch as the sun sets in the distance beyond Vathy Bay

Snow scenes from the Cyclades

January 17, 2015 / admin / 4 Comments

This might look like Alaska or the Arctic, but it’s actually Tinos in the Cyclades islands of Greece. Achim Eckhardt shot this amazing photo from a vantage point on nearby Mykonos island after a severe winter storm passed over the Cyclades last week. Click on the picture to enlarge the image.

The storm dumped a thick blanket of snow up to 2 meters deep on some mountain areas of Tinos. This image of snowdrifts towering above a 4WD vehicle is a screen capture from a video posted on Facebook by Emmanuel Delasoudas from Tinos.

Snow wonder: Mention the words “Greek Islands” to people around the world, and many instantly think of the Cyclades, recalling iconic postcard images of rustic villages with white “sugar cube” houses clinging to steep slopes high above the sparkling Aegean Sea.

Last week those scenic towns and buildings looked breathtakingly whiter and brighter after a ferocious storm system swept rain, sleet, snow and below-freezing temperatures across the Cyclades on January 6, quickly transforming the region into a winter wonderland.

While some isles got dusted with a light blanket of snow that soon melted away, the storm thumped mountain areas of Andros, Tinos and Naxos with heavy snowfalls, leaving parts of those islands looking more like the Alps than Aegean islands.

Islanders shared dramatic storm images on social media

Residents quickly took to social media to post dramatic photos and videos of snow scenes that resembled winter images depicted on Christmas cards people exchanged during the holiday season. Though both shocking and delightful to many viewers who have only seen the islands in warm seasons, Cyclades residents pointed out that snowfalls, while rare, do occur about once or twice a decade — most recently in 2008.

But while the snow-laden islands look pretty in pictures, the storm had calamitous consequences for Andros and Tinos, which bore the brunt of the brutal weather conditions and received the heaviest snowfalls as the unexpectedly strong storm cut a wide swath across the Aegean.

Authorities declared a state of emergency after an electrical grid failure left many residents on both islands without power and running water for up to four days, and snowplows had to be shipped from the mainland to clear roads to remote villages rendered inaccessible by the snow that measured two and a half meters deep in spots. Schools, shops and businesses were forced to close, while emergency personnel had to rescue senior citizens and ill residents who were snowbound in mountain hamlets. On Tinos, farmers suffered extensive snow damage to fruit and olive trees and greenhouses, while livestock breeders lost sheep and other livestock that perished in the cold.

What follows is a selection of photos and videos I have collected from social media, showing scenes from several Cyclades islands in the aftermath of the storm. I have endeavoured to credit the original sources for all images and videos; however, some photos were widely shared without naming the source. Please let me know of any inaccurate credits so I can make immediate corrections.

You can view additional photos of winter scenes in my January 2 2015 post Wild winter weather wallops Greece, and in my December 15 2013 post Greece gets winter, too!

Andros

Leonidas Triantafyllakis posted this video of Apikia on January 6

Scenes from Apikia in a January 8 clip by Leonidas Triantafyllakis

Mixalis Karelis posted this on January 7. It shows views from a terrace in the midst of a heavy snowfall, but the location on Andros is not mentioned.

Click on the 2 in the link below to open page 2 of this post. It contains dozens of startling snow photos and videos from Tinos, Mykonos, Milos, Santorini, Paros, Syros, Naxos and Sifnos.

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A warm reminder of a spring day on Syros

January 13, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

To distract myself from our January deep freeze in Canada, I’ve been looking through photos of Greek Island beaches, like this one of Kini Bay from our visit to Syros last May. If you’d like to see more photos of this lovely family beach to take your mind off winter weather wherever you might be, click here to access my Kini beach album on Flickr.

Going to Mykonos this summer? Check hotels now for early booking discounts & special offers

January 7, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

The gorgeous seaview swimming pool at De.light Boutique Hotel looks oh-so-inviting in this photo from the hotel website. De.light is among numerous Mykonos resorts currently offering early booking deals for summer travel.

Reserve now: If you plan to visit Mykonos this summer, consider booking your accommodations as soon as possible to get a good deal on the price — and ensure you get to stay at the hotel of your choice.

On New Year’s Eve, a travel tip entitled 5 things smart travelers should do in January caught my eye on the Condé Nast Traveler magazine website. Item #5 recommended reserving summer hotel rooms on Mykonos and Santorini now to take advantage of early-booking bargains.

The article quoted Leftheris Papageorgiou of St Paul Minnesota-based Hellenic Adventures as saying this is the time of year many hotels on the two hugely popular Cycladic islands offer special promotions. “Not only will you get your top pick of hotels, but you’ll get them at a reduced rate,” he said.

Mykonos popular on travel website searches

But there’s another good reason to reserve soon — rooms at your preferred hotel could sell out quickly. Mykonos recorded one of its best-ever years for tourism in 2014, and the island’s popularity could soar even higher this summer.

In fact, Mykonos ranked in the world’s top 5 travel destinations for 2015 in data analyzed by Skyscanner, one of the major travel search engines. Additionally, Skyscanner found that Mykonos was the #2 most-searched destination for Australians, and #3 for travellers in the United Kingdom. (People around the globe conduct more than 30 million searches per month on the travel site. Working with trend forecasting firms, Skyscanner studied its treasure trove of data to predict the top places in the world “to be and be seen in 2015.”)

And just a few days ago, The Huffington Post singled out Mykonos and Santorini when it ranked Greece #4 in its Top 15 International Destinations for 2015. “These magnificent islands are every bit as gorgeous, romantic, laid back, and fun as any place you can find on earth. There’s Mykonos for romance, Santorini for breathtaking beaches, Crete for natural wonders, and so much more to discover.” the Huffington Post explained.

A view of Mykonos Town and its harbour area. The Skyscanner travel search website has predicted that Mykonos will be one of the world’s top 5 travel destinations in 2015.

Random search for bargains at Mykonos hotels

To see if early booking bargains are indeed available right now, I randomly checked websites for dozens of hotels on Mykonos (sorry, Santorini fans — I just didn’t have the time to check hotels on that island, too). I discovered that many sites don’t explicitly indicate if any special promotions are available at all, while several still advertise early booking deals for last year. Quite a few sites have banners or navigation menus promising “special offers,” but the links took me to blank pages or basic online booking forms that didn’t indicate rate reductions. Clearly, many hotels haven’t updated their webpages in a long time! But with tourist arrivals expected to be strong on Mykonos again this year, I’m sure many hotel proprietors won’t need to offer discounts to fill their rooms. Nevertheless, I did find deals for certain room categories or specific travel dates indicated on the websites for several popular hotels and resorts.

What follows is summary of promotions I discovered during my random survey, listed by island location. If you’re interested in a different resort on Mykonos or any other island, for that matter, carefully check their websites for mention of early booking bonuses. If you don’t see any deals advertised, email or telephone the hotel to inquire if any benefits are available if you book now. It never hurts to ask, and many Greek hotels will be pleased to provide discounts if you reserve directly with them rather than through one of the major online third-party booking agencies.

Please click on the link below to continue reading on page 2 of this post.

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2014 Greek holiday report Part 6: Off to Syros

October 16, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

This was one of our final views of Naxos Town on May 24 2014, as we departed Naxos on the Aqua Jewel ferry …

… bound for Ermoupoli, the port and capital city of Syros island …

… with a brief stop en route at Parikia. the main port and town on Paros

[Editor’s note: This is the sixth instalment in an ongoing series of photo reports about our 2014 spring vacation in the Cyclades and Athens. The previous posts reviewed our 5 days on Naxos. To see any or all of the earlier reports, click on the following underlined links: Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 ; Part 4 and Part 5 .]

Saturday May 24

Moving on: It was another sunny morning, but we wouldn’t get to enjoy the beautiful weather. After breakfast, we had to pack, take a taxi to the port, and ride a ferry to Syros for the next leg of our 2014 Greek holiday.

We didn’t want to leave Naxos. After three consecutive visits here in the past 12 months (and three others in previous years), it almost feels like a second home, and the island has become our favourite holiday destination. And why wouldn’t it be? Naxos has everything we want for a vacation — Wonderful scenery, unpretentious attitude and laid-back ambience, friendly and hospitable local residents, delicious food, reasonable prices, and plenty of things to see and do.

But it was time to move on and, much as we love Naxos, we were equally eager to visit Syros. We have heard countless good things about it during the past 10 years — including lavish praise from people who live on Naxos, as well as from other regular Naxos visitors. In fact, I can’t recall ever hearing anything bad about Syros. By all accounts, Syros could well be another island we would fall in love with and want to revisit again and again. And if, for some reason, Syros didn’t strike our fancy, Naxos would still be there for us.

Please click on the link below to continue reading the report on our journey from Naxos to Syros.

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Syros: Our favourite new island destination

October 15, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

Harbour view of Kini, a scenic beach resort area on the west coast of Syros

Ermopoulis, the marvellous port city and capital of Syros

Hits the spot: Our Greek holiday in May included a long-overdue first-time visit to Syros, an island in the Cyclades that has piqued our curiosity and been on our must-see list for the past 10 years.

We got our first quick peek at Syros back in May 2004 when the highspeed ferry we were riding from Athens to Mykonos stopped briefly at Ermoupolis, the port and capital city of Syros. We managed only brief glimpses of the city’s grand neoclassical mansions and its hundreds of colourful houses seemingly stacked one atop the other on the two steep hills behind the port, but we were intrigued — especially by Ermoupolis’s stark contrast to the brilliant white “sugar cube” architecture we saw everywhere else in the Cyclades.

We have briefly seen Syros during a couple of ferry rides since then, and also got a great bird’s eye view of it during a flight from Athens to Naxos in May. We finally got to set foot on Syros soil on May 24, and almost instantly fell in love with the island.

We spent our first two nights in the enchanting port city, Ermoupolis, followed by four nights at Kini, a village and beach resort on the west coast. We thoroughly enjoyed Ermoupolis, but we particularly loved Kini, and wish we could have spent more time in both places. In fact, we now consider Kini one of our favourite beach destinations in Greece.

I’ll be telling and showing you a lot more about Ermoupolis, Kini and other parts of Syros soon. In the meantime, I have posted a few more photos of Kini Bay below. Click here to see hundreds of additional Kini photos, and click here to see my Flickr albums for Ermoupolis, Ano Syros, Lotos beach, Delfini beach, and other places on Syros.