Category: Greek Islands photos (Page 57 of 70)

Cool pools: Splash and dive through the ancient Portara monument at the Naxos Beach II Hotel

September 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments
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Naxos Beach II hotel swimming pool

The bottom of the oval swimming pool at the Naxos Beach II Hotel is decorated with a large illustration of the Portara, the island’s most famous monument

 

Good swims: Our all-time favourite swimming pool in the Greek Islands is the only one in which we actually got to  spend quite a bit of time splashing around without feeling like we were going to freeze. As I’ve mentioned before, we usually find the water in hotel swimming pools too chilly for swimming when we travel to Greece in the spring. We’ve found some pools to be too cold to our liking even in late September, too! But we didn’t have any complaints about water temperature in 2005 when we stayed at the Naxos Beach II Hotel during our first visit to Naxos.

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Favourite tavernas: Drakos at Mylopotas for relaxed dining with beach, bay & sunset views

August 30, 2011 / / 0 Comments
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Drakos Taverna at Mylopotas beach on Ios

Drakos Taverna at Mylopotas beach on Ios during sunset on May 23 2011

 

Seaside drinks & dining: We found our favourite taverna on Ios thanks to advice from a fellow Canadian traveller, Cathy, who visits the island regularly. Last March, I asked if she could recommend any reasonably-priced seaside restaurants that offered scenic views as well as tasty traditional Greek cuisine. At the top of Cathy’s list was Drakos Taverna at the far end of Mylopotas beach. “It’s a really good authentic restaurant,” she said.

We were at Mylopotas on May 20 when I started feeling peckish for a light midafternoon snack. I recalled that Cathy had suggested Drakos taverna, so that’s where we headed. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Our windowless cave-style Santorini hotel room with its low ‘hobbit’ door

August 28, 2011 / / 0 Comments
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Cliffside Suites Santorini Room 119

Room 119 at Grotto Villas/Cliff Side Suites in Firostefani had no window …

 

Grotto Villas Cliffside Suites Suite 119

… and the door was only 5 feet 5 inches tall. Don’t forget to duck!

 

Head knocker: Santorini is world-renowned for spectacular scenery, and its magnificent caldera views drew us back to the island three consecutive years in a row. We just couldn’t get enough of the breathtaking landscape, colourful clifftop villages and endless views of the gorgeous blue Aegean Sea. So imagine our reaction when we arrived at the Grotto Villas/Cliff Side Suites hotel in Firostefani to discover that our assigned room — #119 — didn’t even have a window!

That happened back in 2006, but I still remember our surprise and disappointment like it were yesterday. It would be bad enough to be assigned a windowless hotel room anywhere when you’re travelling on vacation. But on Santorini of all islands? There ought to be a law against it! To add insult to injury, the room door had a low frame, and I kept banging the top of my head on it whenever I went in and out. I’m only 5’7, and until I arrived at Grotto Villas/Cliff Side Suites I never expected that I would ever be too tall to walk into a hotel room while standing upright!

 

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Flower towers in the Cyclades

August 27, 2011 / / 1 Comment
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agave flower stem on Naxos

An agave flower stem towers above Plaka beach near Orkos on Naxos

 

Island highrises: Colourful bougainvillea and geraniums are the flowering plants you’ll see the most often while travelling in the Greek Isles. However, on Naxos, Milos and other islands in the Cyclades, distinctive agave flower stems will catch your attention, too. They’re hard to miss, particularly since the slender green stems of these peculiar succulent plants can soar two storeys tall. (I think they resemble giant asparagus stalks.) We’ve seen them near Plaka, Mikri Vigla and Agia Anna beaches on Naxos, as well as on Milos and other islands. Often called “century plants,” the stems of these perennials flower only once and then die, often tilting at sharp angles as they begin to rot.

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