Category: Greek Islands videos (Page 8 of 19)

Sifnos island: A walker’s paradise

February 28, 2016 / admin / 2 Comments

You’ll wish you could head straight to Sifnos to take some scenic walks after watching this promotional film for the island’s network of footpaths

Trekker treat: A video released just today has me aching to visit Sifnos to walk all over the island.

Sifnos Trails, hike on an authentic Greek Island! is a nearly 6-minute-long promotional film that spotlights the island’s vast network of professionally signposted hiking trails. With fabulous aerial and trail-level videography by Photo Kontos, the video is bound to inspire legions of trekking enthusiasts to visit Sifnos to explore some or all of the 19 different trails that extend more than 100 kilometers in total.

As you would expect, the film features beautiful mountain, valley, village and coastal scenery. What’s also impressive is the expertly-developed way-marking system, shown in the video, that helps guide trekkers along the trails. Viewers also are informed of a free app for Android smartphones, and are directed to a Sifnos Trails website that provides extensive information about the island and its paths, downloadable route maps, and galleries of gorgeous island images by four photographers.

The Sifnos Trails website includes photo galleries featuring beautiful images by Giorgos Zampelis and three other photographers. There are hundreds of photos on the Sifnos Trails Facebook page, too.

When we visited Sifnos in 2007, we knew that the island had an extensive network of footpaths, but they weren’t easy to find or follow. I bought a booklet that described more than two dozen hiking itineraries, but the directions for the first three walks that we attempted led us to dead ends (quite literally — we wound up in a cemetery on one hike!) We eventually gave up on the brochure and simply wandered around. It was good fun nonetheless, but signposts and directional markings would have helped us see far more of the island.

When I discovered the Sifnos Trails video today, I immediately wondered when the way-marking system had been implemented, since I had heard nothing about it. Turns out that the island municipality undertook the Sifnos Trails project in 2015, collaborating with Paths of Greece to improve the trail network to “help the island’s visitors explore its natural and cultural beauties in a pleasant way.” The project is funded and managed by the municipality of Sifnos.

Besides the website the Android app, there is a Sifnos Trails Facebook page with further information and hundreds of photos of hiking paths and stunning Sifnos scenery.

If you’re planning to visit Sifnos this summer, be sure to bookmark the website and Facebook pages so you can read up on the walking routes before going.

Happy trekking once you’re there!

[Editor’s Updates: The Greek edition of The Huffington Post published an interesting article about Sifnos Trails on March 5, which you can see by clicking here. If you don’t understand Greek, you can use a program like Google Translate to read the article. And on March 10, Sifnos Trails added to its website Google Trekker digital tours of several of its walking routes.]

A screenshot of the home page for the Sifnos Trails website, which describes the island’s trail project and provides extensive information about the routes and the island in general.

The website provides detailed descriptions and maps for each of the 19 walking routes, along with helpful tips and advice. This is a screenshot of the information page for Trail 9 (Kambanario — Cherronisos).

Signposts and painted markings helpfully point the way along the island’s various walking routes

Revisiting a summer trip to Skiathos island

February 25, 2016 / admin / 4 Comments

Alexandru Don’s Skiathos Trip in 4k will make you feel like you’re on Skiathos yourself, strolling sandy beaches and admiring gorgeous scenery

Bikini weather: Readers really seemed to enjoy my late January post Set your sights on Skiathos, which shared two videos of summer scenes from the Sporades island group’s most popular destination. I’m sure it’s because people were trying to take their minds off winter, either fondly recalling their Greek holidays from 2015, or dreaming about vacations that won’t come soon enough this summer.

If you enjoyed watching those videos, you’ll love another one I discovered this week– it, too, will briefly distract you from the fact it’s still the dead of winter.

Skiathos Trip in 4k features luscious overhead and ground-level views of the island’s heavenly scenery, including some of its enticing golden sand beaches, picturesque rugged coastlines, and the charming harbourfront and streets of Skiathos Town.

I thought much of the video was filmed with a drone, but in descriptive notes for the film, creator Alexandru Don said he used a GoPro Hero 4 Black camera mounted on a gimbal atop a 5-meter extension pole. His technique certainly made for a very engaging video — while watching, I felt like I was accompanying his bikini-clad model as she strode along beautiful beaches, took a dip in the inviting turquoise sea, and surveyed the breathtaking sea and coastal scenery from various different vantage points on the island.

Give it a watch to see if it has the same effect on you. At the very least, its three captivating minutes of summer moments on Skiathos will be a refreshing break from winter.

Escape to the exotic Balos beaches and lagoons on Crete

February 23, 2016 / admin / 9 Comments

Cape Tigani and the Balos beaches and lagoons in northwest Crete are seen from two different perspectives in beautiful photos shot in early October 2015 by Antoine Nikolopoulos of Odyssey Art Photography

Longing for lagoons: I’ve had an insatiable craving for Vitamin Sea and sunshine recently … symptoms, no doubt, of a severe case of midwinter blues. Deep-freeze temperatures here in Toronto most of last week, followed by two days of snowfalls this week, have only made my condition worse. So I’ve been looking at photos and videos of Balos, what I consider to be one of the most sensational beaches in Greece, to take my mind off the cold and snow.

It’s a self-prescribed treatment I call the “Balos boost.” Even though I haven’t yet been to what is widely regarded as the most iconic and most photographed beach on Crete, it always lifts my spirits to see images of this exotic-looking seaside area.

It’s dreamy scenes like this, photographed by Flickr member Caroline Martinez, that make me yearn for an escape to Balos.

Here’s another image that instantly makes me daydream about going to Balos. This scene, photographed by Giannis Fountoulakis, is just one of two dozen impressive images, all captured by Giannis, that appear in a Balos photo gallery on the website for the Elizabeth Estate Agency in Crete.

Why Balos?

Because it has everything I imagine in the Fantasy Island beach of my dreams: alluring shallow lagoons shimmering with more than a dozen different hues of tempting turquoise water; curving ribbons of white sand (pinkish from crushed seashells in some places); visually-striking natural landscapes with steep rust-coloured hills and cliffs, and rugged rocky seashores; marvellous scenery in every direction; and mesmerizing sunset views. All in a rather out-of-the-way location that can be an adventure to reach.

It’s my personal notion of a Greek island paradise, a place that has “special,” “incomparable” and “wow” written all over it. From what I’ve seen and read, that’s the general impression Balos has made on many people who have been there and seen it with their own eyes. In fact, Balos was ranked as the #3 beach in Greece, and the #11 beach in Europe, in the recently-announced TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice awards for 2016.

“A single glance is enough for someone to understand that this is not just a beach but one of nature’s finest masterpieces.” — Elizabeth Estate Agency

According to a post about Balos in the Bulgarian-language travel blog My Trips in Pictures, visitors can observe 12 to 17 different shades of turquoise in the Balos lagoons and surrounding sea. A few of the fascinating hues are seen in this photo from the Crete island, Greece Facebook page.

This photo from the Crete island, Greece Facebook page shows people enjoying the shallow waters of the Balos lagoons with nearby Gramvousa island as an impressive scenic backdrop

Coming up on the next page, as well as in Part 2 of this post, you’ll see some of my favourite Balos videoclips and photographs — just a sample of the thousands of Balos images that have taken my mind off cold and snow dozens of times so far this winter. I’m sharing them here in case you could use a little Balos boost yourself, wherever you might be.

I also have gathered links to online travel sites and blog posts that provide even more pictures plus detailed information about the beach, including directions on how to get there, in case you’d like to pay Balos a personal visit this summer or sometime in the future. Consider it a mini guide to Balos, if you will. The only information I don’t include is for hotels, studios or rental villas — you’ll have to research that yourself, but you’ll find links to accommodation resources on most of the websites I mention, as well as in source credits appearing under many of the photographs in my post.

To start off my “escape to Balos” feature, here is a video to help those of you who aren’t already familiar with Balos to get acquainted with its matchless location and sublime setting.

I love watching this film by Žiga Zupančič because it instantly makes me feel like I’m at Balos, basking in the sun, appreciating the grandeur of the landscapes and scenery, and chilling out to the laid-back beach vibe.

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Escape to Balos (Part 2)

February 23, 2016 / admin / 1 Comment

Most of this video by Carlos Torres was filmed on the beaches and in the lagoons, so it gives you a very good impression of what it’s like to be at Balos. The video also includes views from the drive on the dirt road, as well as from the footpath to the beach.

More of Balos — in photos

Part 1 of my Balos “escape” post provided information on ways to get to the beach, and described what you’ll find there. Here, in Part 2, I share some of my favourite pictures and videos of the beaches, lagoons and surrounding coast. Many are from Crete-based travel websites, while others have appeared in blogs and on social media sites like Facebook.

I have included credit lines to indicate where I obtained each photo. However, since so many images are shared without proper attribution on social media nowadays, it’s possible that some photos may not be correctly credited to the proper photographer or copyright holder. If one of your images appears here with incorrect attribution, please let me know and I will be happy to either amend the credit line or remove the image from this post at your request.

Photo shared on Facebook by Kolory Krety

Please click on the link below to view several videos and over three dozen more beautiful Balos photos on page 2 of this post.

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Focussing on Folegandros island

February 16, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments

Folegandros In Motion: Summer Timelapse & Dive! is a nearly 5-minute-long timelapse film showing beaches and many of the island’s top attractions, along with some undersea scenes from a scuba diving session

Photogenic island gem: I’m finding it hard to believe how quickly time has flown past since we spent a few days on Folegandros in 2007. It’s a charming little island we have always intended to revisit for a longer stay, but we just haven’t found a way to fit it into any of our island-hopping travel itineraries since — it’s off the main tourist ferry routes in the Cyclades, so it can be tricky to reach. And suddenly almost a decade has passed and a return trip isn’t on the immediate horizon for us. But I’m certain we will get to see it again.

Fond memories of Folegandros came flooding back the other day when I found a fun short video that had recently been posted online. It’s about the passage of time, too, but in this instance it involves video timelapse photography of the island’s beaches and main attractions.

Produced by Indie Film Rebels filmmaking community, Folegandros In Motion: Summer Timelapse & Dive! opens with timelapse views of the Karavostasis ferry port, followed by four beaches — Agali, Galifos, Agios Nikolaos and Katergo — and the Chrysopigi monastery. The film then switches into real-time undersea footage from a scuba diving session with Folegandros Dive Center, then reverts to timelapse with views of Hora village, Church of Panagia, the seaside at Agios Georgios, Ampeli beach, a beautiful sunset, and a star-filled night sky observed from Livadi. There’s even a quick peek of the astounding views from the swimming pool at Provalma Studios.

Of course, as always happens whenever I find an interesting video about a Greek destination that fascinates me, I couldn’t just stop there — I had to hunt for more.

I found many, but the four I have posted below are the ones I enjoyed watching the most, since they took me right back to familiar sights and places that looked as if they haven’t changed since I saw them. If you’ve already been to the island, I’m sure you will recognize many if not most of the scenes in each clip. And if you haven’t been there yet, the films will give you a vivid visual feel for what it’s like to actually be on Folegandros.

Folegandros 2015 is a 7.5-minute video by YouTube contributor Xvijana. It shows scenes from Hora, Pano Meria, the Panagia church, several beaches, the island’s bus, some hiking paths, and Ampelos Resort. If you like cats, you will love this clip — it features appearances by quite a few of the Folegandros felines.

This clip is an extended slide show of excellent Folegandros photographs shot in 2013 by ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΟΥ ΧΡΗΣΤΟΣ

Folegandros 2015 features nearly four minutes of video vignettes filmed by Carlitos Iglesias

Although the narration for this film by Netherlands-based de Griekse Gids (Greek Guide) is in Dutch, you don’t have to understand the language to enjoy the 9-minute scenic tour in Eiland Folegandros

Road to Gialos beach ravaged by November earthquake and landslides on Lefkada

February 10, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments

From high above, Lefkada’s Gialos beach looks just as beautiful as it did before a 6.1-strength earthquake struck the island last November …

… and it appears essentially unscathed when viewed from sea level right on its long stretch of coarse brown sand and pebbles …

… but it’s a different story for the 3 km road that leads to the beach from Athani village. The earthquake shifted the ground and cut jagged deep fissures along many stretches of asphalt …

… while landslides triggered by the tremors caused hills on both sides of the road to collapse, carrying away entire sections of pavement ….

… and completely burying parts of the route under thick heaps of earth, rock, trees, shrubs and other debris. (All of the above photos are screen captures from a video by YouTube member TeaTimeCreations, who recently filmed the quake and landslide damage while walking down the road to see the beach. )

Road wreck: If you hope to visit Gialos beach during your holiday on Lefkada this summer, don’t expect to get there by driving — much of the access road from Athani village has been extensively damaged and some parts completely destroyed by the earthquake that triggered massive landslides on the island last November. Unfortunately, repairs and reconstruction will be an enormously expensive and time-consuming project that can’t possibly be completed in time for this year’s tourist season.

The good news is that the beautiful beach itself — apparently the longest strand on Lefkada — was unscathed by rockfalls and tremors, and is still accessible by boat.

As I reported in my November 28 2015 post Two of Lefkada’s top beaches buried by landslides during November 17 earthquake, the island’s world-famous Egremni and Porto Katsiki beaches were devastated by the November quake and landslides, which left large swaths of both strands buried under tonnes of earth, rocks, trees and other debris. At the time I prepared that post, I didn’t see any reports about damage to Gialos which, while beautiful, is not as popular and heavily-visited as Egemni and Porto Katsiki.

This week, the fate of Gialos and other beaches (and their respective access roads) has been the subject of discussion in Lefkada beaches after the earthquake, a question-and-answer thread in the Lefkada forum on TripAdvisor.com.

Please click on the link below to continue reading on page 2 of this post, where you can see additional photos and view the TeaTimeCreations video showing the extensive damage to the Gialos beach access road.

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Set your sights on Skiathos!

January 23, 2016 / admin / 6 Comments

André Eckhardt shot Skiathos — Eyes wide open (2015) during a week-long visit to the island and its neighbours, Skopelos and Alonissos

Island beauty: I’ve been in a Skiathos state of mind today. I haven’t been to the island yet, but hearing some of the soundtrack for the 2008 hit movie Mamma Mia!, which was partly filmed there, got me daydreaming about it this morning. Then I logged onto my blog’s Facebook page, where my news feed was filled with photos and videoclips showing streets, trees, fields, houses and beaches blanketed in snow (flurries fell on Skiathos today during a storm that left parts of the island without electricity for over six hours). You can see some of those pictures in my Mamma Mia! Here it snows again post below.

A link in a Facebook post subsequently led me to the André Eckhardt video of Skiathos that I posted above, and a quick peak on YouTube took me to a few more travel films of the island, one of which I’ve posted below.

Happily, the videos show Skiathos in sunny, summery conditions, so I’m sharing them here in case you’re in the throes of gloomy winter weather wherever you might be — the sight of some gorgeous Greek island scenery is bound to boost your spirits. Only 149 more days until summer!

[Editor’s update: If you enjoy these videos, click here to see another enticing film that I shared on February 25 2016.]

Skyframe.gr isn’t kidding when it describes its short video Skiathos Summer 2015 volume 2 as “a small teaser of aerial footage for Skiathos Island.” Teaser indeed! It will certainly leave you wanting to see more.

Kalymnos island rocks!

January 16, 2016 / admin / 2 Comments

Marvellous mountain & coastal scenery plays a starring role in Kalymnos, an exhilarating rock climbing video that film maker Kieran Duncan shot on the rugged Dodecanese island last year

— Updated June 2 2021 with a link to a Kalymnos rock climbing guide —

Sheer excitement: I’ve had Kalymnos on my mind all week after watching a splendid short video that was shot on the island by Kieran Duncan, an adventurous film maker from Scotland.

Duncan’s nearly 4-minute-long film follows four young Scots who visit Kalymnos to test their skills at climbing some of its world-famous mountain cliffs and rock formations. Besides exhilarating and spine-tingling scenes of the lads scaling perilously steep rock walls, the film showcases the island’s marvellous mountain and coastal scenery, and gives viewers an impression of what it’s actually like to drive around the island. It also includes underwater scenes from a scuba diving session, and shows several spectacular sunsets.

I haven’t set foot on Kalymnos yet, but I have seen parts of its coast as well as its main port town, Pothia, during a ferry ride from Kos to Patmos in 2010. At the time, I knew little about the island, apart from being vaguely aware of its long and storied history of sponge diving. I later learned that Kalymnos is nowadays more noteworthy as a challenging rock climbing destination for adventure sports enthusiasts from around the world.

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Want to learn more about climbing on Kalymnos? Be sure to check out the Ultimate guide to rock climbing at Kalymnos island Greece on the excellent adventure travel, rock climbing and exotic travel website Lydiascapes by Lydia Yang.

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I haven’t done any rock climbing since I was a kid, and wouldn’t plan a holiday in Greece just to give it another try. But after discovering Duncan’s film earlier this week, I couldn’t get the captivating Kalymnos scenery out of my head. From quick online research, I Iearned that the island offers excellent hiking opportunities in addition to its popular climbing, diving and water sports activities. Since my partner and I are avid Greek island walkers, this information instantly made Kalymnos even more appealing as a destination for us to include on a future island-hopping trip in the Dodecanese.

This photo, from the Kalymnos page of the Discover Greece website, captures quintessential Greek island scenery — the deep blue sea, a beach, a village, mountains and a blue-domed church

But what really “sold” me on Kalymnos were comments Duncan included on the Vimeo page for his film.

“4 pale Scots went to Greece in search of some world class rock climbing, but found so much more!” he wrote. “The island’s incredible presence, locals, food, scenery, and adventurous opportunities make it one of my favourite destinations yet. I hope this film will inspire you to check it out, you won’t regret it!”

Duncan’s film has certainly encouraged me to consider travelling to Kalymnos sometime. If his video has similarly inspired you, here are a few websites to bookmark for future reference and trip planning assistance:

♦ Kalymnos — The real island experience is the official tourist website operated by the Municipality of Kalymnos. It features dozens of photos along with helpful information about the island’s history, arts and culture, traditional products, places to visit, and sports activities.

♦ Kalymnos Info is a travel guide loaded with details about activities, accommodations, dining, excursions, transportation, and more.

♦ Climb Kalymnos is an excellent online resource and practical guide for rock climbing enthusiasts, with a climbing route database and regular news updates.

♦ Kalymnos Climbing is a commercial site that offers guided rock climbing and climbing courses on Kalymnos. It has a dedicated section describing available hiking and trekking holidays on the island.

♦ The Kalymnos page on the Discover Greece travel portal lists island highlights and must-see attractions, and includes a number of beautiful photos.

♦ Diving the Skafandro suit, by Sandra Hendrikse and André Merks, is a fascinating article about the rise and decline of the island’s historic sponge fishing business.

A mountain looms large behind Pothia, the main port of Kalymnos island. I snapped this photo during a brief ferry stop in May 2010, when we were travelling from Kos to Patmos.