Overlooking Mylopotas beach and bay from a hillside on Ios
MyGreeceTravelBlog.com
Photos & memories from our trips to Athens, the Peloponnese, mainland Greece & Greek Islands — plus profiles of places we would love to visit
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Our windowless cave-style Santorini hotel room with its low ‘hobbit’ door
Room 119 at Grotto Villas/Cliff Side Suites in Firostefani had no window …
… 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
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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Greece holiday 2011: Much-talked-about tavernas we didn’t get to visit on Mykonos this year
Joanna’s Niko’s Place at Megali Ammos Beach was the taverna getting the most buzz amongst travellers to Mykonos this past spring
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Rave reviews: Mykonos has such a wide variety of restaurants — serving virtually everything from traditional Greek cooking to Italian food to contemporary international cuisine — that it can be difficult deciding where to eat, or what to recommend to other travellers. It’s also tough keeping track from one tourist season to the next of what’s hot and what’s not, what’s new and what’s gone. A favourite from one visit can be a big let-down next time around, or it could disappear altogether. There are tavernas in remote beach areas that can’t be reached without private transportation because the local buses don’t serve every corner of the island. Some restaurants don’t even open until June, so regular May travellers like us never get a chance to try them. And, of course, personal taste has to be factored into the equation. Some people prefer expensive haute cuisine, while others want cheap ‘n’ cheerful Greek comfort food. Some abhor obvious tourist traps, yet others can’t get enough of them.
Each year, there’s a handful of restaurants that attract a lot of attention in travel magazines and websites, and in conversations between visitors, hotel staff and local residents. This year was no exception.
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