Enjoying the view from our private terrace at Fildisi Boutique Hotel on Astipalea

Return visits: Our 2009 Greece holiday took us to four islands, and on two of those we made return visits to hotels we had stayed at once before. That’s something we rarely do, since we generally prefer to experience new hotel surroundings whenever we return to a destination we’ve already seen. But we had particularly liked both of these hotels, so we were anxious to stay there again.

Astipalea was our first stop on this particular island hopping holiday, and we stayed at Fildisi Boutique Hotel near Livadi, a peaceful farming valley below the island’s main town, Chora. It was early in the season and the Fildisi had only a handful of guests; in fact, the owner, Elias, was still getting the swimming pool, terrace and some of the other rooms ready for the summer. When Elias picked us up at the Astipalea airport to drive us to the hotel, he said he was upgrading us to the “VIP Suite.” We had no idea what that meant until we arrived and discovered it was a large studio-size room with an enormous two-level private terrace. The spacious room was great, but the jaw-dropping views from the huge deck stole the show. (To be honest, I don’t think there is a bad view from anywhere on the Fildisi property.)

Amorgos was island destination number two, and we chose Yperia Hotel in Egali, one of two port towns on the island. We were embarrassed when the Yperia’s owner, Antonis, picked us up at the port when we arrived shortly before 7 in the morning on a gargantuan Blue Star Ferry that had left Astiplea at 5.30 with fewer than two dozen passengers. The drive to the Yperia took less than one minute — we could easily have walked there with our suitcases, which we were barely able to squeeze beside us into Antonis’s tiny sedan. (Mind you, there is no sign on the hotel, so we could just as easily have walked right past the place and missed it.) Antonis assigned us a second-floor room right above the hotel reception and breakfast area. It had two balconies that overlooked the hotel swimming pool and gave us views of the Egali ferry pier as well as sunsets over Naxos island. The room also had a window facing the mountainside behind the hotel; it gave us views of Potamos, a picturesque village where had three memorable sunset dinners at the wonderful Kamara Cafe (which, we later learned, is owned and operated by Antonis’s cousin, Christoforos).

Naxos was our third island, and we returned to the Lianos Village hotel which we had enjoyed in 2006.

Mykonos was our final stop, and Hotel Tagoo was our hotel choice there for the second year in a row.

Below are photos of our views at Fildisi Boutique Hotel, Yperia Hotel, Lianos Village and Hotel Tagoo.

Every room at the Fildisi has this view of Astipalea’s Chora and Kastro (castle)

The private terrace for our “VIP Suite” at the Fildisi Hotel was unbelievably bigger than the hotel room itself.

The top level of the terrace was furnished with this giant canopy shading a teak dining table and chairs, while the lower level had two lounge chairs for sunbathing.

The enormous terrace offered an incredible panoramic view of the Livadi farming valley, Chora, the Aegean Sea, and a small beach below the hotel

Part of the Livadi valley viewed from our terrace at the Fildisi hotel

Chora, the coastline and a small beach viewed from our private terrace

I never got tired of the view of Chora and the sea

At the Yperia Hotel in Amorgos, our second-floor room had two balconies. One of them can be seen here, above the hotel entrance and pool terrace

We could see Egali bay through the door to our balcony

This photo, taken from one of our room’s two balconies, shows part of the sea view that we enjoyed from the second balcony

I enjoyed relaxing on the balcony with an ice cold bottle of Mythos beer or glass of wine after a long day of hiking on Amorgos

The balcony was a great spot to watch fishing boats return with their catch …

… and to watch Greek ferry ships come and go from the pier at Egali port. This was the same big Blue Star ferry that brought us to Amorgos from Astipalea

This was our balcony view of the Express Skopelitis ferry arriving at Egali one evening. We rode the Skopelitis to Naxos a few days later; this online album has photos of our journey through the Small Cyclades en route to Naxos.

Our balcony also had this view toward the mouth of Egali Bay

A window in our room faced homes and hotels on the hillside behind the Yperia …

… but also gave us views of Potamos village higher up the mountain

Best of all were the views from our balcony of sunsets over Naxos

On Naxos, we could view the sea from inside our hotel room at Lianos Village

Our balcony was a nice spot to relax with a glass of wine while enjoying extensive views down the southwest coast of Naxos

From our balcony we could see Agios Prokopios beach, Agia Anna, beach, Plaka beach, and mountains in the distance behind them

Palm fronds and colourful flowering plants beside our balcony

Balcony view toward Agios Prokopios beach at the bottom of the hillside

Another balcony view toward Agios Prokopios beach

The Lianos Village swimming pool terrace had terrific views of the  southwest Naxos coast and other nearby islands

Swimming pool terrace view of the Agios Prokopios resort area of Naxos

Another view from the hotel swimming pool terrace

Another pool terrace view of the island’s southwest coast

This was our balcony view during our second stay at Hotel Tagoo on Mykonos

Another view from our balcony, looking toward the left

The Hotel Tagoo pool terrace is a great place to relax in the afternoon sun…

… or watch cruise ships and ferries come and go from nearby Tourlos port

Hotel Tagoo pool deck views in the morning, looking toward the left …

… and looking toward the right

A gorgeous Mykonos sunset reflects in Hotel Tagoo’s reception room windows