Hotel Tagoo | MY GREECE TRAVEL BLOG

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Top 6 memories of my Mykonos holiday in 2012 #6: the striking sea and island scenery

Villas cling to a steep mountainside above Elia beach on Mykonos

Stark contrasts: On Mykonos, I have always loved the stark contrast between the arid, rocky island and the blue sea and sky that surround it. The rugged brown landscape seems to make the Aegean Sea’s shimmering turquoise water look more vivid and vibrant, especially at beaches, than it does at other Cycladic islands, where it has a pronounced cobalt hue.

This trip I did a lot of walking on Mykonos, as usual, but also saw many parts of the island through the windows of buses and cars. I never got bored of the scenery, and always found it exhilarating whenever the vehicle rounded a corner and gave us a glimpse of a horseshoe-shaped bay with alluring blue and green water sparkling under the blazing sun.

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Things I love about Greece: Waking up to gorgeous views at hotels in the Greek Islands (Part 6)

June 8, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments

The swimming pool terrace at Hotel Tagoo on Mykonos offers this view of Tinos island, a short ferry ride from the tip of Mykonos (right)

On a clear day, we could see the whitewashed clifftop buildings of the renowned Santorini village of Oia from our balcony at Hermes Hotel on Ios

Our terrace at Halara Studios in Plaka, on Milos, gave us this sweeping view of the Gulf of Milos and mountains on the western half of the island.

Three islands, three hotels, three superb views: Last month, our 2011 Greek Island holiday took us back to a favourite hotel on an island we have visited more times than any other place in the world; a different hotel on an island we visited back in 2007; and a hotel on an island we had previously seen only from a ferry. All three gave us superb views.

On Mykonos, we stayed at Hotel Tagoo for the third time in as many visits. We’ve been to Mykonos so often I can practically picture the views with my eyes closed, and I also never forget the scenery from the balconies and public areas at Hotel Tagoo. (If you’ve been following my posts about Greek Islands hotel views, you’ve already seen numerous pictures showing the wonderful views from Hotel Tagoo.) No matter how often I visit, I never get bored of looking at the sea and nearby islands, or the mountains, beaches and coastline of Mykonos itself. For this trip, I requested the same room we stayed in our first time at Hotel Tagoo — the cozy and semi-secluded #19, on the east side of the property — and I was glad it was available for our stay. Although #19 has only a partial sea view, rather than a full-on panoramic sea and island view like many of the rooms positioned at the front of the hotel, I like it because I always sleep exceptionally well in that room. I don’t know why, but I always wake up feeling more refreshed after a night in that particular room than in any other. What’s more, the afternoon sun doesn’t seem as hot or intense on room 19’s terrace, like it does on other balconies, so I can spend more time sitting there without feeling like I’m going to melt.

After several days on Mykonos we travelled to Ios for the first time. We had “seen” Ios several times before — through the windows of the FlyingCat 4 ferry en route to Santorini — but we had never set foot on it. We stayed at Hermes Hotel in Agios Ioannis, a hillside area high above beautiful Mylopotas beach, and just a short walk from the island’s main town, Chora. Although views from our hotel room balcony were partially obscured by a building in front of us, we could still gaze across the Aegean Sea and, if the skies were clear, see the whitewashed buildings in the village of Oia on Santorini. When we wanted completely unobscured views of Ios scenery, all we had to do was walk up one flight of stairs to the hotel’s breakfast room & bar, which had a comfy outdoor sitting area, or down several flights to the huge sea- and valley-view swimming pool terrace. (The pool was just being cleaned and filled during our visit, so we couldn’t take a swim, but we did enjoy the terrace for suntanning, taking in the scenery, and watching the hotel’s herd of goats in the field below.)

Our third island stop was Milos, which we had visited once before in September 2007. Last time we stayed at a hotel on the edge of the port town of Adamas; this holiday we wanted a complete change of location and scenery, so we stayed at Halara Studios, which is literally on the edge of the mountaintop village of Plaka, the capital of Milos. Being high up and on the edge meant we had outstanding views of farm fields, the Gulf of Milos, and the mountainous western half of Milos. If our visit had been just a few months later in the summer, we would have enjoyed incredible sunset views from the Halara Studios terrace, too. Nevertheless, we won’t soon forget the scenery because on our last full day in Milos the island got thrashed by a vicious thunderstorm, and our terrace provided an excellent front-row seat for watching lightning strikes and the dramatic, dark stormclouds swirling over western Milos.

Below are photos of our views from Hotel Tagoo on Mykonos, Hermes Hotel on Ios, and Halara Studios on Milos.

Enjoying a glass of wine on the terrace for Room 19 at Hotel Tagoo Mykonos

The cozy terrace for Room 19 sits on the east side of the Hotel Tagoo property

Part of the view from the terrace for Room 19 at Hotel Tagoo Mykonos

The terrace overlooks another nearby hotel and this old stone wall

It also overlooks the balcony for the room next door, but still feels fairly private

Our terrace at Hotel Tagoo gave us a partial view of the sparkling Aegean Sea …

… which is a gorgeous blue in the morning but takes on a molten silver hue under the blazing afternoon sun. Sunglasses are definitely required to enjoy this view — the sunlight reflection is so intense, it’s almost blinding!

A late afternoon view of the sea from one of Hotel Tagoo’s many levels

When I’m in the Greek Islands, I enjoy watching cruise ships and ferries come and go … this is a view from the Hotel Tagoo swimming pool terrace of a cruise ship approaching the nearby port of Tourlos (also known as the New Port)

The hotel’s pool terrace has a good view of ships docked at Tourlos

This is the view in the opposite direction, looking towards Mykonos Town

From the pool deck, my camera can zoom in on three of the famous Mykonos windmills and the Paraportiani Church (right) near Little Venice

Looking straight ahead, there’s a fabulous view of the sea and nearby islands

An early morning view from the Hotel Tagoo swimming pool deck

A late afternoon view from the Hotel Tagoo swimming pool deck

Enjoying one last look at the view before leaving Hotel Tagoo to travel to Ios

At Hermes Hotel on Ios, we could see the Aegean Sea and mountains near Mylopotas beach through our balcony doors

The balcony for our room (Room #2) gave us this view of the Aegean Sea and a graceful palm tree on the hotel grounds below

From our Room 2 balcony, our cameras could zoom in on Santorini island

We had this view of the valley when looking out the door to our room

Sitting areas outside the Hotel Hermes reception entrance offered excellent views of the sea and parts of Ios; this was a popular place for hotel guests and other people to enjoy the scenery while relaxing with breakfast or a drink

One of the features we loved most about Hotel Hermes was its sea-view outdoor café-bar terrace where we ate breakfast or had an afternoon coffee

Part of the amazing view from the hotel’s café-bar terrace

The café-bar deck was my favourite place to take in the views

The café-bar terrace overlooked the sea and nearby valley …

… had this view up the road to Chora, just 10 minutes away by foot …

… this view of the upper part of the valley near the hotel …

… and this view of the lower valley and the scenic Ios coastline

Another view of the coastline far below the Hotel Hermes

The café-bar terrace had this view of the mouth of Mylopotas Bay …

… and this view towards beautiful Mylopotas beach

Mylopotas beach is just a 15-minute walk down the hill from Hotel Hermes

Another view of Mylopotas beach from the café-bar deck at Hotel Hermes

A camera zoom view of our favourite seaside drinking and dining spot at the far end of Mylopotas beach, Drakos Taverna (right)

The swimming pool deck had views toward Santorini (visible under the clouds near the upper left corner of the photo) …

… and was a great spot to watch the goats roaming the hillside below the hotel

On Milos, the front window to our room at Halara Studios gave us this scenic view toward the western half of the island …

… while the window next to the kitchenette in our studio gave us this view

However, the long terrace outside our room had the best views of all

In the morning, we would enjoy the view with a cup of coffee and, in the evening, savour the scenery while drinking a bottle of wine

When we weren’t hiking around Milos, I spent my time admiring the views

This bucolic scene greeted us when we opened the door each morning

The hillside below us was lush and green, thanks to wet spring weather

Mount Profitis Elias rises 748 meters on the west side of the Gulf of Milos

The white building at left is a farmhouse; the other two buildings are churches that we visited during a morning hike to the seaside village of Klima

We snapped this photo of Halara Studios while hiking to the churches

Our studio was the one with the light blue-coloured window and door on the lower right-hand side, just above the MyGreeceTravelBlog.com logo

Our terrace view included this hillside house, to our upper left …

… and this house, just a few feet to the left below our balcony

This was the terrace view looking straight ahead across the Gulf of Milos

Right below us is a wide expanse of farm fields on the east side of the Gulf

Looking to the right, we could see the west coast of the Gulf of Milos all the way to Cape Vani, the point at the northwest tip of Milos

Some of the mountains along the west coast of the Gulf of Milos

A sailboat passes steep rocky cliffs on the west coast of the Gulf of Milos

I get a kick out of looking at Cape Vani on the northwest tip of Milos because I think it resembles a semi-submerged hippopotamus

Rays of sunlight stream through clouds above Milos one evening before sunset

A ship passes behind Cape Vani at sunset on May 24 2011

Another view of Cape Vani at sunset on May 24 2011

Dark stormclouds threaten western Milos, but we felt only a few drops of rain before the storm system cleared the region

The west coast of the Gulf of Milos at sunset on May 24 2011

A severe thunderstorm lashes western Milos on the afternoon of May 27 2011

Stormclouds above western Milos on Friday May 27 2011

The terrace view I hated to leave when we had to depart for Athens on May 28

Things I love about Greece: Waking up to gorgeous views at hotels in the Greek Islands (Part 4)

June 6, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments

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

Things I love about Greece: Waking up to gorgeous views at hotels in the Greek Islands (Part 3)

June 6, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments

A dramatic sunset viewed from Hotel Tagoo on Mykonos in September 2007

Sunsets, sea views & windstorms: 2007 was the year we took our first-ever September trip to Greece, breaking a pattern of travelling in mid- to late May or early June. This particular island-hopping holiday took us to Milos, Sifnos, Folegandros and Mykonos.

Milos was our first stop; we flew there on an Olympic Airways flight from Athens the same day we arrived in Greece. We stayed at the Santa Maria Village hotel near Adamas, the main port town on Milos. Santa Maria Village is a hillside complex of hotel rooms, suites, apartments and bungalows less than a 15-minute walk from the Adamas harbour. The hotel overlooks the Gulf of Milos, and the balcony to our room had views of the gulf, 748-meter Mt. Profitis Elias and other mountains on the west side of the bay, and Adamas. No sunset views from this location, but we did get to see a spectacular sunset from Utopia bar in Plaka one evening.

Sifnos was our second destination. We stayed at Hotel Delfini, which sits directly across from the Kamares ferry port on the far side of Kamares Bay. The hotel has a beautiful swimming pool that overlooks Kamares and the bay. In our room, one of the tiniest hotel rooms we’ve stayed in anywhere, the window and the balcony both gave good views straight down the wide bay toward open sea. We saw some brilliant sunsets during our stay — a stroke of luck considering that a bad weather system moved over the Aegean during our first night on Sifnos, bringing cloudy skies and a fierce windstorm that disrupted ferry travel for several days. We actually had to spend one extra night on the island because there were no ferries going anywhere on our scheduled departure day.

Folegandros was our third stop, and we arrived more than a day late because of the ferry cancellations caused by the weekend windstorm that “stranded” us on Sifnos. We stayed at the Fata Morgana Studios, a small clifftop complex of 14 apartments near the island’s main town, Chora.This place has incredible views, including sunsets! The swimming pool and bar overlook the sea and the mountainous western half of the island, while our balcony gave us even better views — the same breathtaking sea and mountain views, plus sightlines of Chora and the stunning church of Koimisis tis Theotokou (Assumption of the Virgin Mary), perched high on the mountain above the town.

Mykonos was our final island-hopping destination, and this time we decided to stay close to Mykonos Town, rather than at a beach resort like Elia or Platis Gialos where we had stayed three times before. We chose Hotel Tagoo not only because of its many positive reviews on TripAdvisor.com, but also since it came highly recommended first-hand by some people from Toronto we knew who had stayed there the previous year. (I had recommended the Lianos Village to them for their Naxos visit; they loved it and suggested we try Hotel Tagoo next time we went to Mykonos because it had many similarities and they felt certain we would love it. They were right.)

We actually got to stay in two different rooms. Our first room was situated on the east side of the Hotel Tagoo complex, with a semi-private partial sea-view terrace that was cozy, comfortable and quiet. We couldn’t watch the sunset from that terrace, but if we wanted to see it, all we had to do was walk a few flights of stairs to the swimming pool and pool bar deck. The panoramic vistas from there are spectacular; on clear days, you can see several other Cyclades islands including Tinos, Syros, Rinia and sometimes even Giaros. As you can imagine, the sunsets look sensational from up there, too. And for our last night on Mykonos, we got to move into a room with a direct sunset view. When guests checked out of one of the hotel’s front-facing rooms earlier in the day, hotel manager Anna asked if we wanted to switch rooms for the night. We did, of course, so we got to watch a brilliant sunset while enjoying a bottle of wine on the comfort of our own terrace. It was the perfect place to spend our final evening on the island!

Below are photos of our views from the Santa Maria Village on Milos, the Hotel Delfini on Sifnos, the Fata Morgana Studios on Folegandros, and Hotel Tagoo on Mykonos.

This was the view looking straight out from our second-floor hotel room balcony at the Santa Maria Village hotel in Adamas on Milos

Directly ahead is the Gulf of Milos, the wide bay that separates the east and west sides of the island

Off to the right stands Mount Profitis Elias on the west side of the Gulf of Milos

The mountains blocked sunsets from sight at the hotel — but there were many excellent sunset viewing spots in Plaka and Kastro

Our balcony also overlooked the Santa Maria Village swimming pool and bar terrace

The swimming pool and its surrounding terrace had views of the Gulf of Milos …

… as well as views towards the island’s main port town, Adamas, which was only a 15-minute walk from the hotel along the waterfront

The Hotel Delfini is situated on a hill above Kamares Bay on Sifnos

The Delfini has great views of the mountains that tower above the bay and port…

… while parts of the hotel property overlook the port town of Kamares

The Hotel Delfini has a beautiful infinity pool …

that faces straight down Kamares Bay toward the open sea …

… has views of the island’s main port town, Kamares …

… and offers excellent sightlines as the sun sets over the Aegean Sea to the west

Another sunset view from the Hotel Delfini’s infinity pool

The window in our room overlooked the pool and the hotel’s outdoor restaurant area (under the bamboo roof), and had great views of Kamares Bay

Our balcony faced right down Kamares Bay toward the open sea

Our balcony view of the rugged coastline and rocky mountain above Kamares Bay

Our balcony view of a sunset over the Aegean Sea

The swimming pool terrace at Fata Morgana Studios on Folegandros has fantastic views. The island of Paros is visible in the distance in this photo.

This was part of the view from our terrace at Fata Morgana Studios; I say “part” because the second-floor balcony wrapped around the building, offering wonderful views in several different directions

We could see the village of Ano Mera on the mountaintop in the distance

Looking straight out to sea from our balcony at Fata Morgana Studios

A sitting area for the pool bar had amazing views of the island, sea and sunset

The sitting area looks surrounded by nothing but deep blue sea

Our balcony also had great views of Chora, the main town on Folegandros

This was our balcony view of the Church of Koimisis tis Theotokou at sunset …

… and this was our view of the moon high above Chora at sunset one evening

With all those views, I loved sitting on the balcony when we weren’t hiking around Folegandros (which is one of the best islands for walking)

This was the semi-private sea-view terrace for our first room at Hotel Tagoo

To the left was this view of the hotel next door to Tagoo. The hillside in the distance is the Apollonia area of Mykonos island.

This was the direct sea view from our second room at Hotel Tagoo

Our balcony overlooked the swimming pool deck for another hotel lower down the hillside in what is known as the Tagoo district of Mykonos

The upper levels of Hotel Tagoo offer superb views of the sea and nearby islands

On a clear day, the shimmering sea looks silver under the glare of the blazing sun

Standing on the swimming pool deck, two Hotel Tagoo guests watch as a four-masted luxury cruise ship sails out of Mykonos port

Guests watch a sunset from the swimming pool terrace at Hotel Tagoo

The incredible sunset views make the Hotel Tagoo swimming pool terrace a popular gathering spot for guests each evening

Greece holiday May 2011: More Mykonos photos

May 23, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments

Ornos Beach on May 17 2011

Mykonos in May: We started our 2011 holiday with a three-night visit to one of our favourite Greek islands, Mykonos. Here are more photos from one of our island walkabouts.