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