Tag: Milos (page 4 of 7)

Mild to wild watersports in the Cyclades

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tubing at Mylopotas beach

Thrillseekers take a wild tube ride at Mylopotas beach on Ios

 

 

Take the tube: Going for a swim in the sea is the time-honoured traditional way to cool off and seek some relief from the searing summer sun in Greece. Activities on the water can help beat the heat, too, with tube rides and sports like kitesurfing and wakeboarding offering a wet ‘n’ wild workout for people seeking a much more active and exciting adventure.

But if you’re too timid to skim across the sea under sail or motor power, you can still have a blast watching a novice try one of the sports for the first time, observing experienced participants honing their skills, or seeing a professional make even the most difficult maneuvers look almost effortless.

Windsurfing, canoeing, sea kayaking, sailing, and stand up paddle boarding (SUP) are among the mainstream watersports offered at beaches on some of the islands in the Cyclades (as well as in other island groups and many places along the coast of the Greek mainland).

For people seeking more speed and excitement, alternative activities include jet skiing, waterskiing, wakeboarding, water tubing and banana boat rides. In some locations, kite surfing is available for enthusiasts eager to experience the thrills and adrenalin rush of an extreme water sport.

 

A kitesurfer skims across the choppy sea off Agios Prokopios beach at Naxos on May 23 2013

Mountains on nearby Paros island provide a backdrop to this kitesurfer skimming the choppy surf off Agios Prokopios beach on Naxos

 

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Summer Sailstice offers fun way to ‘sea’ Greece

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 Rugged cliffs soar high above a sailboat passing the northwest coast of the Gulf of Milos

A sailboat glides near steep cliffs that soar above the northwest coast of the Gulf of Milos on Milos island. Click the image to view a full size photo.

 

Solstice sails: If you happen to be travelling in Greece next Saturday and would like to do some sightseeing from a fresh and fun perspective, rather than take a run-of-the-mill bus tour or guided group walkabout, head for the nearest port or marina to see if you can sign up for a sailing excursions or tag along as a deckhand for a local sailor.

Not only will you get to view spectacular Greek scenery from unique and unrivalled vantage points on the water, but you also will be joining tens of thousands of other people around the world in Summer Sailstice, an annual international event that celebrates the joy of sailing.

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Island sail tour is a must for Milos visitors

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Milos tour sailboat

A poster at the Adamas marina advertises the daily Milos tours that J & J Yachting offers on the sailboat Joanna I

 

 

Milos must-see / must-do: One of the top tourist activities on Milos in the southwest Cyclades is a day trip that actually takes place off the island — on a sailing yacht or tour boat cruise along the marvellous Milos coastline.

Created by 3 million years of volcanic activity, Milos boasts some of the most impressive landscapes in all the Greek islands, including dozens of breathtaking beaches and a spectacular 139-kilometer-long coastline.

The stunning coastal scenery is best viewed from the sea, of course, and a variety of sailboat tours and day cruises are available from Adamas, the main port town on Milos. Excursions typically depart the Adamas marina between 8 and 10 a.m. in the morning, and return by sunset. Many of the sailboat tours take sightseers past western Milos as far as the dramatic cliffs at Kleftiko, near the island’s southwest tip, while other excursions travel completely around Milos. Some tours offer trips to Antimilos, Kimolos and other nearby islands.

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Our sailboat tour to Sykia and Kleftiko on Milos

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Excursion sailboats anchored at Kleftiko on the southwest coast of Milos

Excursion sailboats anchored off the scenic cliffs at Kleftiko near the southwest tip of Milos. Click the photo to view it full-size.

 

 

Stunning scenery: It has been nearly six years since we took a sailboat tour along the scenic western coast of Milos, but my memories of the trip are still so vivid it seems as though it happened only yesterday.

As I described in the preceding post — Island sail tour is a must for Milos visitors — sailboat excursions and boat cruises rate among the top recommended tourist activities on Milos, thanks to the island’s spectacular coastal scenery.

A sailing tour was at the top of our personal “must-do” list when we visited Milos for the first time in mid-September 2007, but we had to wait several days to take one of the popular excursions because high winds forced most boats to remain in port.

It was well worth the wait.

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Mule tidings: donkey tales from the islands

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a donkey on a hillside overlooking the Skala, the port town on Patmos

This donkey enjoys a spectacular view of Skala, the port town on Patmos, from his hilltop vantage point on the edge of Chora

 

 

Donkey tales: Mules and donkeys can be a common sight on many of the Greek Islands including — not surprisingly — two of the country’s most popular tourist destinations: Santorini and Rhodes. If you visit Santorini’s capital town Fira, especially during a cruise, you’ll see scores of the animals working as taxis to transport tourists up and down hundreds of steps linking the small port to the town 220 meters above sea level (see my Don’t ride the donkeys! post above for more about that controversial practice). On Rhodes, dozens of donkeys are similarly pressed into service to lug lazy sightseers up the path to the Acropolis above Lindos.

On smaller isles that don’t draw huge hordes of tourists and cruise ship visitors, you’re more likely to see donkeys grazing in fields and yards while you hike or drive around. Sometimes you might not be able to see them, but you’ll clearly hear them — their boisterous braying can carry across a long distance. And at other times, you can wind up having a close encounter with one or more of the animals just when you least expect it.

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Pic of the day: Sunset viewing on Milos

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sunset viewing from Korfiotissa church in Plaka village Milos

Two women watch the sunset from the terrace at Korfiotissa church in Plaka village, Milos

 

 

Cool pools: Santa Maria Village hotel on Milos

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Santa Maria village hotel

A quiet moment at the Santa Maria Village hotel swimming pool

 

September swims: For our fourth trip to Greece, in 2007, we decided to travel during the second half of September instead of taking our holiday in late May or early June as we usually do. We figured that, after a long hot summer, the sea would be comfortably warm and so would hotel swimming pools. At least, that’s what seasoned travellers had told us to expect, and that’s what I kept reading in the TripAdvisor.com forums.

But when we got to the first hotel of our island-hopping trip that September — the Santa Maria Village at the port town of Adamas, on Milos — we were shocked to discover that the swimming pool water was ice cold. Other guests who said they had been expecting to do a lot of swimming were also taken aback by the water temperature.

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Looking up … and looking down at Plaka village, the mountaintop capital of Milos island

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Plaka village on Milos

This is how the village of Plaka, the charming mountaintop capital of Milos, appears when viewed from a sailboat in the Gulf of Milos …

 

Plaka village on Milos

… and this is how Plaka looks when viewed from the white Kastro church at the top of the mountain peak that towers above the village. Several mountains, including the 748-meter Profitis Ilias, rise across the Gulf on the west side of Milos.

 

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