Travel, Holiday and Visitor Guide for Sifnos, Greece.

Sifnos is ideally situated amongst several adjacent islands and ideal to visit as part of a Greek Island Hopping Holiday.

Sifnos has lots of nice beaches, reasonably priced tavernas and accommodation and an excellent bus service which is ideal to use as an in-expensive way of going off sightseeing whilst visiting the island.
There are also lots of really nice walks to enjoy whilst on holiday - taking you round beautiful coastlines and beaches, visiting a monastery or two or just wandering along the island's excellent (and well mapped) series of stone walled mule and moni paths which run extensively through the island's hills and valleys.

Travelling to Sifnos. The Greek island of Sifnos is located within the Western Cyclades Group and is around 80 miles from Pireaus on the mainland. The island is a major ferry hub with frequent ferry services arriving from Pireaus with the nearbye islands of Serifos and Kythnos as part of the route. Speedrunners operate a service from Sifnos connecting up with Sikinos, Ios and Santorini (Thira) and they also have a route which goes to Syros, Tinos and Mykonos and another which goes to Milos, Kimolos and Folegrandes. Services do depend on the time of year and do not necessarily connect every island mentioned on every day of the week. A note about Speedrunners - these are very popular during July and August and particularly on Fridays and Saturdays from Pireaus and Sundays back to Pireaus - these ferries are seat-allocated and should where possible be pre-booked as soon as the schedules are published.

Kamares. Kamares is quite a small town but is also the main ferry port for Sifnos therefore it does get very busy for short bursts when the boats arrive. There are several ticket offices at the port plus an informaton centre which is operated by freindly and helpful staff - you can get bus time-tables, ferry information and some help with finding accommodation particularly any located outside of Kamares. This is also where the bus stop is located. As far as taxis are concerned you may find one hovering around at boat time but most of them seem to be located up in Apollonia. It is easy enough to ring for one though. There is plenty of accommodation and rooms around Kamares - owners do not meet the ferries so it's a case of wandering around and asking. You will find as you go off hunting for somewhere to stay that owners will appear and ask you if you are looking for rooms - it's quite nice and easy. Much of the accommodation is located a little way from the Port - perfectly placed by the nice rugged Kamares Beach. Prices do vary depending mostly on the time of year - in late June we payed 30 Euros a night for a fairly small but nice room with a balcony and very freindly owners although they spoke nil English. The accommodation was right on the sandy beach.
Kamares mainly and just about only road is lined with lots of tavernas, cafes, drinking bars and shops - also a couple of bakeries and several supermarkets. Eating out was enjoyable in Kamaries - food prices from a fairly wide menu were very reasonable - as was the price of the house red wine.
Kamares beach is quite long, mostly sandy and sort of unspoilt - there are some bits which have sun-shades and beach-chairs but lots of the area is just a nice tree-lined sandy beach.

Getting around Sifnos. (The information below relates to June/July 2009 so subejct to change). The bus service on the island is frequent and reliable and gets you to most parts of the island. During the peak holiday season buses from Kamares leave nearly every hour for Apollonia and then continue along the ridge to Artemonas where there is a sort of bus terminal. From Artemonas you can then get buses to Kastro (7 a day), Faros (7 a day), Plati Ghialos (almost hourly), Vathi (6 a day) and to Cheronisos (4 a day). The bus fare is usually 1.40 Euros for most places but bear in mind that if you go from say Kamares to Kastro you "may" have to pay two fares if you need to change buses at Artemonas or perhaps not - seemed to vary. Also note that children over 7 count as adults i.e. pay full fare.

Apollonia. Apollonia is the capital of Sifnos and is located high up on a ridge. The town is laced with beautifuly narrow alleys and also boasts one or two churches (or more ...). The bus stop is located in the Main Square where you will find a post office, several banks which also have ATMs, the island's taxi rank, several bakeries/cafes and several tavernas. For some reason the tavernas and cafes immediatley round the Square are pretty expensive - however just wander a little way out and the prices are somewhat better. There are other shops around the town and a variety of accommodation is available.

Artemonas. Artemonas is pretty well joined with Apollonia and is where the main bus stop is located. It is possible to walk via lots of steps and alleys between the two locations - passing yet more often blue-domed churches on the way. Artemonas's Square has quite a few cafes and tavernas and is quite an open area - there are also some quite large houses built up on the hill here.

Cheronisos. The small fishing harbour of Cheronisos is located at the far north of the island and has a small beach, quite a few fish tavernas and a supermarket. The harbour is reachable by bus from Artemonas - there are buses at 08h, 1030h 14h and 16h - the buses return around 20 to 30 minutes after arrival time. It is possible to spend a couple of hours there perhaps languishing on the tree-lined beach but it's also worthwhile finding time to take a wander up to Aghios Georgios Monastery.

Kastro. Located only 5kms from Apollonia Kastro is a small clifftop town built within the walls and ruins of a once Venetian fortress. There are lots of small alleys to explore and quite a few churches to admire - many of the town's old houses are now being renovated.

There is not a great deal of accommodation available at Kastro and there are only a few tavernas and a small supermarket as most people seem to go there as part of a day's sightseeing trip. Perhaps not the most ideal place to stay whilst on holiday on the island unless you want total peace and quiet Kastro is somewhat isolated - only a few buses go there each day. Kastro's very small pebble beach (Seralia) is way down lots of steps from Kastro itself and hardly the best on the island.

Faros and Moni Chrisopighi (Chryssopigi). Faros is located in the south east of Sifnos - it has a small fishing harbour and fairly unremarkable sort of gritty sand beach. There are a few tavernas, cafes and a supermarket by the bus stop. If you walk west from Faros you reach another small beach which is much nicer - it is sandy and also has some shade. From the end of this beach a paved footpath takes you along the coast to reach Apokofto Beach where there are a couple of nice tavernas including a traditional Greek Kitchen type where you go and pick your food choice from the kitchen rather than from a menu. The fairly long beach is quite popular, tree-lined and sandy with the bonus of no umbrellas and sun-loungers cluttering it up. From the far end of the beach you can then continue along the coastal path to take a look at the Monastery of Chrisopighi.

Plati Ghialos (Platis Gialos). Platis Ghialos is quite built up with many holiday homes, hotels and aparments which are built either side of the main road and also lining the beach to some extent. The long beach itself is mostly all sand and extrememly popular with family groups - unsurprisingly there are plenty of beach chairs and beach umbrellas to hire and quite a few places for getting fast food. There are however only a couple of small supermarkets around. The bus service from Artemonas (Apollonia) to Plati Ghialos is almost hourly and very reliable.

Vathi. Vathi is located on the south west of Sifnos and reached by a fairly infrequent bus service out of Artemonas - typically buses run each way 5 or 6 times a day although maybe a few more are run in full peak season time. The sandy/shingle beach is fairly long but quite narrow with some trees in places for shade. At one end there are tavernas right on the beach and also Taxiarchis Monastery is situated there. The other part of the beach is somewhat wider and has plenty of sun umbrellas and beachchairs for hire or there are quite a few trees available for some free shade.

Monasteries on Sifnos. There are several really nice old monasteries worth visiting on Sifnos - Profitis Ilias Monastery is located at the highest point on Sifnos at 682 metres and can only be reached by foot from Apollonia often on lovely walled paved paths - but it's well worth the effort. You can reach Panaghia Vrisis Moni by car and it's located on the main road between Apollonia and Faros.

In the north of the island you will find Aghios Simeon Moni (which is best reached by walking out from Artemonas although it can be reached via a dirt road out of Kamares or from Troulaka). Two other monasteries which you have to walk to are the derelict Moni Taxiarchis Skafis and Moni Aghios Nikolaos. As mentioned these are really best appreciated if you actually walk to them all - the map for the island is Anavasi Topo Sifnos map 10.26 and this map clearly shows relevant paths and tracks.

Short coastal walk from Kamares to the end of Cape Kokalas via Moni Aghia Ekaterini 8km total. In the evening you can see the beacon at the end of Cape Kokalas blinking away and therefore it's quite necessary to wander along and actually see it and since the monastery is along the route what more can you do but visit both. From the end of Kamares Beach furthest away from the Port go left to continue round the Bay - soon reaching Aghia Marina Chuch which is reached by climbing around 2000 steps (feels like it...). The road continues and then becomes a track to soon reach Ekaterini Moni.

The path continues by going right in front of the Monastery Gate - this is a narrow but quite clear path to follow. The beacon may appear to be quite close but in fact getting there involves quite a few ascents and descents as the path twists around the coastline. Although generally the path is quite clear there are a few possible hazards - in places the undergrowth is quite dense and there are a couple of short stretches where the cliff has collapsed a little and the path has all but disappeared. One of these is along a 20 foot stretch of small scree so lots of care need since it's a long way down to the sea at this point. The coastline is really good and scenic right along this walk and at the end by the beacon there are lovely sea views etc.

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