The Greek Island Of Sikinos Holiday and Travel Guide.
Welcome to our Sikinos Greece holiday, travel, walks and photos guide - this guide relates to our holiday
on the island in May 2008.
The Greek Island of Sikinos (Oinoe in Ancient Greece) is part of the Greek Cyclades Island Group and is
located between the Greek Islands of Folegandros and Ios - the island has an area of around 42 kilometres
and a permanent population of around 340 people. Sikinos is a very quiet and undeveloped Greek Island -
it has just two villages - Chora/Kastro up in the hills and the other is located in the small harbour
(Alopronia) where there are several tavernas and limited accommodation for visitors. There are only two metal roads
plus a few well-maintained dirt roads on the island however at the time of our Sikinos Holiday they were
building another road through to one of the beaches and another road was planned going the other way from the port
both of which we understand will be tarmac.
One of the island's two quite large sandy beaches (Alopronia) is located by the harbour and has sun shades,
beach chairs and also a nice line of shady trees growing along the edge by the road - the other beach is
Aghios Georgios and is located a little way further up the coast.
Getting there. The Cyclades are ideal for sailors to meander around on their yachts and even this early
in the season several were visiting the island. Although there is a heliport on the island the way
most visitors will travel to Sikinos is by ferry -
there are several ferry companies serving the island including Nell and GA - we were told that ferries visit up to
around a peak of 90 times a month during the summer period but obviously far less frequently in Winter. Sikinos is only
a 45 minute ferry ride from neighbouring Ios and there are also frequent day tripper boats arriving from that island
as well as Folegandros and of course Santorini (the latter takes around 2 hours by normal ferry).
Tavernas - Food. During our holiday (second half of May 2008) there were
apparently only 10 of us non-islanders staying on the island. There were actually no tavernas
open in Porto Sikinos/Alopronia - and just two available for providing meals up in Chora and these had an extremely limited
menu choice. There is a small supermarket at Porto Sikinos where you can buy bread and depending when the ferry
from Naxos arrives also fruit and tomatoes etc are on sale. (note if you want bread then you have to wait for the
supermarket owner to get this from the bakery up in Chora - generally this should be available to purchase by around
10 a.m. but does depend on who he meets and spends time talking too up in the town.).
Accommodation. Again this early in Sikinos's season there were only a few
obvious places where you could stay down in
the Port and possibly a few more rooms up in Chora - however when we arrived on our ferry there were a couple of
locals around who met the ferry and offered accommodation/rooms if you had not already arranged such.
Sikinos's season starts off with a bang in late June and then continues through July, August and into September
when we are told the island gets really busy. Whilst on holiday on Sikinos we
stayed down in Porto Sikinos at the Porto
Sikinos Hotel - you are made very welcome and we enjoyed our time there.
Getting around on Sikinos. There are no taxis on the island - there is a
bus which generally meets with the ferries - this bus also makes a scheduled but
not too frequent run between the Port and Chora.
We did notice there was a bus stop out at
Episkopi so presumably at some time more into the holiday season they run a bus
service out there too. Once the roads mentioned above are established we were told that the
bus may also make trips out to the beach at Aghios Georgios.
The nicest way to get around the island is of course by walking and using the
several mule tracks which exist. You can easily walk from the Port up into Chora
and this is mostly on a really nice mule track - there are also several loops of
varying distances that you can enjoy by walking out of Chora - generally the
paths are in quite good condition and do not suffer from thorn and thistle (they
are still used by the locals and their donkeys which helps keep undergrowth
under control). However it's worth noting that the paths are often very rocky /
rubbly and uneven underfoot and are best walked in proper walking boots or at
the very least good trainers - also because you are often walking up and down
rocky "steps" we found that having a walking stick was really helpful to keep
too much banging off our knees.
Porto Sikinos/Alopronia to Kastro/Chora. This short walk of
around 4kms takes you from the Port up to the bus stop at Chora - generally
speaking it is therefore a steady climb most of the way and apart from the first
half kilometre is on a nice rocky path and just a shortish bit on an old dirt
track. From the Port follow the main road out heading towards Chora - just after
reaching the island's petrol station take a concrete road leaving on the right.
When this steep road forks go left and head for the clearly visible large grey
concrete sterna. Climb up to the sterna and you find on it's right hand side
that the path
leaves and heads up into the hillside following a rock wall.
Basically follow this rock strewn path
almost always with the wall on the left and soon get nice views of the Port
below and Kastro and Chora above and even higher up Zoodhochos Pighi Monastery perched
on the hill above Kastro. The main Chora road is almost always
in view below - eventually the path drops down to the road, turn right and
follow the road a short distance round the bend and then take a track on the
left. This heads down for a little while to reach a small church - then from the
church starts to easily climb up now on a moni-pati. As you are very close to
reaching the saddle the path swings hard right following the wall round (there
appears to be an old path going ahead but this is blocked). The final part of
the walk into Chora is via very wide rock
steps.
If you do not fancy the effort of walking up - perhaps if the weather is
particularly hot - you can easily take the bus up to Chora and saunter back down
of course. Or as we did you can walk up - get a cold drink at the top and walk
back down which is the best of both worlds.
Beaches. We did not particularly visit the island for it's
beaches - the beach at Alopronia Bay looked nice enough and is sandy - the only
other beach we actually visited was the small pebbly beach at Dhialiskari - you
can reach this beach by taking a 50 minute or so walk from the Port up and over
the hill on a track. Certainly in May should you visit this beach and want a bit
of naturist sunbathing / swimming there is unlikely to be anybody else around to
object.
We did not go to the larger beach at Aghios Georgios - the only way available
was by walking there (we believe local boats will take you during the main
season). We could not go by foot because they were busy blowing bits of the
hillside up to make way for the new road.
Walking from Alopronia to Dhialiskari beach and back.
This nice little leg stretch is ideally suited if you don't have too much time
and just want a walk, quick swim, eat your picnic and be back perhaps to catch
the late afternoon ferry. From the Port follow the main road out just past the
petrol station, take the concrete road on the right, then fork left up to reach
the large grey concrete sterna.
Continue along always staying on the main dirt
track and following the signs for Dhialiskari beach. This is now just a case of following the main track as it
wanders up across the hillside and over the saddle and then drifts down towards the beach. When you
are nearly at the beach there is a path leaving on the left (just after you pass a
house) - this fairly narrow path is in pretty good condition and takes you the
last bit of the way to the beach going by a small church on the way. You can of
course just follow the track to reach the beach as well. The beach is quite
small, pebbles but has a little bit of sand here and there, plus several trees
to use to hide from the fierce sun. There are also several uncovered breach
umbrellas - whether these are sorted out later in the season and perhaps sunbeds
and cold drinks are made available is unknown to us.
Wildlife: As you wander around there are lots of small lizards
to be seen - as far as snakes on the island we did not see one (and we did get
right out into the hills and countryside which would be the most likely place to
find a sunbathing snake). There were quite a few birds such as swallows,
sparrows etc around and it was not unusual to see birds of prey wheeling around
high up in the sky but too far away to identify.
Other. The local ferry office is situated up in Kastro
- as far as we are aware you cannot buy ferry tickets on the actual boats
anymore. There is also an ATM available siutated up at Kastro (in fact the only one on
Sikinos Island).
Please visit our Sikinos
Walks and Photos for two fairly long walks on the island or
you may be interested in our items about the fairly close neighbouring Greek
Islands of Santorini or
Naxos
or Paros
Our Holiday and Travel Web Sites:
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New Zealand
Hong Kong, India and Singapore
Egypt - Sharm el Sheikh and Luxor.
www.foxysislandwalks.com
The Greek Island of Sikinos (Oinoe in Ancient Greece) is part of the Greek Cyclades Island Group and is
located between the Greek Islands of Folegandros and Ios - the island has an area of around 42 kilometres
and a permanent population of around 340 people. Sikinos is a very quiet and undeveloped Greek Island -
it has just two villages - Chora/Kastro up in the hills and the other is located in the small harbour
(Alopronia) where there are several tavernas and limited accommodation for visitors. There are only two metal roads
plus a few well-maintained dirt roads on the island however at the time of our Sikinos Holiday they were
building another road through to one of the beaches and another road was planned going the other way from the port
both of which we understand will be tarmac.
One of the island's two quite large sandy beaches (Alopronia) is located by the harbour and has sun shades,
beach chairs and also a nice line of shady trees growing along the edge by the road - the other beach is
Aghios Georgios and is located a little way further up the coast.
