Naxos and Milos: Cyclades forgotten by Santorini
While Santorini is drowning in cruise ships, two islands further south offer white tuff, cedars by the beach and a carafe of local wine for five euros.
In Mandrakia in the north of Milos, fishermen still keep their boats inSirmatians— low garages carved into the coastal rock, with doors painted the same blue and red for decades. No photographer with a tripod, no queue for a cocktail. There is an old man mending a net and a tavern above which fish arrive from a boat tied twenty meters below. It is the Cyclades that Santorini can no longer be.
Naxos and Milos share the Aegean Sea with their more famous neighbor, but they do not share its fate. The ferry between them takes about two and a half hours, and the ticket price starts from15 to 30 eurosdepending on the speed of the ship. Close enough for one trip, different enough not to repeat.
Milos: white tuff and caves that can only be reached from the sea
Sarakiniko is not a moonscape from a tourist brochure — it iswhite volcanic tuff, soft rhyolitic rock that has been eroded by wind and salt into rounded ridges without a single plant. The color is almost blinding at noon; come before eight or after six, when the shadows give relief and the rock turns pale yellow. Swimming is in the narrow channels between the reefs, the water is colder than elsewhere on the island because there are no shallows to warm it.
UntilKleftik, a complex of sea caves and white pillars on the southwest coast, there is no road — only the sea. A day trip by boat from the port of Adamas costs45 to 70 eurosper person with lunch, and the best way to do it is by kayak from the bay of Agia Kyriaki: a guided tour of about three hours is80 to 90 eurosand you enter caves that a large ship cannot enter. If you have a permit, a small boat without the need for a skipper's paper is rented for120 to 180 eurosper day plus fuel, so you can go around Kleftiko at your own pace.
Naxos and Milos share the Aegean Sea with their more famous neighbor, but they do not share its fate.
Naxos: mountain villages and a carafe that doesn't ask for a label
Naxos is the largest and greenest Cyclades, and the only one that takes you to the mountains. Above the coast they climbHalki, Philoti and Apiranthos— Apiranthos is all in marble because it stands on a quarry, Halki holds a distilleryVallindraswhere they make a local liqueur from citron peelcitron. In a country tavern here, no one offers you a wine list; you bring a half-liter carafe of local wine for5 to 7 euros, mostly unaged white from local varieties, and that's exactly what the dish is looking for.
The beaches are long and sandy, the opposite of Milos bays. Alyko in the southwest has a cedar forest that runs right down to the sand — a rarity in the Cyclades — while Plaka and Agios Prokopios near the town carry the wind that rarely stops here. If you are planning a longer tour of the island, cars are rented for35 to 45 eurosper day, a scooter for about 20.
The same rule goes with grilled fish as at home — we read it in the guidegrilled fish— only here, instead of our white, a Greek carafe goes, the same logic as with ourssummer white wines. And whoever is looking for a route to the sea without a plane, staysAdriatic highwayas the first part of the story.
Questions & answers
short and to the point- How to get from Naxos to Milos?
- The ferry ride takes about 2 to 2.5 hours, and the ticket costs between 15 and 30 euros, depending on the speed of the boat.
- How much does a tour of Kleftik on Milos cost?
- A day boat trip from Adamas port is 45-70 euros per person, a guided kayak tour from Agia Kiriaki 80-90 euros, and a day boat 120-180 euros plus fuel.
- Is the wine in the taverns of Naxos expensive?
- It's not — a half-liter carafe of domestic white costs 5 to 7 euros, usually without a wine list, and is served chilled with fish and appetizers.
