Milos

Milos is a coastline more than an island. The interior is sparse, with a few inland villages, abandoned mining works and a cluster of catacombs at Trypiti. The reason to come is the more than 70 beaches around the edge. Many can be reached only by boat, and the half-day caique tour of the south-west coast, in a traditional wooden boat, is the best thing to do here.

In 1820 a farmer on Milos, pulling stones out of a wall, uncovered the statue now known as the Aphrodite of Milos, the Venus de Milo. It is one of the most photographed objects in the Louvre. The find was disputed almost at once, mostly bought, and shipped to Paris in circumstances Greece still finds irritating. Islanders will mention this if you ask.

The geology is volcanic, and it shows. Sarakiniko, on the north coast, is bone-white volcanic rock, weathered into smooth folds and ridges where the sea has cut channels. Go at dawn or in the hour before sunset; at midday the glare is harsh. Klima, on the west coast, is a row of syrmata, the fishermen’s boat garages cut into the rock face and painted red, blue and yellow. They are still in use.

The mining heritage is unusual. Bentonite and perlite are still extracted commercially, and abandoned mineral works frame many of the remoter beaches. This gives Milos a character the rest of the Cyclades does not have. Three nights is the right length, with a hire car and at least one full day on the water.

House Notes

  1. Arrival

    Milos Airport (MLO) is a 40-minute flight from Athens on Sky Express, and ferries from Piraeus dock at Adamas, the main port. A helicopter from Athens takes about 60 minutes. For guests on the southern Cyclades route, private speedboat charters reach Adamas from Vlychada in roughly three hours.

  2. Skinopi Lodge

    Skinopi Lodge is seven stone-clad, single-storey villas designed to mimic the syrmata, the island’s old boathouses, by the Athens architects Kokkinou-Kourkoulas. They are bioclimatic, with retractable glass, and set in 9 acres of Mediterranean shrubbery on the western shore of Milos bay. The lodge opens from May to October and is the considered address on Milos.

  3. The kitchens

    Medusa at Mandrakia serves the vinegar octopus hung outside to dry, and O! Hamos at Adamas slow-cooks goat and lamb in the oven, so arrive early. Sirocco at Paliochori bakes fish and lamb under the volcanic sand. Astakas at Klima has tables on the beach below the syrmata at sunset.

  4. Kleftiko, by sail

    Kleftiko, on the south-west coast, was once a pirate hideout and is now a string of white-rock arches and sea caves reached only by boat. Polco Sailing has operated since 1985, and on Milos since 2002, with 10-hour day tours to Kleftiko and Polyaigos, the largest uninhabited island in the Aegean. A private speedboat charter meets fewer people at the cave mouth.

  5. The Catacombs at Trypiti

    These are the only preserved Christian catacombs in Greece: roughly 185 metres of underground burial passages on the slopes below Trypiti, dating from the 2nd century AD. The Roman theatre next door, on the same hillside, first held 7,000 spectators and, restored, now seats about 700. Both are a 30-minute walk from the Plaka bus stop.

  6. The Mining Museum

    The museum on the Adamas harbour opened in 1998, funded by S&B Industrial Minerals. Its collection runs from the 1862 sulphur concession that began the modern era of mining, through kaolin, baryte and pozzolan, to bentonite and perlite. In April and May it opens from 10am to 2pm daily except Mondays, with longer evening hours from June to August.

  7. Tsigrado

    Tsigrado, on the southern coast, is reached by climbing down a knotted rope and a wooden ladder through a narrow cleft in the rock. The cove below has a small canteen that opens in season. It is not for guests with limited mobility, and it is the stretch of coast that goes unphotographed.

  8. Plaka and the Kastro

    Plaka is the hilltop village 220 metres above the bay, with the 13th-century Venetian Kastro, or castle, on its highest point, built by the Sanudo family against pirate raids. The afternoon walk from Plaka down to the Catacombs and the Roman theatre takes 90 minutes with stops. Watch the sunset from the Kastro.

  9. The window

    Milos has two windows. The first runs from late May to mid-June, when the boat tours are running properly, and the second from the second half of September into early October, when the meltemi, the summer north wind, softens. Skinopi closes for the season in late October, and the harbour at Adamas runs all year.

  10. Pollonia

    Pollonia, the fishing village on the north-eastern tip, is a quieter base than Adamas and a short drive from it. It has tavernas along the harbour, the small car ferry to Kimolos (a 20-minute crossing) and the road end for Papafragas, a sea pool framed by white tuff cliffs and reached on foot from the car park.

Anchorage Notes

  1. Adamas

    Adamas is the main port of Milos, on the wide gulf that almost cuts the island in two, and with no separate marina on the island, a yacht makes fast here among the ferries. The Municipal Port Fund of Milos keeps the quay, with staff at the dockside to take arriving craft. Water and electricity are drawn by prepaid card at service pillars on the quay, and there is wifi and a tourist office ashore.

  2. Pollonia

    Pollonia, a fishing village of some 300 people at the northeastern tip, is the island’s second port. Through the summer the Port Fund lays floating platforms along the east side of the central pier, mooring around 18 boats up to 15 metres, with water and electricity by card. From here the small ferry and the sea taxis cross the strait to Kimolos in about 30 minutes.

  3. Klima

    Klima, a village of eight people on the water below Trypiti, is lined with syrmata: two-storey fishermen’s houses with the family’s rooms above and the boat’s winter garage below at the sea, their doors and windows painted in flat, bright colour. A tender puts in among them for the afternoon. The same boathouses, carved into the island’s soft volcanic rock, recur in the fishing coves along the coast.

  4. Polyaigos

    Polyaigos, whose name means “many goats”, is the uninhabited island to the southeast between Milos and Kimolos. Much of it belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church, which lets it to herdsmen for their flocks, and its sea caves hold one of the Aegean’s last colonies of Mediterranean monk seals. It is a day anchorage reached by tender and watched more than landed on, and the island keeps its goats and its seals.