Sifnos

Sifnos is the eating island. Its chefs go back centuries, its potters’ clay still makes the sealed pots for the dishes the islanders are known for, and its restaurants bring back most guests who come once. Nikolaos Tselementes, the cook who effectively defined modern Greek cuisine in the early twentieth century, was born here in 1878.

Two dishes belong to Sifnos and almost nowhere else. Mastelo is lamb or kid, slow-cooked in a sealed pot of local stoneware and traditionally finished outside the village ovens on Easter Sunday. Revithada is a chickpea stew left overnight in a wood oven and eaten on Sundays. Amygdalota, the almond biscuits from the bakeries of Apollonia, are the island’s classic gift to take home.

The island’s wealth in history came from elsewhere. In antiquity the gold and silver of Sifnos paid for a treasury at Delphi decorated with marble caryatids, columns carved as female figures. Farmers, miners and soldiers laid the stone-paved paths between the settlements, the kalderimia, and some of them date back to 3000 BC. More than 100 kilometres of these paths remain, restored and waymarked. A three-day walking circuit is the best way to see the inland villages and Byzantine chapels.

The medieval village of Kastro, on a cliff above the eastern sea, is the island’s most dramatic sight. Its houses form an unbroken outer defensive wall, and its narrow lanes pass Byzantine churches and small chapels with views straight down to the waves. Stay for a sunset, eat dinner on a terrace in Apollonia, and book your table for the next night before you leave.

House Notes

  1. Arrival

    Sifnos has no airport. The ferry from Piraeus runs into Kamares, the main port, in about 2.5 hours by SeaJet and longer on a conventional ferry. The ferry from Milos takes 40 minutes on the southern Cyclades route, and the island is walked from there.

  2. Verina Astra

    Verina Astra is a private hotel above the cliffs at Poulati, 3 kilometres from Artemonas and 15 minutes from Kamares. Bostani is its kitchen, the spa runs in collaboration with Elemis, and each suite is named after a constellation. It is the most considered address on Sifnos.

  3. The kitchens

    Cantina, below Kastro on a rocky edge, is the most sought-after table on the island, cooking hyper-local seasonal produce with as little waste as possible. Omega3 at Platis Gialos is the place for refined seafood, and Drakakis in central Apollonia for a long courtyard dinner. To Tsikali on Vathi beach is the long-standing Sifnian family kitchen.

  4. Atsonios at Vathi

    The Atsonios family has worked the kiln on Tsopos beach outside Vathi since 1870. The fourth-generation Antonis is the master, with his son Yanni continuing the work, and the flower motif on the coffee mugs and plates is the original from his grandfather; it is the only fully working beach kiln on Sifnos. Apostolidis runs another workshop at Leivadas, on the road from Kamares to Apollonia.

  5. Sifnos Trails

    The non-profit Sifnos Trails looks after 19 waymarked routes covering more than 100 kilometres of restored kalderimi, the old stone-paved paths, drawn from a wider network of roughly 200 kilometres across the island. It is one of the largest trail networks in the Aegean. The half day from Apollonia to Kastro is the most concentrated of the routes.

  6. The beaches

    Platis Gialos is the long sand bay and the most cosmopolitan stretch on the island. Vathi, on the south-west coast, has calm, sheltered water over sand, while Faros, smaller and quieter, is the local pick, with the lighthouse cove behind the headland. Cherronisos, at the northern tip, is the place for the fishing village and a slow lunch.

  7. Kastro

    Kastro is the hilltop village above the eastern cliffs, its lanes built on top of the former Sifnian capital. The outer ring of houses keeps the medieval defensive layout of two circles, one inside the other, facing the sea. East of the village, the chapel of the Eptamartyres stands on the rocks, reached by a winding path down from the village.

  8. Apollonia and Artemonas

    Apollonia, the modern capital, is the town for dinner, its central pedestrian alley running through the square and past the shops up the slope to Artemonas, the older village a mile and a half north. Artemonas is the neoclassical village, where the Sifnian shipowning families built their mansions at the end of the 19th century. The stone-paved walk between them takes 15 to 20 minutes.

  9. Theodorou

    Nikolaos Tselementes, the Sifnian who wrote the 1930s cookbook that reshaped modern Greek cooking, was born here, and the island’s confectionery is its quieter inheritance. Theodorou, a lavender-shuttered sweet shop down a narrow path in Artemonas, makes amygdalota, almond sweets finished with lemon syrup, alongside loukoumi and pasteli. Ask Vasilodimos Theodorou to send a box ahead to the villa.

  10. The window

    Late April and May suit the trails: the water is still cool, but the hillside flowers are at their peak. Mid-September to early October suits the food, after the hottest weeks have passed and the tables in Apollonia loosen. Verina Astra is open from April to mid-October, and the bakeries in Apollonia work all year.

Anchorage Notes

  1. Kamares

    Kamares is the port of Sifnos and its largest coastal settlement, where the Port Fund, the island’s port authority, has its main office. A yacht ties up among the ferries, with power and water at the quay for a charge, a slip (a ramp for launching small boats), refuelling, and the restaurants and agencies of the port at the head of the bay. Sifnos has no airport, so everyone who does not arrive by yacht comes by ferry into Kamares.

  2. Faros

    Faros is a small port on the southeastern coast, and it was the island’s main harbour until 1883, before Kamares took the trade. Its pier still serves small craft, with the restaurants and mini-markets of the settlement behind it. It is the quieter landing on this side of Sifnos, used by fishing boats and by the tender that wants the old port rather than the new.

  3. Platys Gialos

    Platys Gialos, on the south coast, is one of the largest sandy beaches on Sifnos, and the Port Fund runs yacht services along the left side of the bay, among them refuelling, power, water and a slip. A tender comes ashore to a long beach lined with tavernas and rooms. A yacht lies off this beach rather than entering a harbour, and it is the working call on the south coast.

  4. Cheronissos

    Cheronissos is at the northern tip of the island, 15 kilometres beyond Apollonia: a fishing village with a small sandy beach, a few tavernas, a grocery and a working pottery. On the hill above stand the northernmost buildings on Sifnos, the church of Agios Georgios and the stump of an ancient beacon tower. A tender reaches the cove for the day, at the far, quiet end of the island.