Visited in 2006, 2011, 2013
and 2017

Walking, hiking and trekking on ANAFI

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GENERAL INFORMATION

LINKS ANAFI

BOATS ANAFI
   - Prevelis (ANEK)

   - Aqua Spirit

MAPS

WALKS

(last update on the 15th of December 2020)

*** = very beautiful

**** = exceptional

+ Gpx = with Gpx-file

NNN = new in 2017


1. Chóra - Agia Marína - Chóra

2. Chóra - Agios Nikólaos - Klisídi and back

3. Chóra - Katsoúni - Klisídi - Agios Nikólaos - Chóra

4. Chóra - Miliés - Kálista - Panagía tou Dókari -  Roúkounas ***  + Gpx

5. Chóra - Psáthi - Stavrós - Panagía Vouvoón and back  + Gpx

6. Chóra - Roúkounas and back ***  + Gpx

7. In and around Chóra

8. Monastíri - Agii Anárgyri - Roúkounas - Panagía tou Dókari - Kastélli - Agios Mámas - Monastíri ****  + Gpx

9. Moní Zoödóchou Pigís - Panagía Kalamiótissa and back ****  + Gpx

10. Roúkounas - Megálos Potamós - Agii Anárgyri - Monastíri and back ****  + Gpx

11. Roúkounas - Panagía tou Dókari - Kastélli - Agios Mámas - Monastíri and back ****  + Gpx

 

 

Anáfi is a small island (38 km²), and also the most southeastern island of the Cyclades. Because of this isolated location it has not yet been affected by tourism, which contrasts sharply with the nearby island of Santoríni.

According to mythology, the island "Anaphè" appeared from the sea by order of the god Apollo, and this to offer a shelter to Iasoon and the Argonauts after a heavy storm.
Because of the volcanic eruption in the year 1650 BC, which created the present-day spectacular view of Santorini and its volcano, also at Anáfi thin layers of pumice stone came down at certain places. Later on, the history of Anáfi ran parallel to the history of the other Cycladic isles: in the year 1207, for instance, it was also annexed by Marco Sanudo, the king of the Latin-Venetian state of Náxos, and in the year 1537 it became Turkish.
Because the island suffered a lot from invasions by pirates, it depopulated almost completely – which still explains the absence of terraces for agriculture and of donkey trails. In 1956 Anáfi met with the same fate as Santoríni and it was almost entirely destroyed by the earthquake.

The small island is very mountainous with a relatively high summit: the Vìgla is 585m high. The interior is very dry, but still there are a couple of deep and narrow valleys, remarkable because of the dense vegetation consisting of all kinds of large cacti.

There are only a few boat connections with Anáfi: for the moment, there are two connections a week from the Piraeus, via Mílos and Santoríni, to Anáfi. This boat (the Prevélis) then continues to Kássos, Kárpathos, Chalkí and Ródos.
The Aqua Jewel connects, twice a week, Anáfi with Santoríni, Thirasiá, Ios, Síkinos, Folégandros, Náxos, Páros and Sýros.

The distance from the Piraeus is 150 nautical miles, about 280 km, which means that the crossing takes a long time – up to 12 -14 hours. Therefore, it is more interesting to first take a fast boat from the Piraeus to Santoríni and then you can cover the remaining 12 nautical miles to Anáfi in about 2 hours...  

The harbour of Agios Nikólaos is very small and it is connected with the main town of Chóra by means of the only asphalt road. Because of its amphitheatre-shaped location and also because of the wind mills on the slope of the hill, Chora is really very picturesque and attractive. Striking is that most of the houses, also the newer ones, are built with a vaulted roof – which offers better resistance against earthquakes. Also remarkable are the baking ovens, although these days they are only used sporadically. All together there are only about 300 people living in these two villages.

The island also offers a number of interesting archaeological sites. On the slope of the Kastélli (325m) you can find the remains of the ancient Anaphè; a little downwards there is the chapel of Panagía tou Dókari with a very nice Roman sarcophagus in front of it.
No doubt the most impressive sites are the two monasteries on the eastern point of the island: the monastery of Panagía Zoödóchou Pigís at the foot of and the monastery of Panagía i Kalamiótissa on the side of the 450-metres high Kálamos. The large monastery of Zoödóchos Pigí is built on the rests of the temple of Apollo and it has incorporated large parts of the old temple wall in the new walls. The big festival (the Panigýri) takes here place on the 8th of September. The high monastery of Panagía i Kalamiótissa is marvellously situated on one of the summits of the Kálamos (hence its name). The panoramic view in itself (sometimes all the way to Crete, usually with all the surrounding Cycladics, whereby especially the island of Amorgós with a view on the monastery of Panagía Chozoviótissa is remarkable!) is worth the trip to Anáfi.

Anáfi also possesses a couple of beautiful beaches on the south coast, with amongst others the beach of Roúkounas (which is the longest one), the beach of Klisídi (which is closest and which can be reached on foot) and the small beaches underneath Agii Anárgyri (also to be reached on foot from the monastery of Zoödóchos Pigí).
There is a good bus connection between Chóra and the monastery and by means of this bus you can also get to the beaches of Roúkounas and to the ones underneath Agii Anárgyri.

Anáfi offers some interesting hikes: the hike to Panagía i Kalamiótissa is really quite exceptional, but also the two hikes from Roúkounas to the monastery of Zoödochos Pigí are really very nice.

There is a good website for Anafi, with a page about the six signposted "Footpaths of historical and cultural interest" - with a nice little map and a pdf of the booklet "Walking Anafi" - see http://anafi.gr/en/ and http://anafi.gr/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/anafi_walking.pdf

Years ago, there were basically no maps of Anáfi - the simple map you could get for free on the island itself was very rudimentary.
But in March 2010, we saw the publication of a very good new map in the series of the Terrain Maps: this map gives 7 walks, and on the back side, there is a description of these walks.
In 2017 finally, a very good map appeared in the Anavasi series, with detailed maps of the 6 numbered and signposted walks on the back.

Since January the 1st  2004

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Anáfi from the sea, the typical profile of the island

Panoramic view on Chóra

 Chóra (view from the sea)

The beautiful situation of the monastery Zoödóchos Pigí

The Panagía i Kalamiótissa on Mount Kálamos

Panoramic view from the Panagía i Kalamiótissa

The Roman sarcophagus near the Panagía tou Dókari

The nice beach of Roúkounas

One of the few green spots on Anáfi