Ano Merá - Píthos - Liá - Kalafáti

Evaluation: This is the best hike you can make on the island of Mýkonos, which does not have a lot of monopátia. On this hike you can indeed follow very beautiful trails, first for about 10 minutes and then for another 12 minutes! In this way you can explore parts of Mýkonos reminding you of days long gone... Also the beaches of Liá and Kalafáti are attractive. This hike thus gets an evaluation of ***.

Estimated time: The actual hiking time to the beach of Liá is about 1h15 and then it will cost you another 35 minutes to Kalafáti. This total actual hiking time of 1h50 refers to a real walking time of a little over 3 hours. This leaves enough time to spend some relaxing time on the beaches.

Route description: [Ano Merá as a place to stay is preferable to the very busy and noisy town of Chóra, definitely in high season. If you do stay in Chóra, you can take the bus to Ano Merá and Kalafáti at the bus station close to the old harbour, behind the OTE building. Mid May 2007 there were busses at 10am, 1pm, 5pm and 8pm.]

(0h00) You depart from the beautifully laid out platía, with a few restaurants. The monastery of Panagía Tourlianí is located along one of the long sides of the square. At first sight this monastery looks rather insignificant, hidden behind a heavy outer wall. But behind the wall and the fortified gate you find an elegant church dating from 1767. In that year the church was rebuilt after the destruction of an earlier monastery from the 16^th century. Inside, the monastery contains a lot of cells and it is much bigger than expected; also the elegant campanile, built with marble from Tínos, is remarkable. The richly decorated and baroque ikonostási is striking as well – it is made by craftsmen from Florence and it dates from the year 1775.

When leaving the monastery you go right and you take the right-most of the two streets. You thus get to the main road, near the bus stop and the truly impressive passage. You cross the road and one minute further you go up on the left at a pigeon tower. You proceed straight ahead for another few minutes, with a nice view behind you on the fortified monastery.
A couple of minutes later you DO NOT take the street going down, but you continue until you reach the main road – by means of a steep and descending little street you can cut the corner here. You follow the main road to the right and after 3-4 minutes you curve to the left, following the street.

(0h16) After exactly 11 minutes on the main road, you find an attractive concrete road off the right, between a stone and a concrete wall, just past a chapel + house (there is a traffic mirror on the opposite side).

[In fact, this trail is indicated on the Road-map and is situated a few hundreds of metres before the crossing with the sign to Mpaou – when you reach this crossing, you have to turn back!]

So, you take this road on the right and after almost 2 minutes you cross a little bridge. The “path” continues meandering between the houses; most probably, this used to be a monopáti, but it has been asphalted. After 6 minutes it finally becomes an old, earth trail between walls.

(0h22) This is a very nice path, with a large cattle farm on your left-hand side. After a few minutes you reach a crossing, with a trail coming from the left. There are also a couple of water tanks – this almost looks like the ancient Mýkonos.

(0h25) You take a right and you continue on a beautiful trail. After exactly 10 minutes you arrive at some houses and then you get to a narrow concrete road, which you follow to the left. You pass an impressive house with a built-on chapel (!) and a house with the number 480. After about 2 minutes you reach a bend in the large asphalt road and you take a left again.

(0h36) After 150 metres you take the first road on the right, a concrete road between walls, with a house on the opposite side. This small road curves to the left and it turns into a sand road – slightly further, between two tumbled-down houses, you find the beginning of a truly beautiful monopáti (which is not indicated on the map)!

A few minutes later you get to a junction where you take a left. You continue between walls, meandering through a slanted landscape. After 8-9 minutes you arrive at another trail, where you take a right; further down you get to a bend to the left and after 11-12 minutes of sheer hiking pleasure you reach a larger asphalt road again – you see the Píthos-hill in front of you.

(0h48) You go left and after 100 metres, at the junction of the asphalt road, you take a right. You follow this road for about 8 minutes. Almost at the highest point of the road, between the Píthos and the higher Profítis Ilías (341 m) on your left-hand side, when you also detect the bay of Liá on your right, you find a fairly overgrown trail, on your right and between two walls – there is even a large red dot as well.

(0h56) Slightly further you have to get round a thorny obstacle by walking into the field on the right. Thereafter, the path curves to the left and it becomes vaguer. Nevertheless, you can proceed without difficulties, by going a little down and by descending in or on the right of the bed of the small river, in the direction of the beach. A couple of minutes later you find a vague track on the right-hand side of the bed, but later on you still have to climb over a wall – after about 10 minutes you can then clamber to the confluence of two small rivers.  

(1h06) A little further, though, before a metal fence blocking the bed of the river, you have to leave the bed towards the left. You then go down easily, a little away from the bed full of reed and walking over fields and tumbled-down walls. You first move in the direction of a large electricity pole, then towards the small concrete road to be seen on the left in front of you. After another 4 minutes you get to a final obstacle: a tall wall. By just walking to the following field you can easily go down, though. For the next 3 minutes you follow the concrete road and then you continue for a few minutes on a small asphalt road off the left.

(1h16) In this way you arrive at the beautiful and lonely beach of Liá. There are some reed sunshades and you can have a drink in the large and very pleasant tavern.

At the far end of the beach you find the beginning of a vague trail, underneath and then on the left of the lowest wall. You can easily walk over the rocky hills; sometimes you have to keep a little more to the right and walk a little higher up in order to get round the inlets of the coast.

Far away in front of you, you can already distinguish the bay of Kalafáti, but after 8-9 minutes you unfortunately get to the walls of a new building. You have to go to the right - quite a long way – and then up in order to reach a little concrete road. By going even more to the right, you can walk around the villas under construction.

(1h30) The small road turns into gravel, it goes further inland and then it gets to a small asphalt road, where you take a left. You follow this road for about 12-14 minutes. You pass a couple of side roads off the left – indeed, there is so much construction going on around here that very soon it will be almost impossible to hike along the coast.
You stay on the road until you see the bay of Kalafáti and the peninsula with the picturesque village of Dimastó on your left. All of a sudden you then spot a monopáti, going down between the walls on the left! There is also a black water pipe and a red dot – this must be a clear indication!

(1h43) You follow this path, and you keep going after you have crossed a first wall. After a second wall you have to cross a "field" and then another small field. Thereafter you find a track again, descending on the left of a small river, straight towards your final destination. Finally and without too many difficulties, you reach the beach of Kalafáti. This is a well-equipped beach, clearly a tourist attraction. 

(1h51) This is a very pleasant place to spend the rest of the day. You can also walk along the bay towards the picturesque little village of Dimastó, which you can see on the peninsula on the opposite side of the bay.

[You can return to Ano Merá on foot, but this is not very attractive (over 3 km of asphalt road)...
But there is also a bus, going to Chóra via Ano Merá - in May 2007 there were busses back at 1h20pm, 5h20pm and 8h20pm].