Apollonía - Agios Eustáthios - Agios Andréas - Apokoftó - Chryssopigí - Fáros

Estimated time: The actual hiking time is about 3 hours: 40 minutes to Agios Eustáthios, 40 minutes till Agios Andréas and then another 80 minutes to the beach of Apokoftó. After your visit to Chryssopigí it will take you another 20 minutes to get to Fáros. The acropolis of Agios Andréas is a magnificent spot to have a picnic.

Route description: Also this time you depart from the Platia Iroöon (Hero Square) in Apollonía, by taking the pedestrian street to Katavati – this street begins on the right, in between the bar I Gonía and a pay phone. After some ten metres this road curves to the right and it continues past the beautiful churches of Stavrós and Taxiárchoon. Some five minutes later you get to the Mitrópoli, the main church. 

You go straight ahead, on a long and very nice staircase and you reach the gymnásio (the secondary school) after another five minutes. You continue on this street, you walk on the right-hand side of a bend in the asphalt road for a little while, and you thus keep on going towards Katavatí. You pass the street going to a church with a white dome on the right; you walk past hotel Galíni and you continue by going up slightly (there is another path off the right) until you have passed a little white church. This church has a white dome as well and it is called the Panagia Angeloktisti – there is a beautiful sarcophagus in front. The trail goes down for a short while, but then, some fifteen minutes after your departure, you have to take a right; you will also notice a signpost to the Profítis Ilías.

You follow the broad concrete path; you pass a little concrete road off the left, a dirt path off the left and then another dirt path off the right. A little later on your trail becomes a typical donkey trail; it runs in between walls and after a couple of minutes it gets to the ring road around Apollonía. You cross this road by going to the right slightly and on the other side you find the beautiful monopáti with a large signpost to the Profítis Ilías and Mavro Chorió. It has now been almost twenty minutes since you have started this hike.

You continue on this path and the first five minutes it goes up alongside a sometimes beautifully paved staircase – don’t mind the little roads off the left and the right. Thereafter the trail continues almost horizontally. After ten minutes you pass a trail on the left that goes up to Agi Anargyri, and after some fifteen minutes you reach the trail on the right that goes up to the Profítis Ilías. You are now in the beautiful interior of Sífnos, but you cannot yet distinguish the monastery on top of the Profítis Ilías.

Today, you don't have time to go to the summit of the mountain, so you have to go straight/to the left. The path continues through a narrow gorge and after about 3-4 minutes you get to a rocky plateau – in front of you you see the corner of a wall. On the opposite hill you can discern the magnificent little church of Agios Eustáthios. You have now been hiking for about 40 minutes.

[The trail on the right-hand side of this wall continues, amongst others to Vathý and Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná. This has been described in the two hikes to Vathý or in the longer hike to Agios Andreas. See the hikes Apollonía-Vathý and  Apollonía - Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná - Agios Andréas.]

Before this corner of the wall you have to take a left and then you follow a narrower path in between a lot of green. This path goes straight to the church of Agios Eustáthios, situated higher up. Some minutes later the path splits up and you go up on the right; by following a wall you will thus reach the church, situated in between a lot of trees and bushes. This is really a peaceful spot and the church is usually open as well. You can write your name in the register and sit down for a while to enjoy the peace and quite. Underneath the church there is a little building with some equipment for pilgrims: cutlery, a bucket with water and a little bucket to draw water, gas, a lighter, some napkins,…and outside there is a nice picnic table. From this point you also have a nice view on the Profítis Ilías, on the monastery of Taxiárchis tis Skáfis, and on the other side on the walls surrounding Agios Andréas.

On the right-hand side of the church you find a narrow passage along the wall and at the backside of the church there is a narrow path covered by bushes on the right. You continue on this fairly obvious path and you thus get to a wall, which you follow on the right-hand side for a while. At the end of the wall (on the opposite slope there is a chapel) you go straight ahead, between the green: you should aim at a couple of 2-3-metres-high grey rocks. You pass these rocks on the right-hand side and then you have to watch out. You should not go in the direction of the depression in the terrain far away in front of you. Instead, you have to go towards the large wall, to the right above you. You have to end up against that wall. You definitely should not go down, but rather upwards. The vague trail crosses a wall by means of a breach (notice the first cairn); thereafter you go up and at the second cairn you keep to the right until you reach the large wall.
You follow this wall to the left, you walk between two walls for a short while and you then go higher up on an obvious trail over some rocky terrain – you never move further away from the left-hand wall than 10 metres. You can see Agios Andréas beautifully located in front of you.
You go to the corner of the wall and in this way you arrive at the clear trail coming from Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná (see the hike Apollonía - Agios Nikólaos - Agios Andréas), and this some 20 minutes after Agios Eustáthios. 

You take a left at this point and you descend fairly steeply, on the right-hand side of the large walls surrounding the “fields” in the valley in front of the hill of Agios Andréas. Some minutes later you get to a three-forked-junction, where you follow the wall further to the left. You continue to walk alongside a wall until you get a beautiful view on Kástro after some 5 minutes; high up to the left you can see Agios Andréas. The trail now gets a little vague and sandy and it gradually surrounds the hill; it goes down a little until you suddenly arrive at a staircase (there is also a signpost to Agios Andréas). The staircase meanders upwards and this turns out to be quite a climb - of about 15 minutes. 

You finally get to the summit of the Acropolis – at an altitude of about 400 metres you have a marvellous view over the eastern part of the island, from Artemónas over Kástro to Platýs Gialós. On a clear day you can even distinguish the islands of Sýros, Páros, Antíparos, Ios, Síkinos and Folégandros! On this hill top you find ruins from the Bronze Age, surrounded by a double wall. Amidst these ruins the church of Agios Andréas is situated, dating from the 13^th century. 

On your way back you descend again via the staircase and its 290 steps. At the junction you keep to the left, until you reach the road – you have been descending for about 20 minutes and you are now at an altitude of 230 metres.

At the asphalt road you take a right  (by going to the left you could reach Apollonía in 30 minutes, which considerably shortens this hike). Already at the first little concrete road you go left, in between a wall and an iron fence. About 60/70 metres later you pass a beautiful monopáti in between walls off the left – this path leads to the hamlet of Simbópoula and it then continues to the monastery of Vrísis (see the hike Apollonía - Agios Andréas - Moní Vrísis). 
Very soon, the concrete road turns into gravel and further down you also pass a driveway and a rocky (and later on overgrown) trail off the left. You go down the hill along side a blue water pipe. After 5 minutes you take the path off the left, which you follow for another 5 minutes – deep down on your right-hand side you can see the asphalt road to Platýs Gialós. A short descent on some rocky terrain leads you to a three-forked-junction, where you take a left again.
After 1 minute you keep a right; 2 minutes later on you stay to the right again and after some more minutes you get to a large crossing with four trails. You go left (there is also a blue dot) and a little further you go right (notice another blue dot). On your left-hand side there is a soccer field and a little further down you keep to the right – at this point you can already see the beautiful chapel of Agios Ioánnis Mavroundí to the left in front of you. The path to the left also leads to the chapel, but it is somewhat overgrown. You continue and just before the asphalt road (with a marvellous view on Chryssopigí far away in front of you) you arrive at a gravel road; you follow this gravel road to the left till the main road.

[If you want to you can go left to pay a short visit to the chapel of Mavroundí – above the door you can see the date of 1815.]

From the main road you go towards the left, up the slope – there is a signpost to Chryssopigí! From here on you follow the route as described in the hike Apollonía - Chryssopigí.

You first follow a flat and magnificent trail between walls – beyond the wall on the right you can already discern Chryssopigí, which still looks far away at this point. You pass some side roads off the left and the right, but you continue by following the blue dots. After about 7 minutes you get to a beautiful terrace with olive trees; over there you clearly curve to the right and you go down into the valley (there are red and blue dots).

The following 18 minutes are sometimes fairly steep and sometimes the trail gets blocked by large bushes. However, the path is obvious all the time and it does not need more explanation – you can also find blue dots almost everywhere. You finally get to the bed of a river, next to 2 cairns.

You follow this dry riverbed for about 7-8 minutes; it then turns into a gravel road, which brings you to the beautifully shaded and sandy beach of Apokoftó, to the left of the peninsula of Chryssopigí. There is also a restaurant so you can stop to have something to eat or to drink. If you want to go to Chryssopigí, you should take the concrete road on the right-hand side of the tavern Chrissopigi. The monastery itself dates from the 17^th century, but it is especially its location on a rock in the sea, separated from the main land by a gorge, which turns this into a magnificent place.

To hike to Fáros, you walk back via the concrete road to Apokoftó. At the other side of the beach you continue upwards along the rocky coast; it will take you 10 minutes (with a fantastic view on Chryssopigí all the way) to reach a chapel. The trail continues and some 10 minutes later you get to the first beach of Fáros; another 5 minutes further down there is the second beach and the attractive little harbour of Fáros. From here you can catch the bus back to Apollonía and then further to Kamáres.