Apollonía - Agios Eustáthios - Agios Andréas - Moní Vrýsis - Apollonía

Evaluation: This is one of the shorter hikes on this island. It follows a short and not very frequently used route to the beautiful site of Agios Andréas. Later on it also brings you to the impressive monastery of Vrýsis. This hike gets an evaluation of **.

Estimated time: The actual hiking time is about two and a half hours. This means that you do not have to leave really early, but the climb to Agios Andréas won’t be pleasant on a hot summer afternoon. Therefore, it is better to cover the first part of this hike in the morning, especially when it is hot – it will take you about 45 minutes to get to Agios Eustáthios and then another 40 minutes to the acropolis of Agios Andréas, which makes for a great picnic spot.

Route description: the bus from Kamáres stops on the Platia Iroöon (Square of Heroes), where you can find the Folk Museum (closed on Sunday mornings), the war monument and the post office. The pedestrian road to Katavatí starts on the right of this square, 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, on a long and very nice flight of steps 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 couple of metres, 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 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 on the left, a dirt path on the left and then another dirt path on the right. A little later, 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 Mávro 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 a sometimes beautifully paved staircase – don’t mind the little roads off the left and the right. Thereafter the trail goes on fairly flatly. After ten minutes you pass a trail on the left that goes up to Agi Anárgyri, 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.

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 goes on, amongst others to Vathý and Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná. This has been described in the two hikes to Vathy or in the longer hike to Agios Andréas. See the hikes Apollonía-Vathý and  Apollonía - 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 rest. 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 great 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 have to go left, and you thus walk on the right hand side of the large walls surrounding the fields in the valley in front of the hill of Agios Andréas. 

After about one minute you get to another three-forked-junction; there you have to follow the wall towards the left. You continue to walk alongside a wall until you get a great view on Kástro, after about five minutes – high up on the left you can see Agios Andréas. The trail gets vague and rather sandy and it continues to go around the hill gradually; it then descends a little until you suddenly get to a staircase (there is a sign post to Agios Andréas). The staircase zigzags upwards and it will take you about fifteen minutes to get to the top – which is a rather strenuous climb.

From the top of the akrópolis, at an altitude of about 400 metres, you have a marvellous panoramic view on the east side of the island, from Artemónas over Kástro to Platís Gialós. On a clear day you can even distinguish Sýros, Páros, Antíparos, Ios, Síkinos and Folégandros! On the hilltop there are some ruins dating back from the Bronze Age, surrounded by a double wall. And in the middle you will see the church of Agios Andréas, dating back from the 13^th century.

On the way back you descend on the staircase – there are about 290 steps. At the junction you keep to the left until you reach the road. This descent takes about 20 minutes and it brings you to an altitude of 230 metres.

On the asphalt road (which could bring you, by taking a left, straight to Apollonía in 30 minutes – quite a shortcut) you take a right in order to try to find a more pleasant route. A little further on, you will indeed see a little dirt (later on concrete) road off the left, in between a wall and an iron fence. About 60/70 metres further on you can take a beautiful monopáti in between walls on the left. This path meanders above picturesque little fields with olive trees in the direction of the blue dome of Exámbela. This brings you to a gravel road after 5 minutes. This road turns into concrete for a short while and it leads you past a very small church.
You can continue on this road; it first curves to the left, it passes some houses of the hamlet of Symbópoula and it then curves to the right. Another possibility is to take a shortcut; you can do this by taking a narrow path going down steeply, some 50 metres past the church and just before the houses. This path runs in between a new and an old wall and it is a little overgrown – but after some 2 minutes it will bring you again to the road.

You now walk on the right hand side of a stone quarry, you take a left beneath the heliport and about 50 metres further on you go to the right, up the white staircase towards a little church. You cross the shady cemetery and you go through the gate at the back. By taking a little dirt path crossing two fields you reach the back side of the large monastery of PanagíasVrýsis – some 20 minutes after you have left the road down at Agios Andréas.

The monastery looks like a fortress, but inside it is really beautiful, with a nice ikonostási from the 17th century.

At this point you have to go left/straight and after 2 minutes you reach the small church of Agios Fanoúrios. This church has a flat roof, a double window and an arch with a bell painted in blue. Just before the church – notice the still magnificent view on Kástro – there is a kind of a crossroad: the path on the left goes to Exámbela (see the hike Kástro - Apollonía), and there is also a path going to the right. However, it is the trail going straight that leads to Káto Petáli.

On this beautiful trail you gradually curve to the left and in this way Kástro disappears behind a hill. You pass a narrow path off the right, which goes to Agi Anárgyri. You go up to the left on some rocky terrain and then immediately down again on the right. Some minutes later you take a right again and you go down in the direction of Káto Petáli. After 8 minutes you get to a bridge.
Across the bridge you climb out of the valley and you then reach the path Káto Petáli - Anárgyri. You take a left, obviously, and after a couple of minutes you get to the first houses and the path turns into concrete. Near the beautiful church Panagia tou Koukiá you go up the staircase-street on the right; by going straight on you will then easily get to the parking of Káto Petáli.

You go straight, up some steps, and if you feel like it you can take some rest on one of the two benches. You then take a left and you go underneath the school and the church in the direction of Apollonía.
You continue to walk under the village and you then go down slightly. When you come to the end of the shallow valley you have to keep to the left. Some 200 metres further on the concrete trail becomes tiled again and after another 150-200 metres you go left, across a little bridge. A little further on you curve to the right and you go up again. The beautiful trail brings you higher and higher until you are just underneath the asphalt road – just before this road you have to keep to the left. You walk under the road, you go up a little and you take a right after 10 metres. In this way you will get to the square of Apollonía...