Fáros - Chryssopigí - Panagía tou Vounoú - Platýs Gialós

Evaluation: This pleasant and not very long hike connects some beautiful spots on the south- east coast of Síphnos. It deserves an evaluation of **.  There is a possibility to combine the hike with the hike from Platýs Gialós to Kástro; you can do this by not taking the turn to Platis Gialos just past the monastery of Panagía tou Vounoú, but instead to switch to the hike to Kástro.

Estimated time: The actual hiking time takes a little under two hours: 55 minutes to the monastery of Panagía tou Vounoú and from thereon another 50 minutes to the beach of Platýs Gialós. But along the way there are so many interesting places, that the hike can definitely fill a complete day: you can take a swim both before and after the hike, Chryssopigí is a place where you have to take quite some time to visit and Panagía tou Vounoú is an ideal picnic spot.

Route description: In Fáros you depart from the little bus square and the small harbour and you walk over the first little beach. You then cross the cape in front of you, on the left of the ouzéri O Fáros (there is a signpost to Glyfó), and you traverse the broader, second beach with trees.

On the other side of this beach there is a staircase path going up. This path brings you high above the sea and around the cape, above the ruins of a loading platform. You continue around a second cape, underneath a chapel and a picturesque little house with a tree. From this point onwards you can take marvellous pictures of the cape with Chryssopigí. You then descend, through a wooden gate, until you get to the beach of Apokoftó: the sand is great, there are some smooth rocks in the water, some beautiful large trees and the magnificent terrace of the restaurant To Apokoftó – you have left Fáros some 20 minutes ago.
At the far end of the beach and on the right hand side of the second terrace you take the concrete road to Chryssopigí for some 5 minutes: you obviously descend to this picturesque monastery and you admire the beautiful complex from the inside.

After your visit you take the concrete road inland, but already after some 10 metres you can take a staircase off the left. These 250 steps lead you all the way up to the main road to Platýs Gialós. The staircase is interrupted by a paved part and by a small road for a couple of times and it reaches the main road next to the bus shed.

Exactly across this shed you take a concrete path: it passes a house and immediately past the house it turns into a narrow trail, which goes up on the left-hand side of this house. After climbing up for 5 minutes you DO NOT take the gravel road off the right, but you go straight. You continue to climb up, sometimes over stone steps; the trail is a little overgrown (also here it is a good idea to wear some long trousers), but after about 10 minutes you do reach the main road. The very final part is a little difficult since you have to climb up a steep gravel slope – unfortunately this is often the case to get to roads, because the ancient trails are not taken into account when these roads are constructed.

You follow the road towards the left. In front of you and high up you can see the beautiful summit of Agios Andréas. After 5 minutes you find a little asphalt road on the left (there is also a signpost to Panagía tou Vounoú) and you follow this road for some 8 minutes. After quite some climbing up you will thus get above a deep valley. The gate on the left of the monastery is open and in this way you reach a marvellous shady yard: there is a stone table, there are some benches, and everything seems to wait for you to have a picnic. It is very peaceful here, but unfortunately the church is closed.

From this spot there is no direct trail to Platýs Gialós, which looks really nearby. You thus have to take the same way back, until you arrive at the main road. You follow this road further to the left, till you find a beautiful path, after some 4 minutes and immediately past a small white building of the electricity. This path takes a left sharply and there is also a sign pointing to Platýs Gialós.

[If you stay on the asphalt road for some more minutes, you will get to the trail that has been described in the hike Platýs Gialós - Kástro – in this way you can actually continue to traverse the whole island.]

You go down on this trail to Platýs Gialós: for the first 5 minutes you descend rather steeply into the valley, which runs underneath the monastery – traces of donkey dung indicate that this is still a frequently used path. Thereafter the monopáti gets flatter, and after having crossed both some steeper and some flat stretches you get to the bottom of the valley. This descend has taken some 10 minutes and in the valley you can hear water splattering.
You continue to walk on a beautiful and flat trail; on the left and above you there is the monastery and on the right you can see a very green valley – sometimes you can even hear some water splashing, which seems rather bizarre (this was on the 15^th May 2003). After 5 minutes you get to a junction and you take a right, still following the black plastic water pipe. Another 2 minutes later you reach a gravel road, which you follow by taking a right and down. After some 100 metres of concrete and at a sharp curve to the right, you go straight, on the left-hand side of a large cistern. You climb up for a little while and you thus reach a beautiful trail; in about 5 minutes this trail leads you down, in between walls and olive trees.

You get to another gravel road, which turns into concrete after 2 minutes. It now takes only 6 more minutes to arrive at the main road, next to a small bridge and near the beginning of the beach of Platýs Gialós. If you have to take the bus later on, you are now in between the 3rd and the 4th bus stop – but obviously you first want to enjoy the wonderful sandy beach and the shallow sea for a while.