1995, 1997, 1999, 2000,
2001 , 2002, 2003 (2X),
2004, 2006, 2007, 2009,
2010, 2011 and 2012
Walking, hiking and trekking on SIFNOS
BOATS SIFNOS
- Agios
Georgios
- Adamantios Koraïs
- Speedrunner
II
- Aqua
Jewel
- all
boats Podotas Group
- all
boats Milos Travel
MAPS
WALKS
(last update on the 6th of February 2013)
*** = very beautiful
**** = exceptional
N = new in 2011
NN = new in 2012
NNN = new in 2013
1. Apollonia - Agia Marína - Tosou Neroú - Agios Eleftherios - Apollonia ****
2. Apollonía - Agia Marína - Agios Konstantínos - Panagía Tósou Neroú and back ****
3. Apollonia - Agios Andreas - Chryssopigí - Fáros
4. Apollonía - Agios Andréas - Moní Vrísis
5. Apollonía - Agios Elefthérios - Panagía tósou Neroú - Vlási and back ****
6. Apollonía - Agios Eustáthios - Agios Andréas and back
7. Apollonía - Agios Lázaros - Artemónas
8. Apollonía - Agios Nikólaos T' Aëriná - Agios Andréas ***
9. Apollonía - Agios Simeoón - Artemónas ***
12. Apollonía - Apokoftó - Chryssopigí - Fáros ***
11. Apollonía - Artemónas - Agios Simeoón - Kamáres ***
12. Apollonía - Artemónas - Agios Simeoón and back *** NN
14. Apollonía - Kástro via Kato Petáli - Artemónas
15. Apollonía - Kato Petali - valley of Erkíes - Kástro - Panagía Pouláti - Artemónas ****
16. Apollonía - Káto Petáli - valley of Erkíes - Moní Vrýsis - Platýs Gialós **** N
17. Apollonía- Panagía ta Mángana - Kástro
18. Apollonía - Profítis Ilías and back ***
19. Apollonía - Profítis Ilías - Agia Marína - Apollonía ***
20. Apollonía - Vathý via Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná ****
21. Apollonia - Vathý via the Kalamítsi-well ***
24. Artemónas - Tris Pigés - Agios Sóstis - Panagía ta Mángana - Artemónas ***
25. Fáros - Chryssopigí - Panagía tou Vounoú - Platýs Gialós
27. Fáros - Plakotó - Agios Charalámbos - Apokoftó - Chryssopigí - Fáros ***
28. Kamáres - Agios Elefthérios - Apollonía ***
29. Kamáres - Agios Lázaros - Agios Simeoón
and back
(French)
30. Kamáres - Agios Lázaros - Artemónas
31. Kamáres - Agios Lázaros - Apollonía
32. Kamáres
- Apollonía
(French)
33. Kamáres - cape Kokkálas and back
(French)
34. Kamáres - Panagia tósou Neroú - Vlási and back ***
38. Kástro - valley of Erkíes - Plakotó - Agios Charalámbos - Apokoftó - Chryssopigí ***
39. Platýs Gialós - Fykiáda and back ***
40. Platýs Gialós - Moní Vrísis - Kastro
41. Platýs Gialós - Profítis Ilias - Fikiáda - Platýs Gialós ***
42. Vathý - Agia Anna - Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná - Vathý ***
Sífnos
is the third island on the boat line from the Piraeus, via Kýthnos and
Milos, to Santoríni. The boat stops in the harbour of Kamáres, about five
hours after the departure from Athens. In Summer there are also rapid
connections with the Piraeus, Sérifos of Mílos by High Speed.
Three times a week, the Aqua Jewel takes care of an interesting connection
with Sérifos, Páros and Sýros
The surface area of Sífnos is 73
km2 and there are some 2000 inhabitants.
Sífnos is almost the ideal island: the harbour of Kamáres is very attractive and there is a really nice beach. The villages throughout the island are very idyllic and built in a typical Cycladic style, and there are quite a few very pleasant beaches. Most importantly, though, the island offers an inexhaustible variety of beautiful hiking trails.
Kamáres
is a great spot to stay: there are a couple of nice hotels and a lot of
rooms to let with the inhabitants. You can find many decent restaurants in
Kamáres and the beach and the shallow sea are ideal for children. There
are bus lines from Kamáres to Apollonía, the capital of the island, and
from there you can continue by bus to other villages: Kástro, Fáros, Platýs
Gialós and Vathý. Apollonía is a very picturesque Cycladic town,
and in the neighbouring village of Artemónas there are many
beautiful, majestic houses. The main street that runs from Artemónas to
Apollonía
and further on to Katavatí makes for an ideal walk, with a couple of
beautiful little churches.
Kástro,
the old capital, is located at three km from Apollonia. It is an
impressive fortified town, which is beautifully situated and which
contains many picturesque and peaceful streets. It is also a good idea to
visit the harbour of Fáros and the magnificent monastery of Chryssopigí,
in between Fáros and Platýs Gialós.
The most beautiful
beaches are to be found on Platýs Gialós (unfortunately there is no much
shade,
though) and on Vathý. However, you can also have a nice swim on the
beaches of Kamáres, at the bottom of the monastery of Panagía Pouláti and
in the picturesque little harbour of Serália, underneath Kástro.
Sífnos is the ideal
hiking island - there
are actually so many hiking trails on Sifnos that you will always find
another interesting path once you get lost. The most beautiful hikes go
from Apollonía across the island to Vathý or Agios Andréas, but there are
also plenty of shorter hikes to Kastro, to Chryssopigí or to the monastery
of Agios Simeoón – you can then combine these trails with other
connections between Kástro and Artemónas, or from Fáros to Kástro...too
much to sum up!
There are a number
of nice hiking maps that are indispensable to complete the descriptions on
this site. In the series of Topo 25, published by Anávasi, a beautiful
map has appeared (a new edition, which is even better, came out in 2005);
nearly all the good hiking trails are indicated on this map, only the
trail from Agia Anna via Panagía tou Kariávli to Agios Nikólaos t'
Aeriná is still not indicated on this map.
Fairly recent is also a very complete map in the series of Neuland Karten
– but this map is not as nicely edited. Both of these maps are also
available on the island itself. Also the older, small map of John Birkett-Smith
is still very useful.
In
spring 2009 a very good and very clear map came out in the series of
Terrain Maps; this map is even better and clearer than the Anávasi-map.
Interesting hiking
books are "Walking in the Aegean" by Dieter Graf and "Santorini,
Sifnos and western and southern Cyclades", published in 2006, in
which 12 hikes are devoted to Sífnos.
New is also the small and handy book "Sifnos. Promenades dans l' île
- Walking in the island", by Martine and Christian Lot. The 30 hikes
are very brief, but also very accurate and they are written with a lot of
devotion and enthusiasm - see Walking
the island / Promenades dans l' île.
In order to help you
a little when choosing from the 44 hikes, this is my personal top seven:
1. Apollonia - Vathý
via Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná: the marvellous interior of Sífnos, climbing up the Profítis Ilías,
the monastery of Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná and the beach of Vathý!
2. Vathý - Apollonía:
great beaches and the wonderful “fortress” of Agios Andréas. (****)
3. Apollonía - Kástro
via Kato Petáli and the valley of Erkíes - Artemónas: very nice trails,
the marvellous valley of Erkíes and of course the ancient town of Kástro;
having a swim in the sea at Panagía Pouláti is also very pleasant.
(****)
4. Platýs Gialós -
Profítis Ilías - Fikiáda - Platýs Gialós: an entirely different part
of Sífnos, very lonely, once more, and the idyllic little bay of Fikiáda.
(****)
5. Apollonía - Artemónas - Kástro - Fáros - Chryssopigí - Platýs Gialós: a hike that combines a couple of highlights, running along exceptional trails. (****)
6. Apollonía -
Agios Elefthérios - Panagía tósou Neroú: the hike on top of the hill
crest along Agios Elefthérios is wonderful, just like the view on
Kamáres.
The monastery of Tósou Neroú and the small beach of Vlási are lonely
and unforgettable places once more. (****)
7. Apollonía - Artemónas - Agios Simeoón: beautiful trails and the incredible panoramic view from Agios Símeoón. (***)
On this island, it
is also very easy to make shorter hikes, since there are really a lot of
possibilities: because of the good bus connections you can begin or
conclude hikes in many different places - in Kamáres or Apollonía or
Artemónas, obviously, but also in Kástro or Fáros (although there are
only a few busses per day!) and definitely in Platýs Gialós or Vathý as
well. Since January the 1st 2004 you are visitor n°
A couple of shorter trajectories are, amongst others:
- Apollonía or Artemónas to Kástro via Panagía Pouláti (the beginning
of hike no. 9 Apollonía - Platýs Gialós)
- Kástro - Fáros (the continuation of this hike no. 9)
- Fáros - Chryssopigí - Platýs Gialós (the end of this hike no. 9)
- Kástro - Artemónas via Panagía Pouláti (the end of hikes no. 11 and
12 Apollonía - Kástro - Artemónas)
- up and down from Apollonía to the Profítis Ilías (the first part and
the end of hike no. 14 Apollonía - Profítis Ilías)
- the shortest route up and down to the marvellous look-out of the Agios
Simeoón departs from Artemónas (see the middle part of hike no. 8
Apollonía - Artemónas - Agios Simeoón)
- the shortest route to the other look-out of the Agios Andréas is the
first part of the hikes no. 2 or 3 (Apollonía - Agios Eustáthios - Agios
Andréas), with a return to Apollonía from the foot of the Agios Andréas
via the asphalt road
- the shortest way to visit Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná is hike no. 27 Vathý
- Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná - Vathý
- there is only one way to visit the Panagía Tósou Neroú – although a
magnificent spot! – via a shorter hike: in Kamáres you could try to
rent a small boat to go to the small beach of Vlási and from there you
can walk to and fro the monastery.
The monastery of Chrysopigí
Kástro
The monastery of Panagía Pouláti
The monastery of Agios Simeoón
The bay of Kamáres from the Agios Simeoón
The fortified monastery of the Profítis Ilías
The nice terraces of Sífnos
The beautiful path to Agios Sóstis
The nice church of Panagía ta Mángana
A street in Kástro
The beautiful situation of the
Panagía Tósou Neroú
The bay of Vathý
The bay of
Cherrónisos