Walking, hiking and trekking on Tínos
BOATS TINOS
- Blue
Star Ithaki
- Superferry
II
- Theologos
- Aqua
Jewel
- Seajet
2
WALKS
(last update on the 8th of July 2010)
*** = very beautiful
**** = exceptional
N = new in 2010
1.
Agápi - Sklavochorió - Agápi
(French)
2.
Agios Ioánnis Pórto - Agios Sóstis - Agios Fokás - Chóra
(French)
3. Agios Ioánnis Pórto - Dyó Chória - Stení - Falatádos ***
4.
Chóra - Agia Triáda - Triandáros - Dyó Choriá - Arnádos -
Kechrovoúni ***
(French)
5.
Chóra - Kechrovoúni - Mountádos - Sberádos - Chóra ***
(French)
6. Chóra - Tripótamos - Mountádos - Kechrovoúni - Karyá - Mountádos - Tripótamos - Chóra ***
7. Chóra - Tripótamos - Xóbourgo - Koumáros -
Loutrá
- Kámbos -
Chatzirádos - Ktikádos -
Chóra ***
8. Chóra - Tripótamos - Xóbourgo - Falatádos -
Voláx
- Agápi ***
9. Chóra - Ktikádos -
Kámbos - Tarampádos -
Kiónia
- Chóra ***
10. Falatádos - Manganári - Liváda and back ****
11.
Falatádos - Myrsíni - Liváda - Falatádos ***
(French)
12.
Falatádos - Myrsíni - Stení and back
(French)
13. Falatádos - Xóbourgo - Koumáros - Loutrá -
Krókos - Skaládos -
Voláx - Falatádos ***
14. Falatádos - Xóbourgo - Tripótamos - Chóra
15. Kámbos - Agia Marína - Kardianí - Ystérnia - Pýrgos ***
16. Kámbos - Tarampádos en terug
17. Kechrovoúni - Mountádos - Sberádos - Tripótamos - Xóbourgo - Karyá - Tzádos - Kechrovoúni ****
18.
Manganári - beach of Liváda and back ***
(French)
19. Pýrgos - Pánormos - Kyrá Xéni - Pýrgos ***
20.
Stení - Potamiá - Maroúli - Lychnaftiá and back ***
(French)
21.
Tarampádos - Smardátiko - Kómi - Plagiá - Agápi - Voláx ***
(French)
22. Tarampádos - Smardákito - Perástra - Krókos - Skaládos - Agápi - Voláx ***
23. Tarampádos - Smardákitos - Perástra - Loutrá - Kámbos - Chatzirádos - Ktikádos - Chóra ***
24. Voláx - Agápi - Kolymbíthra and back ***
With
its 195 km², Tínos is one of the medium-sized Cycladic islands, after the
two biggest ones: Náxos (448 km²) and Andros (385 km²); the island of Páros
(195 km²) has exactly the same size. Tínos is situated between the isles
of Andros and Mýkonos – together, these three islands form the
embranchment of the mountain ridge of the island of Evia (Euboia).
Just like its beautiful neighbour Andros, also the island of Tínos is
predominantly frequented by the Greeks themselves; it is not really a busy
tourist destination. Since the discovery of the miraculous statue of Our
Blessed Lady in 1823, Tínos has grown into one of the most important
religious places of pilgrimage of the Orthodox Greeks – especially on
the festival of Our Blessed Lady on the 15th of August, the
island and the area around the Panagía Evangelístria are flooded with
thousands of believers.
Nevertheless, Tínos
has to offer quite a lot, also to regular tourists: the interior of the
island is absolutely wonderful, it is fairly green and there are a lot of
small villages; there are many chapels, skilfully decorated pigeon towers,
beautiful beaches and also the marvellous hiking trails.
Tínos is situated on the busy shipping route to Mýkonos: it is to be reached easily from the harbour of Rafína (there is a special bus to Rafína from the airport!). After about 2 hours of sailing the boat stops in Gávrio on the island of Andros, and after 4 hours you arrive at Tínos. But also from the Piraeus, the main port of Athens, there are a number of connections every day: the Highspeed-boats and also modern ships such as the Blue Star take care of some fast connections via Sýros and Tínos to Mýkonos – in this case the crossing to Tínos takes about three hours and a half. There are also a lot of direct connections with the island of Páros, the central island of the Cyclades. You often have to pass the isle of Páros in order to continue to the other Cyclades, although the small Panagía Chozoviótissa and the Panagía Tínou even bring you to the islands of Santoríni, Síkinos and Folégandros and this throughout the year.
The capital of Tínos, called Tínos or Chóra, is pleasant little town. It is dominated by
the large building of the Panagía Evangelístria; the one-kilometre-long
boulevard of Megalocharis leads to this church. On the side of this road
there is a strip of carpet for pilgrims who want to undertake the trip to
the church on their knees. The interior of the church is remarkable
because of the large number of ex votoes, often also small silver ships.
The new harbour is located a little on the side of the centre and it does
not offer you anything in particular; the old harbour promenade is quite
nice and, as often, it is flanked by restaurants, shops and bars.
In the interior
there are the villages such as Voláx, Koumáros, Krókos,
Kómi, Ktikádos, Agápi, Tarampádos, Falatádos,Triantáros,
etc (in the centre of the island), Kardianí, Istérnia or Pýrgos
(towards the north) and many more, which are very picturesque and
attractive to stroll around. It is almost unbelievable, but there are 60
villages dispersed all over the interior of the island!
Some of them, like
Koumáros and Agápi, are quite striking because of the arched passages (kamáres),
others, such as Tarampádos, are remarkable because of the large number of
very skilfully decorated pigeon houses. In the neighbourhood of Falatádos
and Myrsíni you will be struck by the very special landscape with a lot
of large boulders.
The plateau of Xóbourgo
(with the old fortress, at an altitude of 559 metres) and the highly
situated monastery of Kechrovoúni (near the village of Stení)
give you some exceptional panoramic views over the island. Between Chóra
and the bay of Kiónia you
can find the remnants of the temple of Poseídoon and Amfitríte.
Besides the beach of Kiónia and the one of Kolimbýthra (on the north coast), it is mainly the beaches situated on the wind protected south-east coast, around Pórto, that are very pleasant, such as the beaches of Agios Fokás, Agios Ioánnis or Agios Sóstis.
Just like many other
Cycladic isles, also Tínos is best to be explored on foot. Tínos
contains a wealth of marvellous hiking trails, especially in the centre of
the island and in the southeast, but also around Kardianí and Pýrgos.
Some parts of the ancient kalderímia are remarkably well preserved –
for instance the stretch between Chóra and Ktikádos is incredibly
intact.
In spring 2008 a
wonderful map of Tínos was published in the Anávasi-series. The actual
map (scale: 1/25 000) presents a whole lot of hiking trails, while at the
backside an entire network of trails is explained – with no less than 25
hiking trajectories. The combinations of trails are almost as numerous as
on the island of Sífnos. Because Tínos is a fairly large island, the
total length of the trails is probably more than 200 km!
In the course of
spring 2009 another map of Tinos appeared, now in the series of Skaï-maps:
this map is also very detailed but a little less clear than the Anávasi-map.
A few things are incomplete as well: the paths from Falatádos to Myrsíni
or from Myrsíni to Manganári are not indicated on the map, and also the
part Manganári – beach of Liváda is incorrect.
In addition, on the island of Tínos, just like on Amorgós and especially on Andros and on Kéa, a great effort is put in the signposting of the hikes nowadays. This tendency just began a couple of years ago, but hike no. [1] from Falatádos and Myrsíni to Liváda used to be fairly well indicated after all. Thereafter, the signposting project came to a standstill, but now things are moving again. After hike no. [1] also hike no. [3] from Kechrovoúni to Tripótamos and Chóra, and hike no. [6] from Stení to Potamiá and the beach of Lychnaftiá are rather well indicated.
Just like on Amorgós
and Andros, there also exists a little, but beautiful book, published by
the cultural organisation Archipélagos, with a brief description of 10
hikes - in Greek, English and French – to be found in the shops in Chóra.
The descriptions of the hikes are not really route descriptions, but they
can give you an impression of some of the hiking possibilities.
Next to these two
decent maps – by Anávasi and Skaï, there is at the island also a map
available that is published by Palamáris; it gives you the same ten hikes
as in the hiking book of Archipélagos, but the map is really not that
clear.
Finally,
also the Greek guide "Kykládes", published by Explorer, pays
quite a bit of attention to the hikes when discussing the island of Tínos.
Also here the information is too limited, and in the English translation
of this guide this section was even left out.
We want to mention three very interesting websites:
- the website www.tinos.tv with walks by
Karolos Merlin
- http://www.tinos-cyclades.com:
interesting site (in French) by Christian FETIS, who lives on Tínos since
1987
- the splendid site Ophiousa,
with interesting articles on the footpaths
- the blogspot http://imaginarytinos.blogspot.com
with marvelous photos of Tínos.
On
March 25th 2010 visitor n° 100 000 was on this site!
Since then, this Tinos page got
visitors.
Panoramic view on Chóra
The Panagía Evangelístria
The rich interior of the Panagía Evangelístria
The decorated pigeons of Tarampádos
The splendid old monopáti that leads from Chóra to Kámbos
The hill top of Xóbourgo
The Venetian bridge near Ktikádos
The picturesque village of Voláx
The arched passages in Koumáros