Schinousa

Map of  Koufonisia(Schinousa)

A little to the northeast of Iraklia, Schinousa(8km² and 250 residents) is just beginning to awaken to its tourist potential. Its indented outline, sweeping valleys and partly submerged headlands - such as the sinuous, snake-like islet Ofidousa - provide some of the most dramatic views in the group.

An asphalted road leads up from the port of Mersini to the capital, Hora (Panagia), for 1.2km. From Hora you can reach no fewer than sixteen beaches dotted around the island, accessible by a network of dirty tracks. Tsigouri is a ten-minute track walk downhill from northwest Hora and gradually being developed. The local's preferred choice of beaches are Alygaria to the south, Psilo Ammos to the northeast and Almyros, half an hour southeast.

Amorgos

Map of Amorgos

Amorgos, the 7th bigger island of the Cyclades(121km² extension and 1970 inhabitants), with its dramatic mountain scenery and laidback atmosphere, is attracting visitors in increasing numbers. The island can get extremely crowded in midsummer, the numbers swollen by film buffs paying their respects to the film location of Luc Besson's The Big Blue, although fewer venture out to Liveros at the island's western end to see the wreck of the Olympia which figures so prominently in the film. In general it's a low key, escapist clientele, happy to have found a relatively large, interesting, uncommercialized and hospitable island. Families tend to stay around Katapola, while younger tourists prefer Aigiali. This is the island to try rakomelo - a kind of fermented grappa with honey, herbs and spices, drunk in shots.

Capital of Amorgos is Hora, located in the center of the island, one of the better-preserved settlements in the Cyclades, with a scattering of tourists shops, cafes, taverns and rooms. Dominated by an upright volcanic rock plug, wrapped with a chapel or two, the 13th century Venetian fortifications look down on nearly thirty other churches, some domed, and a line of decapitated windmills beyond.

Anafi

Map of Anafi

A ninety-minute boat ride to the east of Santorini, Anafi, the 16th bigger island of the Cyclades with 271 population and 38,636km² extension, is the last stop for ferries. It was so for the Argonauts who prayed to Apollo for some land to rest. He let the island emerge from the sea for their repose. Tourists visit Anafi for weeks in midsummer to enjoy exactly that: its seclusion. Although idyllic geographically, Anafi is a harsh place, its mixed granite and limestone core overlaid by volcanic rock spewed out by Santorini's eruptions. Apart from the few olive trees and vines grown in the valleys, the only plant that seem to thrive are prickly pears. The quiet, unassuming capital, Hora, provides a daring dash of white in a treeless, shrub-strewn hillock, its narrow, winding streets offering protection from the occasionally squally gharbis wind that comes unencumbered from the southwest.

Serifos

Map of Serifos

Serifos is the 13th bigger island of Cyclades with 75km² extension and 1.420 population. Capital of the island is Serifos(Hora), located Southeast of Serifos. Other major settlements are Koutalas, Megalo Livadi and Kentarho. Serifos has long languished the mainstream of history and modern tourism. Little has happened here since Perseus returned with Medusa's head in time to save his mother, Danae, from bing ravished by the local king Polydectes, turning him, his court and the green island into stone. Many would-be visitors are deterred by the apparently barren, hilly interior, which, with the stark, rocky coastline, makes Serifos appear uninhabited until the ferry turns into picturesque Livadi Bay. This element of surprise continues as you slowly discover a number of lovely beaches around the island.

Serifos is also great for serious walkers, who can head for several small villages in the under-explored interior, plus some isolated coves. Many people still keep livestock and produce their own cognac-red wines, which are an acquired taste.

Capital of Serifos, Hora, is quiet and atmospheric (only 2km from Livadi) and one of the most unspoilt villages of Cyclades. The best sights are in the precarious upper town: follow signs to the castle to reach the top via steep and occasionally overgrown stairways. The central square, Agios Athanasios, has an attractive church and a small but colorful Neoclassical town hall. 

Ios

Map of Ios

Ios is the 8th bigger island of the Cyclades with 2.024 population and 108km² extension. Though not terribly different -geographically and architecturally- from its neighbours, no other Greek island attracts the same vast crowds of young people as Ios. Although it has worked hard to shake off its late-twentieth-century reputation for alcohol excesses and to move the island's tourism one class up with some success, Ios is extremely popular with young backpacker set who take over the island in July and August.

The only real villages, Yialos, Hora and Mylopotas, are clustered in a western corner of the island, and development elsewhere is restricted by poor roads. As a result there are still some very quiet beaches with just a few room to rent. Most visitors stay along the arc delineated by the port, at Yialos, where you'll arrive, in Hora above it, or by the beach of Mylopotas. Despite its past popularity, sleeping on the beach on Ios is strictly banned these days and so is nudism.

Hora or Ios Town, the capital, is a twenty-minute walk up behind Yialos port, and is one of the most picturesque towns in the Cyclades, filled with meandering arcaded lanes and whitewashed chapels. Still, it gets pretty raunchy when the younger crowds moves in for the high season. The main road divides it naturally into two parts: the old town climbing the hillside to the left as you arrive and the newer development to the right. The archaeological museum (Tue-Sun, 8:30am-3pm, free), in the yellow town hall, is part of an attempt to attract a more diverse range of visitors to the island. It contains some interesting finds from ancient Skarkos, a few kilometers inland from Yialos.

Yialos, with its surprisingly peaceful beach- isn't in the same league as Hora, but it provides a refreshing, breezy escape from the hot, noisy capital. Alternatively there's the popular Mylopotas, the site of a magnificent beach, lots of water activity outlets and surprisingly little nightlife.

Tinos

Map of Tinos

Tinos is the 4th larger islands of the Cyclades with 8.636 population and 194km² extension. A few foreigners have discovered its beaches and unspoilt villages, but most visitors are Greek who visit Tinos every year to see the church of Panayia Evangelistria, a grandiose shrine erected on the spot where a miraculous icon with healing powers was found in 1822. A local nun, now canonized as Ayia Pelayia, was directed in a vision to unearth the relic just as the War of Independence was getting under way, a timely coincidence  that served to underscore the links between the Orthodox Church and Greek nationalism. Today, there are two major annual pilgrimages, on March 25 and August 15, when Tinos is inundated by the faithful, and at 11am, the icon bearing the Virgin's image is carried in state down to the harbor.

Milos

Map of Milos

Milos is the 5th bigger island of Cyclades. It has 158km² extension and 5.000 population approximately. Volcanic Milos is a geologically diverse island with weird rock formations, hot springs and odd outcrops off the coast. Minoan settlers were attracted by obsidian. This and other products of its volcanic soil made it one of the most important of Cyclades in the ancient world. Today the quarrying of many rare mineral has left huge scars on the landscape but has given the island a relative prosperity which today translates into several gourmet restaurants.

The Western side of Milos, as well the other islands around it, including Kimolos, is a nature reserve protecting three endemic species: like the extremely rare Mediterranean seal, the Milos viper and the Milos wall-lizard.

Capital of Milos is Plaka, the largest of a cluster of traditional villages that huddle beneath a small crag on the road Northwest of Adhamas., the lively main port of Milos, a small hamlet until it was populated by refugees from a failed rebellion in Crete in the 1840s.