I like to be grounded by nature, go hiking…go to an isolated island that’s not glamorous and touristy at all. ~ Cote de Pablo
The Greek island of Sifnos has beautiful beaches, great food & friendly people — but the primary reason we chose to holiday there was because of the island’s excellent walking trails. The Sifnos Trails site tells you everything you need to know for walking Sifnos and its 19 trails. The trails connect the island’s villages, with the main town of Apollonia as the center for most of the trails.
As mentioned in a previous post, the Sifnos Trails app makes it easy to navigate these well-maintained trails. Each trail has waymarkers & if you download the trail data while you still have WiFi, the app will follow along with you on the trail (might want to bring a portable phone charger if you plan on using the app all day). We rarely used the app, & when we did it was usually out of curiosity as to how much further we had. The trails are so well marked you really don’t need the app if you have a good sense of direction and a map. There are also plenty of unmarked paths to explore & maps at the local bookstore to help you discover them. Our lodging provided a topographical map, so you may want to ask before purchasing one.
With over 100km of trails & only six days on the island, we didn’t have time to walk all of the trails but what we DID walk left us speechless. The next few posts will be about the trails we walked…
Apollonia to Kastro, via Trail 3 & Trail 1
This was our first day in Sifnos & I naively thought it would be “a leisurely stroll” to the old citadel village of Kastro. Oh boy was I wrong! We began our walk on Trail 3, which had an entry point just outside our lodging.
If you’re in Apollonia, find the front of Hotel Anthousa & take the path that goes underneath the road, heading east into fields of grass — that is Trail 3.
The walk began pretty mild through farmland but it quickly became a very rocky path. After a few miles we met up with Trail 1 & took that towards the medieval village of Kastro. Kastro was the capitol of Sifnos until the 18th century & though most of its architecture is in the Venetian style, there are ancient remains throughout.
Agios Stefanos and Agios Ioannis
Kastro
Of all the villages we visited (& we visited all except Cherronisos), Kastro was our favorite. The architecture alone was enough to make me drool, but the views from the Church of the Seven Martyrs (Eftamartyres) was what really stole our hearts. We didn’t walk down to the church that first day, but we did the next. Instead, we stopped for a leisurely lunch at Konaki, the “pink cafe” with the friendliest owner & best pastries in Kastro! If you go, make sure to go inside so you can see all the pastries she has & their pet snake. We had our first drinks of ouzo & frappes there & loved the place so much that we returned later in the trip.
Church of the Seven Martyrs
Konaki
Konaki
Konaki
Ouzo
honey pie
From Kastro, we began walking north along the coastline (still on Trail 1). The views were beautiful, the path was relatively easy, & the Panagia Poulati monastery (which marked the endpoint of the coastal portion) was lovely. Our favorite part of the hike was the secluded cove just past the monastery — a steep walk down but well worth the views!
secluded cove
secluded cove
secluded cove
secluded cove
secluded cove
Panagia Poulati
We continued to follow Trail 1 west back towards Apollonia, which brought us into the outskirts of Artemenos (the village just north of Apollonia). Trail 1 continued north into Artemenos, but we were exhausted & out of water. There was a supermarket where the trail met the main road, so we bought some water & headed back “home.” We ended our first night in Sifnos eating souvlaki & tzatziki at Ex Steno (next door to Peristeronas House). Agiliki had recommended it and the outside tables had gorgeous evening views of Artemenos lit up like hundreds of tiny stars. The waitress (might have been owner) was abrupt in a comedic way — when we’d try to order something she didn’t like (or didn’t have) she’d say “you don’t want that.” I liked her, she had character.
Ex Steno
Artemenos
Artemenos
Artemenos
Aimee happy to reach the end
Ex Steno
Ex Steno
Ex Steno
Aimee and well earned souvlaki
gyro
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