If you ever have the opportunity to go to Greece, go to Milos. Not Santorini, not Mykonos, not Athens. Milos. I mean, okay. You can go to Santorini, too. And I haven't been to Mykonos or Athens so I really can't say you shouldn't go there. All I'm saying is that it would be foolish to travel to Greece without experiencing this little magical island.
Milos, an island full of breathtaking beaches, the freshest seafood and kind people, is an undiscovered Grecian gem. The fact that it is much less known than the other islands makes it all the more enjoyable to be in. In Milos, you don't experience the traffic and crowds of tourists like you do in Santorini. You get to relax in the sand without being too close to another beachgoer and swim in waters that aren't full of people with selfie sticks.
Because it is so unknown, I feel a bit guilty talking so much about it - like I'm telling one of Greece's best kept secrets. But on the other hand, I'd feel bad keeping it myself. Milos is a destination everyone with a love of travel should experience.
Below are some of the spots we visited during our three-day stay:
PAPAFRAGAS
Papafragas is an open sea cave slash private beach slash natural swimming pool that was once used as hide-out for pirates. From the top of the cliff, we looked into the tiny beach, which we got to by climbing down a narrow and rocky ledge. For such a small strip of sand, it was surprisingly (and thankfully) not crowded. In our few days in Milos, we visited Papafragas twice. Both times there wasn't more than 5 couples there at a time. It felt like we had the beach to ourselves. The seclusion, warm water and underwater caves easily made it one of my favorite parts of the island.
SARAKANIKO
Sarakiniko was the reason I wanted to go to Milos in the first place. After stumbling upon photos of this beach on Pinterest, I did a bit of research and learned that the island was only a 2-hour boat ride from Santorini.
Sarakiniko is one of my favorite places I have ever been to. As the most famous beach of Milos, it had the most tourists of any place else on the island. Sarakiniko, also known as the moon beach, is made up of all-white volcanic rock. The shocking white rock contrasts so beautifully with the turquoise water, and makes it feel unlike any other beach. Even though it was a bit more crowded than Papafragas, I loved walking on the moon-like surface to the different parts of the beach and watching people take turns jumping off cliffs and swimming under the caves.
MANDRAKIA
After going to Papafragas and Sarakiniko, we ended our day and had dinner in Mandrakia, a small, local fishing village. The town had only one restaurant - Medousa, where we had fresh seafood for very cheap. We ordered the calamari, octopus in vinegar, grilled sardines and swordfish.
TSIGRADO
Tsigrado, another beautiful beach hidden amid high cliffs, was also bit difficult to get to. Before going down the manmade path, there's a caution sign warning you to enter at your own risk. To descend down onto the beach, we had to go through a narrow passage dug into the rock, using a rope for support, and then climbed down a 3-meter tall ladder. While it looked terrifying, it actually wasn't so bad. To me, Tsigrado felt like a larger Papafragas, as it too had a difficult trek down to the sand and a beautiful beach enclosed by high rock. We didn't spend too much time in Tsigrado as we got there pretty late and didn't want to have to climb back up in the dark. The water was the clearest water I've ever swam in.
PLAKA
Plaka is the island's capital and was the hardest place to get to, in our experience. We planned to have lunch there on our last day and kept getting lost driving up the mountain. For some reason the town was super quiet even though it was a Saturday. Though most of the shops and cafes were closed, we were able to dine outdoors and walk over to the church to see the view of the bay.
ADAMANTAS + POLLONIA
Adamantas was the town we arrived in, as it's Milos' main port. With the only ATMs on the island, and an abundance of hotels, restaurants and shops, it is the most popular area to stay and go out in. During one of our nights, we had dinner by the water at Navagio, followed by a walk through the town. We discovered a local bakery called Paradosiaka Edesmata, where we picked up homemade dessert of Milos' famous chocolate pie and baklava.
Pollonia was the part of Milos we stayed in. Regrettably, we only explored Pollonia during dinner time on our last night. Like Adamantas, it has lots of restaurants and hotels, which makes it another popular place to stay in on the island. By our 6th night in Greece, we were pretty over having Greek food each night so we opted for a sushi spot called Hanabi. Just by sitting at our dinner table, we realized just how small the island is - we saw so many of the couples we swam next to during our time there in a span of a couple hours.
Our time in Milos was sandwiched in between days spent in Santorini, the main reason we visited Greece. Unpopular opinion: Milos is WAY better than Santorini. Click here to read about my time there.