• Tailor-made guided walking (hiking) for your own party of family or friends
• 1-week holiday: 8 days, 7 nights, starting any day between 15 April and 16 June, or 1 September and 16 October
• Combine with Walking Plus programmes on Paros, Amorgos, Tinos, and Naxos, or a stay in the Walking Plus country villa (see VILLA TO LET/B&B), or a recommended hotel (see LINKS) to extend your holiday
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Minor Cyclades |
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ABOUT THE MINOR CYCLADES
The Minor Cyclades are like a child's drawing of treasure islands, with improbable bites of bays scooped from every available bit of coastline.
Today, some have small permanent populations, while others are uninhabited.
Five thousand years ago, they were a living, vital part of the Cycladic civilization, where some of the most important and finely crafted marble figures of that period have been found. In later times, though, their isolation and hidden anchorages made them perfect hideways for pirates. |
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NB There is no self-guided option for this holiday
Day 1: Arrival on Naxos. You and your party are met at the port or airport and taken to either a hotel in Naxos town or the Walking Plus country villa, which is 800m from the best beaches on the island.
Day 2: MILL-STREAMS AND DRAGONFLIES
Explore a deep valley with abandoned mill-races, a ruined monastery and church, and streams and pools where we may spot iridescent dragonflies, freshwater crabs and turtles. Accommodation in the Walking Plus country villa.
Day 3: COASTAL WALK
Walk along the most unspoilt coastline of Naxos, from sandy bay to golden strand, past lagoons and over a protected headland, taking a dip in the Aegean blue whenever you fancy. Accommodation in the Walking Plus country villa.
Day 4: TO THE MINOR CYCLADES
After lunch on the harbourfront of Naxos town, we take a local ferry to the 'Erimonisia' – the deserted islands. First stop is Ano Koufonissia (permanent population 350), where we stay in rooms linked to a taverna with nothing between it, a sandy bay, and a view over the turquoise water to mountainous, uninhabited Keros. A coastal walk leads alongside a string of crystal coves cut from wind- and water-sculpted, golden cliffettes to an almost completely circular bay. Accommodation, seaside taverna rooms, Koufonissia.
Day 5: AN ISLAND TO OURSELVES
We take a local fishing caique to a neighbouring, deserted island and explore it from end to end, usually with the entire island to ourselves.
We swim from empty beaches, investigate fantastically eroded cliff formations and headlands with dreamy views of island and sea.
Day 6: CATHEDRAL CAVE
The ferry to the island of Iraklia takes less than an hour, leaving the day free to follow the pilgrim's trail across the island's high land, looking down over a Cycladic seascape. Our destination is St John's Cave, its tiny entrance at the foot of a rugged limestone cliff leading to a vast interior like a fairyland castle, with tiered towers, pinnacles and columns of stalactites and stalagmites..
Day 7: FLOATING ISLANDS
We take the ferry back to Naxos the next day, passing among the floating islands and the long lumpy outline of Naxos, on the lookout for passing dolphins and loggerhead turtles. Accommodation, Walking Plus country villa.
Day 8: Departure. |
