Travel guide for AMORGOS

Information

Location

It is situated in the Cyclades. It has two ports: Katapola, which is the biggest, and Aigiali. Chora is the capital of the island and the permanent population is about 2000.

Money Issues

There is a branch of Agrotiki Bank along with an ATM in Katapola. In Aigiali and Chora there are only ATMs by Agrotiki Bank. During our stay there only the ATM in Katapola worked, so make sure you have enough cash on you before you get to the island.

How to get there

We travelled ( from the port of Piraeus ) by Blue Star 2 and we reached Katapola in five and a half hours. Do book tickets with given numbers; otherwise, you will possibly end up in plastic chairs the way we did. The return ticket for two adults and a car cost us 265Euro.

Trasportation

The roads are quite good but there are a lot of bends. Beware of goats that may appear all of a sudden in your way! We only saw two gas stations, one in Katapola and the other in Aigiali; in both the price of the unleaded gas was about 1.4Euro, so you’d better full up in Athens.

While there

Accomodation

We stayed at Levrossos beach apartments, situated by Levrossos beach—close to Aigiali. The room was very comfortable with a fridge, AC and TV. There was also a small porch (comfy enough for two people) looking at the sea. Its price was 80E without breakfast. The only drawback was the access to both the apartments and the beach: there was only a narrow path of about 200m—there is a parking space just before the path.

Food

We found very good taverns with fantastic dishes at good prices—we usually paid 30E a couple. One of the local dishes that we really enjoyed was kid meat (goat) with potatoes and sour cream cheese. I have quite a lot of places to recommend to you as our stay was a long one; there is ‘To Limani tis Kyrias Katinas (Mrs Katina;s Port)’ in Aigiali serving tasty cooked food, fresh fish and delicious local cheese pie. Another tavern to visit if you want nicely cooked food is ‘Panorama’ in the village of Tholaria. In Chora we enjoyed eating at ‘Liotrivi (oilmill)’—sit at a table on the terrace to enjoy the beautiful view and try beef with egg-plant. Another good option in Chora is ‘Vassilikos (basil)’ with mouth watering kebabs (souvlaki), while if you prefer pizza there is ‘Petrino (made of stone) close by. Last but not least, we usually had breakfast at ‘Frou Frou’ in Aigiali serving tasty crepes and omelettes—breakfast for two cost about 20E but it was really worth it.

Amusement

The attraction of the island was the coffeehouse ‘Amorgialos’ in Aigiali for nice combo food, roasted ‘raki’ and ‘rakomela’ (traditional drinks) and live artistic music at night. If you want to relax having coffee or a drink, there are a lot of coffee-bars with a nice view.

Beaches

Amorgos is full of picturesque beaches with crystal clear waters. Few of them are organised, though, and it is to those that I’m going to refer. If it is windy, then you’d want to choose ‘Maltezi’ and ‘Nikouria’. As I stated before, we stayed by Levrossos, where the sea is clear and the beach is sandy. There is also a nice beach bar in Aigiali that stays open during the night. ‘Agios Pavlos(St Paul)’ is a nice pebbled beach and just opposite, there is the island ‘Nikouria’ that has two nice beaches ideal when you want to avoid windy weather. Don’t miss the famous ‘Agia Anna (St Anna)’, where part of the movie ‘Le Grand Bleu’ was shot; the waters are amazing, pebbles and cliffs ideal for diving are everywhere and if you get hungry there is a canteen. The only con is that the beach is small so its gets crowded at peak hours (12pm and on). A beach similar to this one is ‘Mouros’ to which you have access by a small path (it takes a 5 min walk). Try also ‘Kalokaritissa’, a leeward bay located in the south part of the island and whose waters are shallow; you can find a canteen and you can rent an umbrella with 2 deckchairs for 6E—keep in mind that there are few. Finally, there is Maltezi that you can reach by a small boat from Katapola: it’s a small bay with crystal clear waters, a canteen and some umbrellas with deckchaits (8E a set)

Monuments

Museums

In the centre of Chora you can visit the archaeological museum of Amorgos in ‘Gavra’s’ tower.

Other sights

Take the opportunity to wander through the narrow alleys of villages, especially those in ‘Tholaria’, ‘Lagada’ and ‘Potamos (river)’. These villages are extremely picturesque as they are amphitheatrically built at the bay of Aigiali port. What you should not do is miss to walk through Chora: the best walk is up the castle.

Best routes

Out

Close to Amorgos is the complex of the small islands ‘Koufonissia’. You can go there by the ship ‘Scopelitis’ and in 2hours you can reach ‘Ano Koufnissia’. There you can swim at the sandy beach of ‘Pory’ with bright-green waters. Nearby, you could visit some interesting caves.