Months ago, when we were planning our trip, we realized that we were packing a lot in to the first month, and would likely need a rest. We thought that sitting on a beach for a few days would do the trick, so we searched for cheap beach destinations in Europe, and decided on the Greek island of Milos. We had never been to a Greek island or even a beach on the Mediterranean (Milos is actually in the Aegean Sea which is kind of like the eastern part of the Mediterranean), so we didn’t know what to expect. We booked 4 nights at the Aigialia in the town of Pollonia.
How was it? To put it as eloquently as I can: it was freaking awesome. The Aigialia has only 8 rooms and is located on a quiet street on the water. Our room was very nice and had a balcony looking right at the sea. There is a beach a short walk away, but we liked swimming from the rocks directly in front of our hotel. The rocks are flat and form sort of a natural dock, dropping off vertically into over 20 feet of water. For swimming, I like that better than the beach because you don’t get sand everywhere and you dive right in since I have become somewhat of a wuss when it comes to getting in to the water.
The water was a really nice temperature, just cool enough to be refreshing in the heat. In the evening when we got back to the hotel, we would take a dip while the sun was setting. Our hotel was on a little bit of a peninsula, so we could watch both the sunrise and sunset over the water.
We rented a scooter so we could check out a few different beaches. Each beach was a little different from the others. There was a large, white sand beach, another beach made up of round pebbles, and another tiny beach surrounded by high cliffs. My favorite “beach" was called Sarakiniko. It wasn’t really a beach because there was no sand. Similar to our hotel, it is just rock. White rock with gentle slopes, and steep cliffs. It gets compared to a moon scape, so we just called it “moon beach”. Part of the appeal to me were the cliffs to jump off. Jesslyn wasn’t too thrilled about seeing me jump, but I was compelled to.
It was great to relax on the beach for a few days. We also loved that Milos did not feel touristy. It is definitely a summer vacation spot, but most of the vacationers were Greek. The others were Italian, French, and British. I am not sure why more Americans don’t go. I highly recommend it.
My post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning costs. It was cheap, just like we intended.
Hotel: $100 per night
Scooter rental: $20 per day
Nice dinner for 2 including appetizers, wine, and tip: $50
Cheap dinner for 2 (2 take away gyros and 2 cans of beer): $8
10 hour sailboat / snorkeling trip including breakfast, lunch, and drinks: $60 per person
Beaches: free
Parking: free
Please check back later for the full set of pictures. They are slow to upload so it takes us a while, and therefore they lag behind the blog posts.
Jake