A guidebook to 35 day walks and a 5-day Naxos Strada coast-to-coast route in Greece’s Cycladic islands (Paros, Naxos, Amorgos and Santorini). The islands are linked by ferry, location and history but each offers a distinct walking experience from the peaceful rural monasteries of Paros and rugged mountains of Naxos, to starkly beautiful Amorgos and volcanic Santorini.

Walks range from 4 to 16km (2–10 miles) and can be enjoyed in 2–7 hours. They range from easy to challenging, with optional short-cuts, so there is something for beginner and experienced walkers alike. The Naxos Strada coast-to-coast route is described in 5 stages covering 52km (32 miles).

Anavasi maps are included for each walk
GPX files available to download
Detailed information on accommodation and ferries
Refreshment and public transport options are given for each walk
Insights into Greek wildlife and history

Map key
Overview map
Introduction
History
Geology
Vegetation and wildflowers
Animal life
Climate
When to go
Travel to the islands
Travel around the islands
Accommodation
Eating and drinking
Shopping and services
What to take
Using this guide
Paros
Walk 1 Parikia town to Cape Fokas
Walk 2 Northwest coast to Kolimbithres
Walk 3 Northwest peninsula eco-park
Walk 4 Naousa port, inland to marble mines
Walk 5 West-coast hills to Parikia
Walk 6 Lefkes village and Byzantine Way
Walk 7 South from Lefkes to Dryos port
Walk 8 Southwest coast: Piso Livadi to Dryos
Walk 9 Angeria mountain circular
Naxos
Walk 10 Naxos town tour
Walk 11 Potamia villages and marble hills
Walk 12 South coast to Demeter’s Temple
Walk 13 Rural byways below Profitis Ilias
Walk 14 Wild lands around Apalirou
Walk 15 Central villages and Fanari foothills
Walk 16 Filoti village and Mount Zas
Walk 17 Apiranthos to emery mines and port
Walk 18 Koronos, mountain and east-coast bay
Walk 19 Kynidaros, downriver to Engares
The Naxos Strada
Walk 20 Strada 1: Plaka to Kato Potamia
Walk 21 Strada 2: Kato Potamia to Filoti
Walk 22 Strada 3: Filoti to Apiranthos
Walk 23 Strada 4: Apiranthos to Koronos
Walk 24 Strada 5: Koronos to Apollonas
Amorgos
Walk 25 Egiali and mountain villages
Walk 26 Remote north: monastery and mountains
Walk 27 Along the island spine to Chora
Walk 28 Inland capital to Katapola port
Walk 29 Old routes inland to the capital
Walk 30 Rollercoaster route: Katapola to Vroutsi
Walk 31 Ancient Arkesini and southwest farms
Santorini
Walk 32 Caldera rim: Fira to Ammoudi Bay
Walk 33 Ancient Akrotiri and southwest cape
Walk 34 Villages and vineyards to Emborio
Walk 35 Highest peak and Ancient Thira to Perissa
Appendix A Route summary table
Appendix B Useful Greek words and phrases
Appendix C Bibliography
Appendix D Useful contacts

June 2023

Author updates 2023

The author has been able to check some of the most vulnerable sections on Naxos and Santorini,

NAXOS

Walk 15

P115, para 2, line 5: sign change, replace with: …and turn R where a concrete lane goes straight ahead.

line 9: spiky agaves mostly gone! Replace with …Do not take the first inviting monopati yo may see up R, but continue to a distinctive curve of wall where the lane bends L, and turn R up the steep rock path there.

para 3: Note: The route upstream changes every season, due to fresh blockages from vegetation or crumbled banks, fence-gates inserted or removed.You may need to engage your own self-guiding instinct, following the book’s directions and the course of the stream bed as much as possible, until you reach the ‘vertical rock-face cleft by a sometime waterfall.’

Painted red marks can indicate a way around obstacles (but sometimes conflict)

P116, para 2, line 2: … a gate-less gap, then go straight up an uneven rocky slope of grey limestone to the wall at the top and turn L onto a walled monopati. The path is earthy and crumbling in places, but new trails follow a contour along the hillside. Some red paint spots are reassuring waymarks. At a muddle of dirt tracks below L, keep level-ish and up, soon seeing an isolated trio of low, sloping boulders in front of a solitary olive tree, then head up the dirt trail R. Go N then E…..

P116, 3 lines from bottom, to 117 lines 1-3: …down to a marble-cobbled stretch ending beneath an impenetrable block of oleander, and climb up to the R bank. You now need to head diagonally up to find a stable route above earthy terraces that have been cut into gullies by winter rain to the top of a monopati that comes up L from the stream bed. Turn up and L, then follow the old working route to the village of Moni, keeping L where the path forks and ignoring a path way marked 8 that descends L. Brush through…

P141Naxos Strada/1 Replace lines 9-10 with:

Since this book’s publication, way marking is in place along the ‘official’ Strada route, although it is not always consistent or reliable and some changes made, most of which I have included in updates. In two key instances (Walks 20,23), however, I follow slightly different routes because they are in logical day-walk stages, and do not cross over other walks in this guide. It’s important to stick to the book’s instructions and only follow the Strada waymarks when they are in accordance. Skipping from one to the other will result in confusion.

P141, column 2, line 5-8; replace. …impassable. One completely blocked section (Strada 4)was fixed at the 11th hour, 4 days before publication, but has relapsed into overgrown state over the lockdown years, so I offer a diversion.

P142 lines 2-5. replace with: After 500m, pass* the ostentatiously signed start of the ‘official’ Strada; subsequent waymarking is unclear, and takes you along a lot of metalled road, so continue….*

P160. Terrain: delete lines 3-4 and replace with:
Note: This route differs from the ‘official’ Strada. Both go from Apiranthos to Koronos, but my route fits into the day-walk sections and is more direct, via the official waymarked path 8 instead of doubling back to the village of Moni (Walk 15).

P160, 4 lines from bottom. …’signed path’. [Replace from ‘Kink down’.. with:

Do not go through the gate above, but follow the path that runs slightly down L, to the R of the wall, and go through a rough fence-gate bearing a small sign denoting ‘public way’. After a few metres, turn sharp R to follow zig-zag, initially marble, path up. This turns into a clear earthen trail to a dirt road where you turn R.

P162, line 2 Replace with: A gate spans the track just before the next bend; climb over the RH side of it, and at the next bend, turn L……….

Line 5, ‘red spot’ no longer obvious, so:

At major fork downhill, keep uphill L up the stepped mule track…

Para 2 A mix of erosion, neglect, overgrown clearings and missing way marks have confused the course of this path, so replace paragraphs 2 and 3 with the following:

In parts, where marble gives way to schist underfoot, bands of eroded red soil and rubble, have overwhelmed parts of the path; try to cross these carefully rather than make detours into the scrub. At one of the bands, beneath a solitary Turkish plane tree, look diagonally down to see the ghost of a walled path thick with thistles, and thread your way through a thankfully brief section to join a trail through scrub to a fence-gate bearing a small, illegible wooden sign. Go through this and a second matching gate with sign, then follow the shallow valley ahead down to a stream bed. Turn L (waymark 8 on opposite wall no longer visible), and follow the stream course, initially walled on R and in early summer, with the sinister dark purple-spathes of dragon arum>.

Reach a junction where rock-slabs mark a sharp drop to the stream-bed below, bear R and follow a dirt trail up and over, to follow the R side of a fence, round a rise then down R to a wooded glade below the Moni-Stavros road. Turn L through a fence gate and down steps to go beneath the road into the ruins of upper Sifones.

At the next stream-bed crossing, keep R up, soon turning L where you see a church ahead. Keep on, steeply down, and R at a stone farmstead, over a concrete bridge R up to a randomly unsurfaced and concrete road. Follow this up and round to the R for some time until it swerves ..//R above terraces of vines and reaches a small house R. Opposite, up the steep bank is the entrance, way marked 12, 12A to a traditional path between broken walls.

This was cleared at the time of the book’s printing, but may have reverted to nature again!

SANTORINI

Walk 33

P226 last 2 lines, from….riverbed) to 227 line 8, …on the side of a cliff.: Replace with:

At a rough junction at the top, cross up onto a stony field above and R of the ravine, and look R to take a broken trail through the bordering scrub. Follow the increasingly narrow and crumbling trail up, keeping L above the ravine, passing storage shelters carved into the soft rock. Cross the valley head to the L and cross a band of hard rock over a water-cut gully. A landslip has destroyed the path so you turn steeply R to scramble up the L of it to the path that leads L and round the corner towards the magnificently solitary church of Ag Athina. Part of the field above has collapsed into the monopati, but try to keep to its course above the lower wall. Go R up the church entrance road lava-pebble, pass new dirt road R, to main junction and R, seeing the monastery of Taxiarchis (Archangel Michael) above. Take the stony trail R to shortcut bends and at the top, turn R to the monastery on its cliff shelf.

P226, para 2, lines 7-11… concrete-like rock. then Replace with:
Follow this diagonally down towards a triangle of sea to a dirt road and turn L. Now look to the scruffy smallholding on the hillside opposite and head to the R of it: either cut over open land along animal trails below line of black rocks, or follow the dirt road and turn R at the junction. Find a trail to R of the smallholding up to a small ridge behind it.
Go L…

P228, para 2, line 3-5. …. opposite side of. then replace with:

Cross the field to the line of feathery tamarisk trees and go through a gap at the seaward end, steeply down to trails that have been trodden over the soft, crumbling rock to Red Beach.

The author has been able to check some of the most vulnerable sections on Naxos and Santorini,

NAXOS

Walk 15

P115, para 2, line 5: sign change, replace with: …and turn R where a concrete lane goes straight ahead.

line 9: spiky agaves mostly gone! Replace with …Do not take the first inviting monopati yo may see up R, but continue to a distinctive curve of wall where the lane bends L, and turn R up the steep rock path there.

para 3: Note: The route upstream changes every season, due to fresh blockages from vegetation or crumbled banks, fence-gates inserted or removed.You may need to engage your own self-guiding instinct, following the book’s directions and the course of the stream bed as much as possible, until you reach the ‘vertical rock-face cleft by a sometime waterfall.’

Painted red marks can indicate a way around obstacles (but sometimes conflict)

P116, para 2, line 2: … a gate-less gap, then go straight up an uneven rocky slope of grey limestone to the wall at the top and turn L onto a walled monopati. The path is earthy and crumbling in places, but new trails follow a contour along the hillside. Some red paint spots are reassuring waymarks. At a muddle of dirt tracks below L, keep level-ish and up, soon seeing an isolated trio of low, sloping boulders in front of a solitary olive tree, then head up the dirt trail R. Go N then E…..

P116, 3 lines from bottom, to 117 lines 1-3: …down to a marble-cobbled stretch ending beneath an impenetrable block of oleander, and climb up to the R bank. You now need to head diagonally up to find a stable route above earthy terraces that have been cut into gullies by winter rain to the top of a monopati that comes up L from the stream bed. Turn up and L, then follow the old working route to the village of Moni, keeping L where the path forks and ignoring a path way marked 8 that descends L. Brush through…

P141Naxos Strada/1 Replace lines 9-10 with:

Since this book’s publication, way marking is in place along the ‘official’ Strada route, although it is not always consistent or reliable and some changes made, most of which I have included in updates. In two key instances (Walks 20,23), however, I follow slightly different routes because they are in logical day-walk stages, and do not cross over other walks in this guide. It’s important to stick to the book’s instructions and only follow the Strada waymarks when they are in accordance. Skipping from one to the other will result in confusion.

P141, column 2, line 5-8; replace. …impassable. One completely blocked section (Strada 4)was fixed at the 11th hour, 4 days before publication, but has relapsed into overgrown state over the lockdown years, so I offer a diversion.

P142 lines 2-5. replace with: After 500m, pass* the ostentatiously signed start of the ‘official’ Strada; subsequent waymarking is unclear, and takes you along a lot of metalled road, so continue….*

P160. Terrain: delete lines 3-4 and replace with:
Note: This route differs from the ‘official’ Strada. Both go from Apiranthos to Koronos, but my route fits into the day-walk sections and is more direct, via the official waymarked path 8 instead of doubling back to the village of Moni (Walk 15).

P160, 4 lines from bottom. …’signed path’. [Replace from ‘Kink down’.. with:

Do not go through the gate above, but follow the path that runs slightly down L, to the R of the wall, and go through a rough fence-gate bearing a small sign denoting ‘public way’. After a few metres, turn sharp R to follow zig-zag, initially marble, path up. This turns into a clear earthen trail to a dirt road where you turn R.

P162, line 2 Replace with: A gate spans the track just before the next bend; climb over the RH side of it, and at the next bend, turn L……….

Line 5, ‘red spot’ no longer obvious, so:

At major fork downhill, keep uphill L up the stepped mule track…

Para 2 A mix of erosion, neglect, overgrown clearings and missing way marks have confused the course of this path, so replace paragraphs 2 and 3 with the following:

In parts, where marble gives way to schist underfoot, bands of eroded red soil and rubble, have overwhelmed parts of the path; try to cross these carefully rather than make detours into the scrub. At one of the bands, beneath a solitary Turkish plane tree, look diagonally down to see the ghost of a walled path thick with thistles, and thread your way through a thankfully brief section to join a trail through scrub to a fence-gate bearing a small, illegible wooden sign. Go through this and a second matching gate with sign, then follow the shallow valley ahead down to a stream bed. Turn L (waymark 8 on opposite wall no longer visible), and follow the stream course, initially walled on R and in early summer, with the sinister dark purple-spathes of dragon arum>.

Reach a junction where rock-slabs mark a sharp drop to the stream-bed below, bear R and follow a dirt trail up and over, to follow the R side of a fence, round a rise then down R to a wooded glade below the Moni-Stavros road. Turn L through a fence gate and down steps to go beneath the road into the ruins of upper Sifones.

At the next stream-bed crossing, keep R up, soon turning L where you see a church ahead. Keep on, steeply down, and R at a stone farmstead, over a concrete bridge R up to a randomly unsurfaced and concrete road. Follow this up and round to the R for some time until it swerves ..//R above terraces of vines and reaches a small house R. Opposite, up the steep bank is the entrance, way marked 12, 12A to a traditional path between broken walls.

This was cleared at the time of the book’s printing, but may have reverted to nature again!

SANTORINI

Walk 33

P226 last 2 lines, from….riverbed) to 227 line 8, …on the side of a cliff.: Replace with:

At a rough junction at the top, cross up onto a stony field above and R of the ravine, and look R to take a broken trail through the bordering scrub. Follow the increasingly narrow and crumbling trail up, keeping L above the ravine, passing storage shelters carved into the soft rock. Cross the valley head to the L and cross a band of hard rock over a water-cut gully. A landslip has destroyed the path so you turn steeply R to scramble up the L of it to the path that leads L and round the corner towards the magnificently solitary church of Ag Athina. Part of the field above has collapsed into the monopati, but try to keep to its course above the lower wall. Go R up the church entrance road lava-pebble, pass new dirt road R, to main junction and R, seeing the monastery of Taxiarchis (Archangel Michael) above. Take the stony trail R to shortcut bends and at the top, turn R to the monastery on its cliff shelf.

P226, para 2, lines 7-11… concrete-like rock. then Replace with:
Follow this diagonally down towards a triangle of sea to a dirt road and turn L. Now look to the scruffy smallholding on the hillside opposite and head to the R of it: either cut over open land along animal trails below line of black rocks, or follow the dirt road and turn R at the junction. Find a trail to R of the smallholding up to a small ridge behind it.
Go L…

P228, para 2, line 3-5. …. opposite side of. then replace with:

Cross the field to the line of feathery tamarisk trees and go through a gap at the seaward end, steeply down to trails that have been trodden over the soft, crumbling rock to Red Beach.

July 2022

Author updates

P26 Buses

Final sentence: replace with:

Buy tickets from the bus terminal, a nearby kiosk or mini-market, or, on Santorini, from the driver.

P100-101 Transport

delete Bus service Chora-Kastraki.

For the Chora-Sangri-Chalk-Apiranthos bus service, go to signed bus stop on the main road.

P106 Para 1, line 7

replace with

… which you follow above meadows, keeping L of wall, then drop down R to rejoin the dirt track.

2nd Para, line 3

…R onto a monopati (waymarked 7) between walls,

para 3, last 2 lines

…rim. Just over a rise, where the vehicle track path goes straight ahead, turn L down a monopati whose entrance might be obscured by low shrubs, and very soon…

p107 Last para

Return to the main dirt road; following it WSW to the asphalt road, where you turn L then R onto sandy track….

p114 Main text, line 1

…., go up the lane to the L of Protothronos…

P116 4 lines from bottom

… wine press and shelter, and soon after, follow a trail R upstream, which leads into a paved section of stream-bed. Go downstream, until an oleander blockage forces you to exit R onto terraces. Follow a trail going up one level to reach a gulley with a marbled monopati. Climb down and turn R, ….

P164-5 Last para

Delete last 3 lines from At the next fork … at the junction above it on the next page. Replace with:

…isolated church R, and keep L at the fork below it. At the next fork, bend L to follow the path around the head of the narrow valley, with ruined mills among dense greenery below. At a junction with a stone ‘staircase’ climbing back towards Koronos, go ahead R down to a waterworks installation, then R to climb steeply. Keep ahead where a monopati joins from R, and R at the junction below Ag Yiorgos church, which you see above L. Finally…..

July 2021

Author updates

p. 103 (Walk 12)

The author reports that the paths marked on the Anavasi map, leading N from the temple, and the gate behind the temple, are now closed (chains, padlocks, high fences and security cameras). After touring the temple site do not return to the double metal gate to continue the walk as stated at the end of the 1st para of p.103. Instead the third para [‘Go through the double metal gate…] should read: 

‘Return to the main entrance of the Demeter’s Temple site, and turn R to go along the lane you came down earlier. Go uphill until you see an opening R to a way marked footpath 7 to Ano Sangri.

 The monopati emerges…’

The map on p 101 should omit the section N of the temple and retrace the route to the dotted path R off the road.

The Temple site is closed on Tuesdays and otherwise – at least late spring to end September – open 08:30–15:30 with last admission at 15:10.

p.149, 2nd para (Walk 21)

They’ve cut off a kink here, so last 3 lines should now read: ‘….go sharp R, then cross to steps with green wooden railings….’. The route map is unaffected.

p.163 (Walk 23)

The link to Keramoti (shown as a blue route line on the map) has been opened. It was a long battle to get this final link in the Strada cleared, and the work was eventually done by volunteers a few days before this book was published. Over the year and more of lockdown and low hiker traffic, the path has become quite overgrown but not impassable. 

Directions for following this link route are as follows (from the beginning of the 2nd para p.163):

‘Opposite is a smart new sign indicating the entrance to the path to Keramoti, but you have to scramble up a crumbling bank and negotiate a wire fence to access it. (For an easier route, you can continue to the end of the dirt track to the main road, turn L walk 1.5km to rejoin the Strada at Stavros, but you miss the charming tiny village of Keramoti). It’s bordered by dense maquis and high fields, then crosses R a small deep valley. Follow the valley side above vine terraces and drop to a dirt road.  Turn R to pass buildings, where there's with a water source, and go L at the fork, past a chapel. This leads along the valley side opposite the tiny village of Keramoti.  Descend until a clear, narrow monopati goes down L, follow it to a ruined building and turn R. Turn L to cross the stream and go up via blue railings at the start of Keramoti village. 