The Cyclades are not told, they are lived. You have to feel the meltemi wind in your hair, taste the salt on your lips as you climb out of a cove, watch the sun turn a white village to pure gold at sunset. This is an archipelago that speaks to the senses before it speaks to the mind, and that is exactly why you keep coming back.
The ritual of the crossings
There is a particular pleasure in the Cyclades: the passage from one island to the next. Each ferry crossing is a small journey within the journey. You leave a port, watch the island recede, and already the next one is taking shape on the horizon, a rocky profile, a windmill, a white chapel perched on a hilltop. That sense of constant discovery, that gentle excitement of never quite knowing what awaits on the other side, is the essence of the Cyclades.
You arrive at Sifnos on a calm morning. The island reveals itself gradually: cultivated terraces, paved paths connecting villages, pottery drying in the sun outside workshops. Sifnos is the island of flavours. Here they cook revithada, a chickpea stew simmered all night in an earthenware oven, and the tavernas of Kastro, a village perched above the sea, serve perhaps the finest dishes in the Cyclades.
The ferry crossings give rhythm to the journey with simpler logistics than you might imagine. From Piraeus, the port of Athens, regular lines serve the main islands in a few hours. Companies like Blue Star Ferries or Seajets offer daily departures in season, and you can easily combine two or three islands over a week to ten days. No need to organise everything yourself: Kelifos takes care of bookings, connections, and luggage transfers between stages.
Milos, the painter's palette
Milos surprises with its colours. Where most Cycladic islands play on white and blue, Milos adds ochre, red, sulphurous green, and volcanic black. Its coasts, carved by geological activity, offer landscapes that look painted: Sarakiniko and its chalk rocks sculpted by the wind, Kleftiko and its natural arches accessible only by sea, Firopotamos and its syrmata, those colourful boat garages carved into the rock at the water's edge.
Walking on Milos has a sense of reaching the edge of the world. You make your way between abandoned mines and deserted coves, cross paths with a fisherman hauling in his nets, pause to contemplate a sunset that sets the caldera ablaze. In the evening, Adamas or Plaka offer their terraces and local wines, in that atmosphere of quiet conviviality that is the charm of small islands.
Kimolos, the well-kept secret
Half an hour from Milos, Kimolos is the island that few travellers know, and that is precisely what makes it so charming. A single village, Chorio, with its white houses clustered around a medieval kastro. Beaches accessible on foot, often deserted. Trails crossing a landscape of gentle hills dotted with chapels. You live at the island's rhythm, which is to say slowly, deliciously.
In the morning, you have breakfast facing the sea in a silence broken only by the wind. In the afternoon, you swim at Prassa, whose white sand would put many a Caribbean beach to shame. In the evening, you dine in one of the three or four village tavernas, where the owner serves whatever he caught that morning. It is simple, it is real, it is Greece as you imagine it.
Naxos, Paros, Santorini: other Cycladic faces
The Cyclades archipelago has more than 150 islands, and each one has its own character. Naxos, the largest, surprises with its greenery and its mountain villages nestled in fertile valleys, between lemon orchards and terraced fields. Paros charms with its colourful fishing ports and golden sand beaches, while the village of Naoussa offers one of the finest evening atmospheres in the Cyclades. Santorini, finally, with its spectacular caldera and the villages of Oia and Fira perched on the ridge, remains a spectacle that words struggle to describe, especially at sunset.
For travellers seeking absolute tranquillity, the Small Cyclades (Iraklia, Schinoussa, Koufonissia) offer an experience of the Greek islands in their purest form: a handful of houses, a taverna, a deserted beach, and blue everywhere.
When to visit the Cyclades
Spring (April to June) and autumn (September, October) are the ideal seasons for a Cyclades getaway. In spring, the hillsides are covered in wildflowers, the trails are peaceful, and the light has that particular softness that enchants photographers. In autumn, the sea is at its warmest (24 to 25 °C), the crowds disperse, and the tavernas return to their village atmosphere. In July and August, the meltemi, the northerly wind characteristic of the Aegean, sometimes blows strongly across the islands. It cools the air but can disrupt ferry crossings.
Composing your Cycladic journey
Every traveller composes their own archipelago. Some dream of Naxos and its mountain villages, others of Amorgos and its monasteries suspended above the void. What never changes is that unique feeling of belonging, for the space of a few days, to a world where beauty is everywhere and time no longer matters.
A one-week stay allows you to savour two or three islands without rushing. In ten days, you can consider a true Cycladic tour, combining, for example, a secret island like Sifnos with a better-known one like Naxos. The key is not to try to see everything: the Cyclades reward those who take the time to linger, to return to the same taverna, to find the same bench facing the sunset.
Kelifos offers you several ways to discover the Cyclades:
- Sifnos, Milos and Kimolos, the enchanted Cyclades: a guided trip in a small group to savour the best of these three islands, with a guide who knows every trail and every good address.
- Naxos and Amorgos, destination Cyclades: a self-guided stay to explore these two characterful islands at your own pace, between hilltop villages and secret coves.
The Cyclades take a little earning and a lot of savouring. You only need to set foot there to understand why so many travellers leave a piece of their heart behind.
Solène Roux
Responsable Éditoriale
