Hiking Zen on Sifnos

Sifnos is a quieter island, and it’s full of hiking trails.

We disembarked the ferry, loaded with two backpacks each, and made the trek up the hill and over to the other side. As taxis whizzed by, I settled into a nice pace and relearned the lesson that when you travel by foot, you experience everything about a place. You see it, breathe it, feel it.

After the climb, we arrived at our hotel, up on a hill, overlooking the sea. The breakfast was still running, and it was delicious. I even got to learn how to make Greek coffee heated with sand.

Fuelled up, we hit our first trail, and it was a beauty. The weather was good, we felt good, so up we went to the top of Profitis.

There were some steep sections, but nothing too crazy. It’s only about 3 km of real work, and it’s totally worth it. The view from the top was spectacular. There is an old abandoned church that you can walk through, and even though I was curious, I did not go down the staircase into the darkness. Who knows what was down there.

The descent required some focus. The pathway does have rocky sections.

At the bottom, we made our way back to the mearest town. It had started raining, so we found a covered patio and cold beer.

We then continued on to the town of Kastros. One of my favorite things about Sifnos was all the tiny coastal towns. We found a lovely restaurant, sat on the patio, and drank white wine. I had a pasta with tomato and local cheese. It really hit the spot after the climbing.

We did have another small climb to get back to the hotel. It felt good to explore a good portion of the island by foot. It felt superb to climb, climb, climb. I hadn’t climbed this much in one day for a while.

There was a supermarket next to our hotel. We decided on a picnic on the patio for dinner. The store was amazing. We found fresh tzaziki, pita, cheese, meat, olives, and wine. I love an evening picnic when we’ve been hiking all day and already had a meal out. It’s a nice option to consider, especially when you are traveling for a while.

Sifnos may have been one of my favorites due to how quiet it was, all the lovely little seaside towns, and how quiet it was. It seems less touristy and less busy than the others.

Another highlight was discovering the little taverns where they catch and cook. You can look at and pick out the fish you want, just caught, and they’ll cook it up.