Based on ferry fares (difference of more than 100 euros between these itineraries and other options), we can spend either four nights in Naxos and two in Syros or four nights in Folegandros and two in Naxos. What to do? We're going to Chania (4 nights), Santorini/Thira (2 nights), and Athens otherwise. Youngish and interested in art, quiet place to crash on islands, walking around, monasteries/churches.
Thanks!
Syros doesn’t get mentioned often on these forums so it’s good to see your post. It is the administrative capital of the Cyclades and is not a popular tourist hub but it has interesting architecture and nice beaches.
Choose four nights in Naxos and two in Syros. Glad to see that you are visiting beautiful Chania.
I’m another fan of Syros. Ermopolis, the port and capital, is a lively little Greek town with several good restaurants. It also, oddly, has a scale model of La Scala and a massive town hall with a lively square in front.
Be sure to visit Ano Syros, the old Cycladic area above the town on the left hand hill. It’s an easy enough walk but an alternative is to get a taxi up and walk back down. There are a handful of tavernas - O Lillis is a favourite- and bars up there with spectacular views.
There’s a reasonable bus service which does a circuit of the island if you want a beach to swim.
Alan
PS Ano Syros is the home village of Markos Vamvakaris, one of the originators of rembetika, the Greek urban blues. There is a very small Vamvakaris museum in Ano Syros and a statue to him. If you’re at all interested in Greek music check out this video of his most famous song. It has some shots of places around the island. (Frankosyriani means Catholic girl from Syros. It commemorates a doomed cross community love affair he had when he was in his late teens. His family was Greek Orthodox.)
Thanks both of you for your feedback. Wondering if anybody who has been to Folegandros would answer? Four days, I admit, seems like a lot... just wondering whether to rebook and eat a 20-euro ferry fare that can't be reimbursed, so that we could go to Naxos for longer and Syros additionally.
Good Grief! 20 Euros is one taxi ride in NY... don't let it force you into an itinerary you don't want. I would vote for FOUR nights in NAxos, and 2 in Folegandros. Ive been to Greece 13 times (yes, I know , but Im not rich, I just go nowhere else) -- have visited more than 25+ islands, a handful of them 6 or more times... and Naxos 14 times. So far it's escaped being spoiled, (because its airport wont take huge jumbo jets, only small turboprops, and its harbor can't accommodate cruise ships. YAY).
Folegandros is all about its high village, chora, which is perhaps THE most perfect Cycladic village ever... and Ive seen scores of them. I walked around for 2 hours one day, giving myself the challenge of finding a single corner or angle that was unlovely. Not one. Stayed at https://www.anemousahotel.gr/en/article.php?cat=2 -- in May, V moderate, a dream infinity pool, felt as if I were in a perfume ad. I was visiting friends of mine who that year were teaching in the Gymnasium (Hi School) there... they showed me around. Not so much besides Chora (and the climb up to the church on the peak ) ... but it's worth 2 night stay.
Also spent 3 nights in Syros one year... wanted to see its famous Ermopoulis Square which is indeed impressive. However, I was not "taken" by the island... others here strongly disagree with me. It's 99% Greek, it's their island, and I felt totally excluded .. no sociable interchange even with waiters or baristas at the beach. SOO different from Naxos, which is friendly wherever you go ... not just in port town or beach... but up in hill villages ... one time I sat on a fence for half an hour & watched an old geezer shear a sheep, and we talked (he talked greek, I talked sign language). Others may have gone in a group, provided their own sociability. It was the first & only Greek isle I haven't experienced welcome... Greece is the friendliest country I know.
Thanks for your feedback! We dropped Folegandros. Staying four nights in Naxos, two in Syros.
Hope to go to Folegandros in the future but it was just difficult with ferry fares to/from being high or trips being rare between Folegandros and other places we wanted to go.
