Greece - Korina Miller [330]
Loza ( 22850 71864; dishes €4.50-9.50) Just opposite Akbar and a local rendezvous for breakfasts (€7.50) as well as salads and pizzas. It’s also a bakery and makes pastries, including baklava and walnut pie.
Deli Restaurant and Sweet Bar ( 22850 74278; mains €7.50-9) The outstanding Deli is run by the same creative team that once ran Margarita’s down the road. Excellent Greek cuisine, with a strong local basis, features starters such as millefeuille eggplant with fresh tomatoes and local soft cheese, or fava beans with onions and olive oil. Mains include chicken with herbs and lemon, and small pieces of local pork with peppers in a wine sauce. Vegetarians can enjoy a plate of the day. They also do breakfast for €6. The upper floor houses the restaurant, the ground floor is a very cool cafe-bar and downstairs there’s a sweet section. The wine list is trim but excellent with some fine Macedonian vintages.
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KOUFONISIA ΚΟΥΦΟΝΗΣΙΑ
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The islands of Ano Koufonisia and Kato Koufinisia face each other across blue waters. It’s Ano Koufonisia that’s populated. Its excellent beaches make it one of the most visited islands of the Little Cyclades, and modernisation has taken hold. New hotels and studios are springing up, and a marina with capacity for 50 yachts is due to be completed ‘any time now’. Koufinisia’s substantial fishing fleet still sustains a thriving local community outside the summer season.
A caïque ride away, Kato Koufonisia has some beautiful beaches and a lovely church. Archaeological digs on Keros, the rocky, bull-backed mountain of an island that looms over Koufonisia to the south, have uncovered over 100 Early Cycladic figurines, including the famous harpist and flautist now on display in Athens’ National Archaeological Museum. Important finds in recent years seem to confirm that Keros was a Cycladian site of major importance.
Orientation & Information
Koufonisia’s only settlement spreads out behind the ferry quay. On one side of the quay is the planned yacht marina; on the other side is a wide bay filled with moored fishing boats. A large beach of flat, hard sand gives a great sense of space to the waterfront. Its inner edge is used as a road and everyone uses it as a football pitch. The older part of town, the hora, sprawls along a low hill above the harbour and is one long main street, often strewn with fallen leaves of bougainvillea.
There are a couple of supermarkets along the road that leads inland from the beach to link with the main street, and there’s a ticket agency halfway along the main street. The post office is along the first road that leads sharply left as you reach the road leading inland. There is an ATM outside the post office.
Sights
BEACHES
An easy walk along the sandy coast road to the east of the port leads in a couple of kilometres to Finikas, Harakopou and Fano beaches. All tend to become swamped with grilling bodies in July and August and nudity becomes more overt the further you go.
Beyond Fano a path leads to several rocky swimming places, then continues to the great bay at Pori, where a long crescent of sand slides effortlessly into the ultimate Greek-island-dream sea. Pori can also be reached by an inland road from Hora.
Tours
Koufonissia Tours ( 22850 71671; www.koufonissiatours.gr), based at Villa Ostria hotel (see below), organises caïque trips to Keros, Kato Koufonisia and to other islands of the Little Cyclades. Bike hire is also available.
Sleeping
Independent camping is not permitted on Koufonisia. There is a good selection of domatia and hotels, and Koufonissia Tours organises accommodation on the island.
Lefteris Rooms ( 22850 71458; d/tr €40/45) Right behind the town beach and above Lefteris restaurant are these simple but colourful rooms, with the ones at the back being the most peaceful.
Anna’s Rooms ( 22850 71061, 6974527838; s/d/tr/q €50/60/70/80; ) In a quiet location at Loutro on the west side of the port, these big, bright rooms are a great choice and the welcome is charming. Rooms overlook