Adventures in Greece | Milos Island | Day 2

If you missed my somewhat long winded diary of our first day on Milos Island, you can always catch up here.

Now it’s on to day two, which was pretty much the best day of my life (well, it was at least in the top 10 for sure).  But before I go on (and on) about our experience, I first have to apologize for the overload of pics.  Michael and I took almost a thousand pics combined that day, and all of them were pretty darn good. Needless to say, narrowing it down to these 40 or so pics was a bit of a challenge, but I think this relatively small sampling really does a decent job of documenting the incredible day we had on one of Milos Adventures’ sailing tours (see their Trip Advisor reviews here).

When we chose Milos as one of our destinations, the main reason we did so was because of it’s spectacular coastline.  As I explained in my previous post about our planning process for this trip, Milos has a very long mining history dating back centuries.  And love it or hate it, the scars left on this island as a result of the mining are what make this island so breathtaking.

We figured the very best way to take in all the scenery would be to tour the entire coast of Milos, which is exactly what we did.  Some shorter tours only go halfway around the island and then backtrack to the port, but we needed to see all of it, so after pouring over reviews and researching, we chose this exact tour, which circles the entire island.  The shorter tours with other companies boast getting you back to the port early so you can do something else with the rest of your day, but we absolutely love being on the water and wanted to dedicate our entire day to this experience.  Plus we liked that is was on a large catamaran, rather than a single hull sailing boat, which we thought may be a big cramped.

Whenever we’re on our own boat, Michael is usually stressed because he’s essentially baby sitting a bunch of tipsy middle aged adults (me included), so we wanted to take advantage of the fact that he could finally, truly enjoy a day on the water without worrying about being ‘the responsible one’ and getting back in time to clean the boat before nightfall, while also herding cats (meaning us middle aged tipsy adults).

After a quick bite for breakfast at the Adamas port, we met with the extremely enthusiastic and friendly crew of three (to men and a lovely, yet totally badass young woman) at 8:30am.  There were probably 25 other people on the boat, but it totally did not feel that way at all.  Everyone had plenty of room to stretch out, or be alone if they wanted.  The crew broke the ice immediately, and everyone on board seemed to feel at ease with each other before we even left the port.

Once we left Adamas, within minutes we basically couldn’t get our cameras out fast enough as we passed the tiny, colorful homes making up the traditional fishing villages in Klima.  Seeing these homes right at the water level was a swift reminder that they really don’t have tides to contend with.

On board they had no shortage of refreshments.  I usually reach for a diet coke first, but Michael didn’t dig deep enough in the cooler to find one, so regular coke it was.  TBH I was ready to kick things off with some greek wine, but I didn’t want to be ‘that girl.’  Instead I just waiting for someone else to bust out the vino first;)

Also, pardon these subpar pics of myself looking somewhat uncomfortable.  This was 10 pounds ago and I didn’t feel great in my skin at the time.

The rock formations surrounding this island are insane.  What’s crazier is how this huge catamaran zips through them like it’s no big deal.  Obviously they’ve done the route a time or two, but it’s still impressive how they can maneuver through the water within feet of these towering boulders.

As it turned out, we totally could’ve slept longer and skipped our breakfast that morning, as within the first hour on the boat we were served a breakfast of an english muffin with tomato and feta (I forget what else was on there), and a nice spread of fresh fruit.

I am so sad that neither of us took any pics of the enormous lunch spread they served that was fully prepared on the boat.  It included about six different varieties of pasta with amazing fresh seafood and other meats, as well as a vegetarian option.  They prepared so much food, most people were able to go back for seconds and thirds.

You can see how close we were to the rocky coast, and we weren’t even anchored…..just cruising through these incredible boulders…no big deal.;)

My handsome hubby definitely enjoyed himself, but as I mentioned in my post about our time in Athens, he was suffering from a terrible back injury and on tons of pain meds (poor guy!).  He’s a good swimmer (even a great surfer), but he only went in the water once and it was too painful for him to paddle and stay afloat (he doesn’t float easily like me lol;)) so he didn’t get to be a merman that day.  Whereas I, on the other hand, basically had to be dragged out of the water.

This water is unreal!  It looks like it’s only 10 feet deep because you can see straight down to the bottom, but it’s more like 30-50 feet.  Just incredible.  Charleston Harbor waters are a far cry from this.  Oh, and have I mentioned that there aren’t sharks in this water?  Ok, there might be a few, but it’s very rare to spot a shark in Greece, and even if you do, they’re usually the harmless type (yes, there are harmless sharks;)).

Check out this coast line…stunning.

This was our first of five (or maybe six?) swimming and snorkeling stops we made.  They provided snorkeling equipment on the boat, and while I love snorkeling, I actually didn’t even use a mask because you can see straight through to the bottom without even putting your head under water.  I even opened my eyes under water and it didn’t burn.  Plus I spent a lot of time pretending I was a mermaid.  I figured swimming would be the only form of exercise I’d get on this 2+ week trip, so I took full advantage of the opportunity to get a little workout in, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Somehow I nailed my first dive off the boat.  And miraculously, Michael caught it on camera too.

That’s me trying to do my best blogger pose in that little cave.  #bloggerfail

Do you all see that ladder leading down to the beach?  That’s some crazy dedication to having a day at the beach.

We kept seeing all these little man made tunnels in the sides of the cliff along the coast.  It was explained that many of them are as a result of mining, but there were a few areas that were pointed out as being early Christian catacombs, such as the tunnels pictured above, which were later used by pirates and the burials were sadly looted (see more about Milos archaeological sites here).

These abandoned structures are the remnants of a historic sulfur mining area.  Mining started here during the ancient greek and roman periods, and continued until the mid 1900s.

Can we just talk about how badass this babe is?  We learned she works on this boat during the high season, and lives on mainland Greece the rest of the year.  Here she was piloting this nearly 50 foot catamaran while the two male crew members were preparing lunch.  I had a total girl crush.

How cool looking are these volcanic islands just off the coast of Milos??  This area is known as Glaronisia.  It was late afternoon by the time we reached these little islands, so the lack of high noon sunlight, as well as the darker colored formations made for a completely unique swim-sesh.

I wasn’t messing around when it came to our swimming opportunities.  Pretty much always the first to get in, and the last to climb back on the boat.

Can you imagine if this was your swimming spot every weekend??  It’s like swimming on the moon.

This rock formation was just off the coast from that swim area pictured two photos up.  Presumably, all these people climbing on it swam out here from the coast (it wasn’t terribly far, but for reference, we snapped these pics as we were passing through the waterway between the coast and the rock formation).  I would give anything to live somewhere I could do this almost every weekend.  I’m telling yall, I was a mermaid in a previous life.

Sooooo wish they would’ve stopped here for a swim sesh because I 10000% would have scaled this rock formation so I could’ve jumped off the cliff.

Ice cream on a boat.  I mean, is this even real life??

Spectacular sunset as we approached Adamas.  It was a magical ending, to a magical day.

We went on to partake in two more sailing tours during our time in Greece.  One semi private catamaran tour from Naxos Island, and a sunset catamaran tour from Santorini, and while they were all great in their own ways, this tour on Milos was by far our favorite of the three.  In large part it was so amazing as a result of the wonderful crew.  While we had a fairly big group, we still had a very personalized experience.  It felt more like we were hanging on our friends’ boat for the day, rather than an organized tour.

I hope you all enjoyed these pics while I reminisced about literally one of the best days of my life.  I still have one more day on Milos to cover, and then it’s on to Santorini;)  If you have any specific travel guide requests, please let me know in the comments!  And if you’re heading to Milos soon, definitely check out Milos Adventures.  Their catamaran was the nicest tour boat that we saw in the port, and the whole experience was absolutely unforgettable.

I didn’t collaborate with any businesses during this trip, so none of my recommendations are sponsored.  Even if they were, I would give you all my honest opinion, but just wanted to make things clear for you all;)

Until next time!