My sister and I have been traveling through Greece with a G Adventures group. That tour “The Best of Greece” was very enjoyable. We had a great group, our leader Norea was amazing and we learned a LOT. It whetted our appetite for more of Greece. The tour finished in Santorini and we’re now on our own. Posts about that part of the journey can be found here: 3 days in Santorini. Is it all it’s cracked up to be? Greece
and here: From mainland Greece to Crete. Chania, Agia Roumeli, Loutro and Heraklion There are more before that.

Monday, September 12, 2022
It’s our first day without the group. The taxi picked us up and took us back down the windy road to the port where we caught the ferry to Folegandros. As soon as we got off the ship we felt the difference in the vibe. Sooo much calmer and relaxed! Santorini is pretty but ugh. So many people! It took a bit but we found Eleni’s studios and Susie showed us our room.
Next we set off to explore. Karavostasis is tiny so it didn’t take long. Vardia beach is beautiful but it was really windy so we went back to the harbour beach and spent the afternoon swimming and reading. After getting cleaned up we enjoyed dinner of local dishes at Syrma on the beach. I had an eggplant dish and Anita stuffed tomatoes. Both were tasty

13 Sep 2022

Tuesday September 13. The nice thing about a room with a kitchenette is being able to make coffee and a simple breakfast in the morning. Saves money too. We caught the bus to Chora then noticed a bus to Agkali beach so we got on that one. The windy, narrow road to the beach looked treacherous enough for a car never mind a bus. Once there we found the path to the next beaches Galifoli (where the naked people seem to hang out) and St Nikolaos. The hike was just over a kilometre but some areas were pretty intense. After enjoying a swim and some relaxation we took a shuttle boat back to Agali. It was actually the nicest of the beaches anyway. After another swim we caught the bus back to Chora. We splurged on lunch. Anita had the swordfish and I had stuffed squid. Both were delicious.
The nice thing about Chora is that in the afternoon is it’s a ghost town. Nothing much is open from 2 to 6 pm so there are very few people around. We spent a couple hours exploring Chora and the castle (Kastro) and were practically alone!
After ice cream we caught the bus back to Karavostasis, dropped our bags off and went to our beach for a swim. Back in the room we cleaned up and headed out again, wandering the streets till we settled on Dal Capi for a light salad dinner. Then we watched the ferry come in and marvelled at how quickly they do it. It’s pretty amazing.

Wednesday. Walked to Katergo beach and on the way back met a man with a herd of goats so we stopped to chat. He was quite proud of his goats and told us all about Alina. She had been orphaned so he hand raised her. From Pakistan he dreams of going to Canada. After lunch at dal capo we caught the bus for Chora then on to Ano Maria. Not much to do there so after wandering a bit we had second lunch. First one was fruit salad and this one was Greek salad so we didn’t feel too piggish. Lol

By the time we got back to Chora we decided we just wanted to go home, rather than climb up to the church to watch the sunset. We’re pretty spoiled by sunsets back home in Northumberland county so we’re not easily impressed. We caught the bus back, picked up a few snacks and relaxed on our balcony and enjoyed the sun set from there. Watching the boat traffic is fun too.

The next day we took the slow ferry to Milos. Use https://www.ferryhopper.com/en/ to book ferries. If you’re flexible with your dates you can do it cheaper.