Hiking the Trails

Dawn breaks, and the sea beneath your feet isn’t simply blue — it’s that deep, bottomless azure that made Amorgos a legend. You stand on a cobbled path climbing between jagged rocks and thyme bushes, and you understand that here, the slowest way to travel is also the truest. There is no hurry. There is only the sound of the wind, the bells of the goats, and your own footsteps.

Amorgos, the southeastern outpost of the Cyclades, is an island you discover on foot. An extensive network of waymarked trails connects villages, monasteries, beaches and peaks, unfurling before you its most authentic face — the one you can’t see from the road.

The legendary Trail No 1: one route, the whole island

If there is one trail that holds the entire soul of Amorgos within it, it’s Trail No 1. The classic route connects Katapola with Aigiali, passing through Chora and the Monastery of Hozoviotissa, carrying you from one end of the island to the other.

You set off from the harbour, climb toward Chora with its windmills and Venetian Kastro, and then the landscape opens wide. Byzantine chapels appear on the hillsides, dry-stone walls trace the history of generations, and the view over the open sea accompanies you at every turn. It’s a hike you will not forget.

Hozoviotissa, nailed to the rock

No photograph prepares you for the moment you see the Monastery of Panagia Hozoviotissa emerge, white, clinging like a swallow’s nest to the sheer cliff face, 300 metres above the sea. Built in the 11th century under Alexios I Komnenos, it has stood here for almost a thousand years.

You climb the steps breathless — from the effort, and from awe. Inside, just a handful of cells across eight narrow storeys. Outside, the “Endless Blue” stretching to the edge of the horizon. A small glass of rakomelo from the monks brings the visit to the most hospitable of closes.

For every step, a trail

The beauty of Amorgos is that it doesn’t ask you to be an athlete. From gentle strolls around the picturesque villages of Aigiali — Lagkada, Tholaria, Potamos — to demanding ascents, there is a route for every visitor.

For those seeking a challenge, the peak of Krikelos, the island’s highest, rewards with a panorama embracing half the Aegean. And whichever route you choose, spring and autumn are the ideal seasons: the light soft, the air cool, the mountains dressed in wildflowers.

The rhythm of the place

Walking through Amorgos, you learn to read the island. Every dry-stone wall was built by some hand. Every well, every threshing floor, every wayside chapel bears witness to a life hard and proud, bound to stone and sea. These trails were not made for tourists — they were carved out by the people of Amorgos themselves, on their way to their fields and their harbours.

When you walk them, you are not a visitor. You are one more link in a chain of footsteps spanning centuries.

On Amorgos you don’t go quickly to any place; you simply arrive where you always wanted to be.Local saying of the island

As you close out a day of hiking, legs tired and eyes full, you understand that Amorgos does not give itself easily. You earn it. And precisely for that reason, it stays with you forever.