Still a bit jet lagged, we decided to sleep until our bodies woke us up naturally.  So guess what time we got up?  11:30!!  Whoops.  Clearly the jet lag was no joke.  Not to mention we’ve been sleep deprived for months.  So it was nice to sleep in majorly, but not nice to miss breakfast (which was available, generously, til 11:30…and we still missed it).  We had booked a kayak excursion leaving around 2pm, so we decided it was in our best interest to just hang around locally at the hotel and relax until we had to leave for Adamas.  Plus, we were still waking up 🙂

After a night of leaving my phones in the charger, I woke up to find them both completely drained.  Turns out that the “dip” my phones took in the sea yesterday had more serious effects than I’d realized.  The little bit of salt from the sea water must’ve killed my battery, rendering it unchargeable, in not one, but BOTH phones.  So our half day of chilling at the hotel turned into researching water damage and testing out a few things with the hotel front desk.  Unfortunately, nothing was helping.  I wanted a vacation to relax and disconnect, well I got it.  Aside from my iPad on wifi, I had zero connection to the world back at home.  (it was actually quite nice, minus the fact that I had to replace the phones immediately upon my return home)

We left around 1pm for Adamas to allow for time to pick up a snack and ensure we were in the right spot.  When we booked the excursion from the hotel, the arrangement seemed a bit strange.  They didn’t need any of our info, citing that the guide always has plenty of room, and didn’t give us the name of the company or guide.  First red flag.  We were told to meet a Jeep at the one gas station in town.  With plenty of time to spare, we waited at the gas station, even asked one of the attendants about the kayak tour, and they looked at me like I had three heads.  Second red flag.  After half an hour past our meeting time, we still hadn’t seen any other people going on this so-called excursion, let alone the guide in a Jeep.  By this point, we knew it wasn’t happening today…later at the hotel, they were shocked that the guide was a no show.  We chalked it up to a few possible reasons: there was a miscommunication between the hotel and guide on the meeting time or place, or the wind was still strong, so the guide may have cancelled the tour without alerting the hotel.  We’ll never know, but thankfully we didn’t lose any money on it…

Desperate to salvage our day, we headed into town to ask about other boat tours to see the famous Kleftiko rock formation and pirate coves.  Most tours left first thing in the morning, so we missed the boat (har har) on the majority of options.  There was one more option that left from the southern shore from Agias Sostis Beach at 3:30pm.  Sweet.  We could get there just in time.  So we drove to the tiny beach town of Agias Sostis, walked into the one taverna at the top of the beach to ask about the boat, and they told us it was cancelled for the day because of high winds.  BOOO.

Although we were super bummed to miss out on doing a boat tour while on Milos, we were determined to not let that ruin our honeymoon.  So instead, we decided to take a tour of more beaches.  While Agias Sostis was really pretty, there wasn’t really any place to park, so we were off once again.  We drove to the nearby Firoplaka beach, which involved a long walk along and down a cliff, which then opened out onto shallow turquoise blue waters.  Although a popular beach, there was a lot of room to spread out, so we had our own private patch of beach to enjoy.  We loved this beach because the water was so warm and blue, and stayed shallow for such a long distance out.  In fact, most of the beaches we visited in Greece had stretches of shallow water, which made them all the nicer for this girl who hates deep water (also fewer chance of shark attacks!!).

After an hour of swimming, we decided to jump back in the car and explore more beaches and views.  We stopped briefly at the adjacent Tsigrado beach, which featured a steep walk down to a few small coves along the coast, bound together by a small patch of sand.  It didn’t look too big, so we took a few pics and continued onward.  The thing with Milos is that there were only a few major roads connecting the island, and once you turned down a road toward the coast, you were pretty much committed. So we decided to drive the long road to Kyriaki beach, in hopes our blind pick would pay off.  This was by far the quietest beach, as there was no bar, restaurant, or amenities.  Just a really long stretch of flat beach, and super peaceful.  We walked to the end, took a dip only to find this water was way cooler, and just chilled for a while until the sun started to go down.  All in all, I would say my favorite beaches on Milos were Sarakiniko (for the physical beauty and unique views) and Firoplaka (best swimming with some amenities to support).

Nearly beached out for the day, we decided to drive around to explore a bit, and stumbled across Kostantakis Winery, the island’s first and only cave winery.  Having only opened its doors just a few years ago, this small family winery featured limited distribution whites, roses, and reds and allowed us to tour the cave where the wine is produced and stored.  Our trip was good timing, as they were getting ready to shut down the tasting room for the season and get ready for harvest!  We sampled a few of their favorites, made from their local Moscato, Savatiano, Mavrotragano, and Mandilaria grapes, along with some locally made vinegars and oils, before we decided on a Spilia (cave) rose to take back and enjoy at our hotel.

After watching the sunset from our balcony, we decided to spend our last meal in Milos at Enalion, one of the top rated restaurants in town, and certainly worth the wait.  As always the case, we ordered more than we could finish but were able to enjoy a bunch of different flavors and dishes we aren’t always able to get stateside so of course it was worth it (and helps it was cheap)!

Milos was such a short stay but a wonderful one at that.  It was a relaxing way to start our trip off, from the amazing hotel we stayed at to the opportunity to explore the island at our own pace behind the wheel of the rickety Honda Civic.  Definitely a place we will return to – next time, we will be sure to kayak and visit Kleftiko!