Sifnos Driving Tour: A Guide to Island’s History and Stories - The North Side

Sifnos is one of the 24 inhabited islands of the Cyclades complex in Greece. The New York Times once described it as the island famous for not being famous. On this driving tour around the island's Northern Side, you'll discover just how accurate that is and learn about this small island's food, pottery, tradition, education, hiking trails, local architecture, and history.

The tour starts in the village of Kamares, where I’ll tell you how the local fisherman used to shelter their boats in the caves along the beachfront during the winter time, giving the village its name. As you drive, you’ll discover how the dry-stone walls here were used to cultivate flat land for farming and how it made it possible for people to inhabit this island.

As we make our way back to the Kamares, where the tour ends, you’ll indulge in the island’s many charming traits: why daughters inherit the family home, how an ancient city can be hidden within a Venetian one, and why the excellent clay here gave rise to the rich pottery tradition in Sifnos.

Along the way, you’ll have a chance to:

• Find a well inside the church of Saint Anargyri
• Be on the lookout for the remains of at least one ancient tower dating back to the 4th century BC
• Wind past the island’s many longstanding windmills and hear what they’re used for today
• Find the path leading to the second-oldest silver mine in the world
• See the hardy cedar trees locals call “immortal wood”.

Along the way, you’ll also have a chance to take a break and vist:

• Apollonia, the center and capital of the island, where you’ll find the best nightlife on the island
• Kastro, a village like an open museum, where you have the option to discover the Castle of Sifnos
• The beautiful village of Artemonas which boasts the island’s oldest pastry shop
• Cherronissos, a tiny beach village at the north end of Sifnos

By the end of this tour, you’d have indulged in the joys of Sifnos, a small island with 2,700 permanent residents. It’s an ideal balance for any visitor, not overly touristy yet not too quiet. So come along and find out why life here has been good for centuries.