Chart › Cruising grounds › Cyclades
Aegean · May to October
Cyclades
Mykonos and Santorini at one end, Koufonisia and Polyaigos at the other. The meltemi decides the itinerary, not the plan.
33 places on the chart: 3 harbour towns and ports, 24 islands, 1 anchorage and 5 beaches.
Open Cyclades on the chart
Why the fleet comes here
- Santorini
- The caldera is too deep to anchor in — almost everyone takes a buoy or lies off
- Ios
- A deep enclosed bay at Ormos, and Mylopotas beach
- Mykonos
- The New Port takes the large yachts; the old harbour takes everyone else
- Delos
- An uninhabited archaeological island next to Mykonos, day anchorage only
- Naxos
- The largest Cycladic island, and the Portara over its harbour
- Milos
- Kleftiko and Sarakiniko — the strangest coastline in the Cyclades
- Syros
- The administrative capital of the Cyclades, and a neoclassical town
- Paros
- Naoussa in the north and Parikia in the west
- Oia
- The north end of Santorini, and Ammoudi below it
- Tinos
- Marble villages, dovecotes, and a working harbour
- Andros
- The northernmost large Cycladic island, and Batsi bay
- Sifnos
- Vathi bay and the pottery villages
- Kea
- The nearest Cycladic island to Attica, and Vourkari bay
- Amorgos
- The Hozoviotissa monastery in the cliff, and Katapola bay
- Serifos
- Livadi bay, one of the best-sheltered anchorages in the western Cyclades
- Ermoupoli
- The harbour of Syros, and the finest square in the islands
- Folegandros
- A cliff-top chora and one harbour at Karavostasi
- Antiparos
- The channel between it and Paros, and the anchorages in it
- Koufonisia
- The Small Cyclades, and the sand-bottomed anchorages that made them famous
- Sarakiniko
- A lunar shelf of white volcanic rock on Milos
- Naoussa
- The fishing harbour on Paros that the fleet fills in August
- Kythnos
- Kolona, the sandspit anchorage everyone stops at on the way south
- Donousa
- The eastern outpost of the Small Cyclades
- Schinoussa
- A Small Cyclades island with a dozen anchorages and one village
- Iraklia
- The quietest of the Small Cyclades
- Polyaigos
- Uninhabited, between Milos and Kimolos, with the clearest water in the group
- Kleftiko
- White rock arches on the south-west corner of Milos, day anchorage only
Every place in Cyclades