Amorgos has some of the clearest, deepest water in the Cyclades. The sea that Luc Besson chose for The Big Blue. It is one of the finest Greek islands for diving and free-diving. Dramatic underwater walls, caves and reefs. A rich marine life and a dedicated dive centre on the bay of Aegiali make the … Read more
Amorgos is inseparable from The Big Blue, Le Grand Bleu. Luc Besson’s cult film about free-diving that was largely shot on the island and brought its deep, clear waters to a global audience. The images of impossibly blue sea and stark Cycladic light made Amorgos famous, and the film’s legacy still shapes the island’s diving … Read more
The villages of Amorgos are strung along the island’s long mountain ridge and around its two bays. Whitewashed clusters of houses, blue-domed churches and shaded squares kept quiet and traditional far from mass tourism. Above the bay of Aegiali rise the loveliest of them, the mountain villages of Langada and Tholaria, while the ports of … Read more
The food of Amorgos is hearty, rustic and rooted in the island’s rugged land and long tradition of livestock farming. Meat is at its core, above all the slow-cooked goat stew patatato, alongside home-made cheeses, the island’s own fava, cured pork and sausages, wild-herb honey and the famous psimeni raki. It is a cuisine of … Read more
Amorgos has a warm, dry Mediterranean climate and a long season. The best time to visit depends on what you want: late spring to early October for the beaches and the sea. Spring and autumn for hiking and green landscapes, and the shoulder months of June and September for warm weather with thinner crowds. High … Read more
Amorgos lies far to the east of the Cyclades and has no airport. Reaching it means a ferry: direct from Piraeus near Athens. Or, more quickly, by flying to Naxos, Santorini or Mykonos and sailing on from there. The island has two ports, Katapola in the centre and Aegiali in the north, and the crossing … Read more
Amorgos is a long, spread-out island with two ports at opposite ends and its whitewashed capital on the ridge between, so where you stay shapes your visit. The three main bases are Katapola, the central port and easiest first-time choice. Aegiali. The northern bay with the best beach and the mountain villages. And Chora, the … Read more
Amorgos has a long, cliff-bound coast whose finest coves, sea caves and islets are cut off from every road, and boat trips are the way to reach them. In summer, small boats and caiques run from the harbours to the clear-water beaches of the islet of Nikouria. The coves near Katapola and the wild southern … Read more
Chora is the capital of Amorgos, a classic Cycladic town set high on the island’s spine some four hundred metres above the sea. Safe from the pirates who once raided the coast. A car-free maze of whitewashed lanes, blue-domed churches and shaded squares, crowned by a ruined Venetian castle and ringed by old windmills. It … Read more
Amorgos is one of the finest hiking islands in the Cyclades, a long, mountainous ridge laced with old stone paths that climb between the sea and the sky. Its waymarked network of trails, the Blue Paths, follows the ancient kalderimia that once linked every village, crossing terraces. Ridges and cliffs high above an intensely blue … Read more
The Hozoviotissa Monastery is the emblem of Amorgos, a dazzling white monastery pressed into a sheer cliff hundreds of metres above the sea below the capital Chora. Eight storeys high yet only metres wide, it clings to the rock face of Mount Profitis Ilias like a swallow’s nest. One of the most dramatic religious buildings … Read more
The beaches of Amorgos are not long golden sands but dramatic, crystal-clear coves set beneath towering cliffs, the wild coast that Luc Besson chose for The Big Blue. From the pebbly turquoise of Agia Anna below the monastery to the cave-backed water of Mouros. The sandy bays of Aegiali and the boat-only coves of the … Read more