Sifnos, Greece: Kamares
"
Can you change your description of Kamares" Apostolis
at Aegean Thesaurus Travel said to me one day in his
office. "It gives the wrong impression. When you say
'port' you think of something not like Kamares. You
know how most ports are....busy, a bit dirty,
and a place to come and go from but not to stay
in."
Apostolis is right. Kamares may be the port of Sifnos but it is also one of the nicest places to stay due to
its long beach, fertile valley, great restaurants and
cafes and the fact that the ferries generally are not
in long enough to make Kamares seem like a 'port'.
Once the ferries leave you are in a quiet (but not too
quiet), fishing town that has a taste of tourism but
not enough to make you feel like you are in Mykonos or
San Tropez.
From Kamares you can get buses to all the other villages, or you can stay here and enjoy one of the nicest beaches and some of the best restaurants on the island. As you get off the boat you can follow the procession into the town. The main street is the harbor road with its restaurants, cafes, shops and hotels on one side of the street, the tables and chairs and the bay on the other. There are a couple supermarkets, a tourist information office, the office of Aegean Thesaurus , the Hotel Stavros and finally on your left a long crescent shaped beach with the tiny village of Agia Marina on the far side.
Kamares is anexcellent place for families to stay
because everything is so convenient. You
can sit in the restaurants and cafes and
watch your children play on the beach a
few feet away from you. The bay of Kamares
is a long sheltered cove and it is a very
rare day that there are any waves. Combine this
with the fact that the beach is
surprisingly shallow and it takes a long
time to get to where the water is over
your head and your will realize that if
you are a parent then this is the place to
go in Greece because who wants to spend
their vacation worrying about their
children playing on the beach? It is for
this reason that there are many children
on the beach, another great reason to come
because as any parent know, the best way
to keep children happy is having other
children around. Plus the shallow bay
insures that the water will be warmer
since it is easier for the sun to heat
up.
There is an interesting variety of restaurants
including a pizza place and an excellent
Italian restaurant. There is also fast
food in the form of souvlakis and
hamburgers available for any children who
have not made the transition to the Greek
diet.The nice
little cafe called To
Kima
, (photo) is right on the beach with
tables and chairs in the sand a few steps
from the shoreline. Shaded by trees it is
a great place to sit and read and relax
while your children play in the sea. Kyria
Eleni and her beautiful daughters serves
breakfast, ice-cream, and yogurt with
fruit, honey and nuts an island staple.
When it is time to have lunch you just
move next door to Captain Andreas Fish
Taverna and you can call the kids over
every so often to sample a bite of fresh
fish before they run back to play. Add a
little retsina and who says being a parent
is hard work?
Cars and Motorbikes are available for rental at the shop of the lovable George Podotas on the road behind the waterfront or from his Podotas Group office between the small church and the Stavros Cafe. You can also rent cars from Stavros at the Hotel Stavros right in the port or through Aegean Thesaurus Travel who can also arrange boat trips around the island. In the evening the harbor fills up with sailboats and yachts and these sailors usually make their way into Kamares for a night of fun using a remedy of good food and wine to get their land legs back.The restaurants are all excellent and the atmosphere can be festive at night. Many people who come to Kamares have been doing so for years and a night at the Old Captain bar can seem like a highschool reunion at times.
There are two monasteries on the mountains above the
village. One is Agios Spyridon and the
other is Profitti Ilias. You can drive to
within a couple hundred yards if you have
rented a jeep, or you can climb up the
ravines if you are young and in shape. It
will take you about an hour and you will
be sore for a couple days afterwards but
you will have a wonderful feeling of
accomplishment. Bring some cheese, some
bread and some wine and don't forget some
water too. If you are lucky you will be
there during a panagiri when all the
islanders make their way up the mountain
for a religious service followed by food,
wine music and merrymaking that can last
until dawn. Anytime you go the view is
spectacular.
Sunday is Rivithia day when all
the restaurants serve the delicious
chickpea stew that is the specialty of the
island(see below), but if you don't get
there early you may miss out. Another
specialty along these lines are the
delicious rivithia
keftedes which are
falafals. Fish is plentiful but can be
expensive unless you order the gopes, or the fried squid (kalamarakia) which
comes from nearby Monterey Bay in
California. The fish soup at Captain
Andreas restaurant on the beach is
delicious.
For some real entertainment you can do what I do and
bring a bottle of wine to the wall above
the breakwater and watch the night ferries
sail into the bay. It's a beautiful sight,
one you may feel nostalgic for when you
finally go home. It's also fun to see the
comings and goings of people. While I
sometimes stay the whole summer most
people stay here for about a week.
Sometimes when I meet people after they
have left Sifnos to go to other islands
they say "We should have stayed. Sifnos
was the best."
The sea isamazingly clean in the port. The beach is
about a quarter mile stretch of sand that
starts in the town of Kamares and goes to
Agia Marina, with a small grove of trees
in the middle, and a row of trees along
the edge for shade. Though swimming nude
is not officially practiced on the beach,
people do it anyway in the less populated
portions of the beach. Women generally go
topless anywhere they want on the beach
and nobody cares. (Least of all me and my
friends).
The far side of Kamares is called Agia Marina. Some of
the best swimming is on the rocks just
beyond it and nobody will care if you
neglect to put on your bathing suit. There
are a few restaurants on this side that
you can go to for lunch though you should
remember to put your bathing suit back on
before you do. There are rooms for rent
here as well and it is a little more quiet
then the Kamares side, plus it is a lovely
walk along the beach from town. There are
several churches in Agia Marina that are
worth the walk and the Folie Snack bar is
a nice place for a frappe and a menu that
is a bit more cosmopolitan then the more
traditional extablishments. Argiris Taverna, owned by the former Sifnos policeman, right on the small dock in Agia Marina is considered by some to be the best in Kamares.
On the otherside of the dock is the area known as
Spilia where there is a small dock you can
dive off. Spilia is a great place to hang
out because you can watch the ferries come
in and out. Watch out for the waves when
they do! Beyond Spilia is a stony beach
and further on you can swim off the rocks
and probably spend the day without seeing
another person. There are ruins of the
loading dock from when there were Iron Ore
mines here about a hundred years
ago.
Playgroundsare on each side of the bay. One is in the
main square and the other directly across
the valley. There is a pretty nice
If you enjoywalking there are paths all through the
valley that go past farms and animals,
fruit trees and old stone walls. The best
time to do this is late in the afternoon
or early in the morning. You can follow
the path up the river bed almost as far as
Apollonia. Be sure to wear long pants
because there are sticker bushes and with
the building of the road many of the paths
have fallen into disuse. You can walk all the way up the valley to the dam that burst a couple years ago during a winter storm. 
Kamares is generally quiet in the day except when the
ferry comes in. Then it is like being in a
small city for about twenty minutes,
particularly on Sunday when the Athenians
who have been here for the weekends have
to go back to work. Then you are lucky if
you can find a place in the cafes for the
hour before the boats leave. When the ship
blows its horn everyone rises from their
chairs and walks toward the dock knowing
they have plenty of time to get there as
the ship begins the slow process of
backing in and unloading and loading
cars.
Don't be put off by the noise and chaos on your
arrival. Before you know it everyone has
fanned out around the island and the town
is quiet once again. Friday night is the
wildest when two ferries from Athens
arrive almost simultaneously with all the
weekenders. Flying Dolphins and Catamarans
move a little faster than the ferries and
if you want to catch it you better be on
the dock when it comes in. Be sure to buy some Sifnos almond cookies (ah-meeg-del-oh-ta) from the bakery before you get on the boat. They make great gifts if you don't eat them all on the way home.
