Greece Travel Guide
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • Crete Island Guide
    • Cyclades
      • Amorgos Island Guide
        • Amorgos Beaches
          • Aegiali Beach
          • Levrossos Beach
          • Kalotaritissa Beach
          • Katapola Beach
          • Psili Ammos Beach
      • Andros Island Guide
      • Folegandros Island Guide
      • Ios Island Guide
        • Ios Beaches
          • Agia Theodoti Beach
          • Gialos Beach
          • Kolitsani Beach
          • Magganari Beach
          • Mylopotas Beach
          • Psathi Beach
      • Koufonissi Island Guide
      • Mykonos Island Guide
      • Milos Island Guide
      • Naxos Island Guide
      • Paros Island Guide
      • Santorini Island Guide
      • Serifos Island Guide
      • Sifnos Island Guide
      • Sikinos Island Guide
      • Tinos Island Guide
    • Dodecanese
      • Astypalea Island Guide
      • Karpathos Island Guide
      • Kos Island Guide
      • Rhodes Island Guide
  • Guides
    • When to Visit
    • Island-Hopping
    • Ferry Travel
    • Travelling Greece on a Budget
  • Trip Reports
    • Greece 2022
    • Greek Odyssey 2021
    • Western Cyclades 2020
    • Cyclades 2019
    • Amorgos 2019
    • Mini Cyclades 2018
    • Cyclades Tour 2017
  • Reviews
    • Hotel Reviews
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • Travel Gadgets
  • Gallery
  • About

Day 1: Stansted, Athens and Milos

September 2, 2020February 1, 2021, Milos
  • Prev
  • Next
This post is part of a series called Western Cyclades 2020
Show More Posts
  • Western Cyclades 2020: Trip Planning Overview
  • Western Cyclades 2020: Nailing Down the Itinerary
  • Day 1: Stansted, Athens and Milos
  • Day 2: Adamas, Sunbathing at Papikinou Beach
  • Day 3: Milos Oniero Boat Trip
  • Day 4: Plaka, Sarakiniko, Pollonia and More
  • Day 5: Western Milos
  • Day 6: Milos to Sifnos
  • Day 7: Sifnos First Day
  • Day 8: Apollonia and Northern Sifnos
  • Day 9: Platis Gialos and Southern Sifnos
  • Day 10: Relaxing on Kamares Beach
  • Day 11: Kamares Beach Again
  • Day 12: Serifos
  • Day 13: Exploring Southern Serifos
  • Day 14: Northern Serifos and on to Syros
  • Day 15: Syros
  • Day 16: Syros, Tinos, Andros
  • Day 17: Southern Andros Hiking
  • Day 18: Andros Bad Weather
  • Day 19: Last Day on Andros
  • Day 20: Rafina, Athens and Flying Home
  • Retrospective on The Trip

Wednesday 2nd September 2020

Early Start to Stansted

My 2020 Greece trip began with an early Ryanair flight from Stansted airport to Athens. Arriving at the airport in plenty of time – despite my correct prediction that it would be quiet due to Covid and the resulting reduction in air travel – I was through bag drop and security in a matter of minutes. With few shops or restaurants open, I headed straight for the boarding gate, face mask and headphones on, ready and excited to get airborne and Greece-bound.

Me looking shady with my face mask on!

There are benefits to travelling during a pandemic: our flight took off on-time and there were several vacant seats on the plane, including the one next to me. A rare opportunity to experience a Ryanair flight without my legs feeling cramped up and swapping arm sweat with the person next to me!

Athens and Connection to Milos

I was a bit nervous at the prospect of being pulled aside for a random Covid test on arrival at Athens airport, but I needn’t have been. I wasn’t tested and, as far as I could tell, neither was anyone else on my flight. With that stress lifted, I felt far more relaxed as I went to collect my suitcase and head back through to the departure lounge for my Milos connection.

As part of my Sky Express internal flight, I had access to their ‘executive lounge’ which sounded like a good place to spent the next 3 hours. I wasn’t sure what to expect though, having read some pretty negative reviews online, but either they were being overly critical or the place has been revamped recently, because it turned out to be really rather nice!

A nice selection of snacks and drinks in the Sky Express lounge

As there weren’t many people in the lounge and I was eating and drinking, it also gave me an opportunity to shed my mask for a few hours which was quite a relief. Not to mention the beer, soft drinks and cake went down very nicely indeed!

At 17:30, I made my way to the boarding gate ready for the 18:15 departure. The flight wasn’t full and we got away on time. It was quite an experience riding in a small propeller jet, but not as scary as I had imagined.

Touch Down on Milos

The flight was quoted as 45 minutes, but we were barely airborne half an hour before touching down on the tiny airstrip on Milos. I had finally arrived!! It took a few minutes for the hold luggage to appear on the tiny carousel in the equally tiny terminal building, but I was soon waving at a taxi driver who stood holding a card with my name on it – courtesy of the helpful manager at Venus Studios, my accommodation for the next five nights.

The taxi ride took about 10 minutes, then I was carrying my luggage up the steps and into my apartment.

Venus Studios (on the left), my base for 5 nights on Milos

The unit was basic, but fairly modern and with plenty of amenities including a kitchenette, decent fridge and a lovely bathroom. I unpacked a few essentials and headed out, excited – and hungry – to see what Milos would be like!

My first real view of Adamas seafront, a short walk from the accommodation

After a lovely stroll along the seafront all the way to the harbour, I settled on a taverna called O Petrinos and enjoyed a mushroom risotto, with bread and hummus as an appetizer, and washed it all down with 1/2 litres of house wine: holiday mode activated!

O Petrinos, a tasty taverna along Adamas seafront

Feeling more than a little tipsy, I sauntered back to the harbour area to see what the atmosphere was like. It had gotten quite a lot busier in the time I had been eating, with quite a buzz from the many tavernas, cafes and shops that make up the central hub of Adamas tourism.

Rather tired from my long day of travels though, I settled on an early night, stopping at a supermarket on the way back to my accommodation to pick up some water and biscuits to snack on during my stay.

By 10pm, I was tucked up in bed, exhausted but happy and full of excitement for the coming days.

Posted in Milos
Tagged 2020, Cyclades, milos, stansted
Leave a comment
Will Appleby
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Plus
  • Pinterest

Post navigation

   Western Cyclades 2020: Nailing Down the Itinerary
Day 2: Adamas, Sunbathing at Papikinou Beach   

You may also like

Day 5: Western Milos

Continue Reading

Day 4: Plaka, Sarakiniko, Pollonia and More

Continue Reading

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Author

Will Appleby

Listen to my ramblings about Greece and why I keep going back year after year.

Search

Tags

2020 amorgos beach Crete Cyclades hotel reviews hotels Ios kamares Kos Kos Town Naxos reviews sifnos

Popular posts

Western Cyclades 2020: Trip Planning Overview

August 5, 2020September 22, 2020

Touring Greece Without a Plan

July 3, 2021July 3, 2021

An Exciting Journey Begins

July 1, 2021July 3, 2021

Categories

  • Amorgos (10)
  • Andros (7)
  • Articles (2)
  • Crete (20)
  • Cyclades Tour 2017 (18)
  • Featured (10)
  • Folegandros (4)
  • General (4)
  • Guides (1)
  • Hotel Reviews (41)
  • Ios (8)
  • Kalamata (1)
  • Karpathos (5)
  • Kos (17)
  • Koufonissi (4)
  • Milos (5)
  • Mini Cyclades 2018 (12)
  • Mykonos (6)
  • Naxos (23)
  • Paros (3)
  • Rhodes (4)
  • Santorini (6)
  • Serifos (3)
  • Sifnos (19)
  • Sikinos (3)
  • Syros (1)
  • Tilos (1)
  • Tinos (1)
  • Travel Gadgets (1)
  • Trip Planning (6)
  • Trip Reports (68)

25 Islands visited
47 000 KM traveled
6,300 Photos taken
112 Hours recorded

© 2021 Greece Travel Guide. All Rights Reserved.