Notes on Folegandros, Greece

Folegandros was yet another highlight on our trip. A beautiful island almost deserted compared to Mykonos and Santorini, with cute restaurants, curated shops and beautiful beaches.

We were in Folegandros in early October 2022 as part of a 3 week trip, so all my notes are based around my experiences at that time. Please do check any dates/opening times/locations etc. if you’re planning your own trip – things change! Links are to websites if I can find useful ones, or Google Maps locations if not, so you can see where they are. Please also note this post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!

Instax print on a dark grey background, showing Folegandros port, with white buildings around the water.

You can read my notes on what we got up to below, but if you are short on time here are my top recommendations on what to do in Folegandros, plus you can take a look at my more general notes on travelling in Greece: Athens, the Peloponnese and a few islands, too:

Travel:

Ferryhopper: Pre-book a ferry to Folegandros. We came from Santorini so we got the 15:00 ferry, which arrived about 15:50. We used the Ferryhopper the app so we could check in online in advance (48 – 2 hours before departure)

Get from the harbour to Chora by public bus, near the mini market.

I think you can get from beach to beach by boat, but only in the high season.

Do/see/visit:

Katergo: a lovely beach that can only be reached by foot or sea.

Church of Panagia (Virgin Mary): to watch the sunset. We’d walked a long way already, so we just watched it from a cliff near the bottom of the path.

Made in Folegandros: for handmade jewellery.

Drink:

Aquarius: a really nice pub with good beer, outdoor seating and good music

Eat:

Vergera: great restaurant in the harbour (part of the hotel we stayed in), with delicious food.

Kalymnios: lovely restaurant in the harbour with very tasty seafood, run by a lovely couple.

Mini market: for a great range of most things you could need on holiday, plus a bakery.

Stay:

Vrahos Boutique Hotel*: Really lovely hotel overlooking the harbour, with sleek rooms, excellent balconies and gorgeous toiletries.

Photograph of a building and trees behind a stone wall with a metal sign that reads 'VRAHOS, boutique hotel'.

Travelling to Folegandros

When we were planning our trip to Greece we wanted to fit another island in rather than heading straight from Santorini to Piraeus, so we Googled ‘islands near Santorini’, or something along those lines, and came across this Guardian article. Another search to check hotels and ferry connections and we were sold! I’m really pleased we added it.

We were coming from Santorini on the 15:00 ferry and the trip to Folegandros was only 50 minutes, which made a change from so many long trips recently! Arriving on the island was totally different to the hustle and bustle of the past few days. Almost eerily quiet, it looked beautiful and we were excited to have a few quiet days!

How we spent 2 days in Folegandros: first afternoon

An accidental hike, sunset, shopping and craft beer

Our hotel, Vrahos Boutique Hotel*, was just the other side of the harbour, and looked very upmarket! We’d been upgraded to a superior room and had a wonderful balcony overlooking the harbour, posh toiletries, complimentary white wine, juice, water and snacks, all in a beautiful room where even the air conditioning was disguised as a framed print!

We headed out to check out the local mini market, which was really nice and had everything you could possible need on a holiday. We went for still Fanta (I hope we get still Fanta in the UK!) and cinnamon koulouris, which we ate looking at the sea.

We thought we’d walk to the main town, Chora, but it turned out to be a 3 mile walk on a main road through the hills. Thankfully it was pretty quiet but it was also very hot! We later discovered there’s a frequent bus we could have caught from near the mini market.

We arrived in Chora as the sun was setting and the town was just starting to stir, with people setting up their shops and visitors browsing potential dinner locations. All the shops were so stylish with beautiful products and the streets so pretty with flowers and vines lit with festoon lights and birds chirping in the branches.

We went to the hill near the Church of Panagia (Virgin Mary), close to the cemetery, (too tired to go up the zig zag path to the church itself), watched the sunset and then headed to the Homemade (Spitoko?), one of the hotel’s recommended restaurants for matsata (traditional pasta local to the area) with rooster, sitting in the courtyard under the trees. The setting and food was really nice and I enjoyed another free pudding!

I bought some leaf earrings from Made in Folegandros and we went for a local beer at Aquarius bar, a really nice little pub with outdoor seating and good music.

We got the little public bus back to the port, picked up some water and had a small glass of our complimentary wine, exhausted again!

Folegandros port, with white buildings around the water, and hotel buildings visible in the foreground.
A tray with a bottle of wine, two glasses and a gift box that has 'VRAHOS' written on the front, on a corner surface.
Photograph of an airconditioning unit that has a framed picture of Klimt's Kiss on the front, to disguise it.
Definitely the best air conditioning unit I’ve ever seen
Photograph of a road going through the hills in Folegandros, with a road sign bottom right and clear blue sky above.
Photograph of a road going through the hills in Folegandros, with a tiny church to the bottom right of the frame and blue sky above.
Photograph looking down stairs with walls either side, and plants above, pink blooms trailing across from one side to the other, with golden light as the sun sets.
Hill in Folegandros with Church of Panagia at the top, with zig-zaggy path leading down to the town below.
Photograph of a wall with four cats on it - the one to the right in focus and the others blurred behind. Buildings and plants are behind in golden light as the sun sets.
Photograph of Chora bus stop in Folegandros, with dappled light on the timetable, which is on the wall.

How we spent a 1.5 days in Folegandros: a full day

A day on an (almost) private beach, wine on the balcony, dinner

We were in no rush today as we planned just to have a rest day. We went to the market bakery and bought supplies including things for breakfast on our balcony – bliss!

Tim looked into which beach we should aim for and we set off Katergo, which can’t be reached by car. We were a bit unsure how to get there (it’s actually quite well signposted, we just didn’t walk far enough up the road) and it was a slightly tricky route but we made it and had a whole beach to ourselves! In the pictures below I’ve shown the signs that we found on the way back, so you don’t make the same mistake we did. We should have followed the road to about here.

It was absolutely glorious. The sea was pretty cold when we first got in but it was refreshing after such a sweaty walk, the colour was an incredible bluey green and it was crystal clear, so wonderful to swim around! We’d borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and I am pleased we had – we would have been crisps otherwise!

We spent a happy day reading, eating grapes and koulouri, sketching and swimming. Heaven!

A little boat with 5 people on pulled up and they moored up and started filming and photographing each other walking along the beach, posing by rocks etc, with a drone too. It was interesting! A timer of some sort went off, they packed up and left.

The beach was ours again, and other than a brief visit by another couple (without an umbrella so it must have been too hot) we were alone until just before we about to leave, when a boat with about 30 people arrived and they took over – perfect timing! They seemed to be doing a boat tour of all the beaches as there seemed to be lots of instructions on timings and things.

The walk back was much easier now that we knew the route. We had a quick look at another beach in the way back (we’d made the right choice with ours) and headed back to shower and enjoy our complimentary wine on the balcony, taking in the view of the port as the sun set.

There weren’t loads of options for dinner in the harbour as things were starting to close as the main season was over, so we had dinner in our hotel restaurant, Vergera. Tim had prawn linguine and I had sea bass which was excellent! It was very atmospheric (dark) though so although it also looked beautiful, the picture is not up to my preferred standards!

View across the sea to Folegandros harbour, with a rocky area to the left at the front and blue sky above.
Photograph of a road going through the hills in Folegandros, with clear blue sky above.
Gravel path coming from the concrete road that has a handwritten sign saying 'KATERGO' with an arrow pointing left, leading between two buildings and into the rocky hills in Folegandros, with blue sky above.
Come off the road here
Gravel path leading into the hills in Folegandros, with an empty stone building in the centre and a wire sculpture in the shape of a bird, wearing a hat, next to a wire sign saying 'Katergo' with blue sky above.
Follow the directions here
Photograph of a large rock with 'KT' painted on it, with hills in the background and blue sky above.
Follow the ‘KT’s the rest of the way
Photograph of the hilly landscape in Folegandros, with blue sky above.
Vew of a path leading to Katergo beach, with the sea behind.
Photograph of Katergo beach with a tiny island in the sea and rocky landscape to the left and bottom of the frame.
(I’ve included this image mainly because of the optical illusion the rocky bit to the right gives me)
Photograph of Katergo beach from the edge of the sea, with a rocky hillside to the left and blue sky above.
Photograph of a herd of goats on a steep rocky hillside.
Photograph taken from in the sea, with clear blue water in the foregroun, a small island and blue sky towards the top of the frame.
Photograph of a large fish in aqua-coloured sea, with stones below, distorted by the water.
Photograph of Katergo beach from the sea, with a rocky hillside behind and a blue parasol on the stoney beach.
Photograph of a koulouri on a white paper bag with black and white sesame seeds.
Gravel path through the rocky hills in Folegandros, with 'KT' painted on a rock to the right.
Gravel path through the rocky hills in Folegandros, with blue sky above and a sort of rock wall to the right of the path.
Photograph of a hillside with red soil that has fallen away to expose the roots of plants above that appear to have been burnt, with more of the hill and blue sky above.
Folegandros port viewed from a hillside, with white buildings around the water, in a blue light just after sunset.

How we spent a 1.5 days in Folegandros: a final morning

Looking at the sea, seafood lunch

This being the last proper day of our trip, we took it easy, packed and had breakfast on the balcony. The ferry wasn’t until 16:00 so it was a slow day of killing time and soaking in the last of the sea views. We checked out, left our bigger bags and walked along the road to a tiny bit of beach sheltered by jutting rocks. We sat there for an hour or so, reviewing our highlights, doing a bit of sketching and just looking at the sea.

We slowly wandered back round the harbour and had lunch at Kalymnios, a cute-looking restaurant that always seemed to be busy. A lovely older couple ran it and the woman seemed very amused by how polite she thought we were. We went in to have a look at the fish on offer and opted for stuffed zucchini flowers, red mullet and calamari to share. We had some lovely toast with olive oil and thyme (I think) first and everything was delicious, lovely and fresh. Definitely the best calamari I’ve had. They gave us some melon with honey and we headed off to sit and look at the sea again for a bit before getting our bags and going to the port waiting area.

Steps down to the sea, with rocky land to the right and across on the other side, with blue sky above.
View across the sea to Folegandros harbour, with hills and blue sky above.
Detail of a wispy, white something washed up on stones from the sea.
View across the sea to Folegandros harbour, with a road to the left at the front and blue sky above.
Photograph of the front of Kalymnios, with signs and paintings of food on the wall either side of the doorway and blue and white tables and chairs in front.
Kalymnios restaurant
Photograph looking down on a plate decorated with a floral design around edge, with calamari and a wedge of lemon on top.
View across the sea to Folegandros harbour, with yellow buoys leading from the left bottom corner across to the centre and blue sky above.

Leaving Folegandros

It was quite a choppy trip so I’ll spare you the details of the sounds we could hear as the boat bounced along, but five hours later we arrived in Piraeus, where we’d booked to stay over night before our flight back to the UK the next day.

Photograph through a window streaked with water, with sea in the lower half and the sun setting on the horizon.
Photograph through a window streaked with water, with sea in the lower half and the light of the sun setting on the horizon.

We had a really lovely time in Folegandros – I’d definitely recommend visiting there if you are island hopping and I’d love to go back again if I could. It had such a lovely feel!

Final stop: Piraeus

Notes on Travel is a blog by photographer Jayne Lloyd, noting the things I found useful to know when I was visiting Ancient Olympia in September 2022 as part of a 3 week trip around Athens, the Peloponnese and a few islands. I’ve tried to be accurate but please do check for up-to-date information before going as things are always changing! I apologise for any mistakes, please do let me know if you have more recent info.

* This post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!

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