Tinos Island, Greece
When to visit For much of the year Tinos is good to visit. Spring is exceptionally beautiful, perfect strolling through wild flowers meadows and exploring the island on foot. Summer is busy with festivals, lively beaches and village parties, and is rarely too hot. Autumn through to early November remains warm enough for swimming on almost deserted beaches and great for walking the ancient paths and country roads. We can arrange day trips to neighbouring island, Delos with extensive classical ruins, with a stop on the way back for a swim at nearby uninhabited Rhinea. An online guidebook; http://tinos360.gr/index_eng.html
Beaches
BEACHES You can see the Aegean and nearby islands on both sides from Xinara House. A few minutes drive is safe Kolimbythra Beach, a broad sweep of sand with a lively bar one end and solitude at the other, plus a nearby sheltered sandy cove with a good, reasonable taverna. Tinos has dozens of good places to relax and swim. Some have beach bars, lots are barely visited. Examples are breathtakingly beautiful Lavada beach (above), and on the south, beneath the ancient church at Stavros, a tiny beach in the ruins of a Phoenician harbour. At Ag. Fokas are smart loungers served by excellant Marathia restaurant, or around pretty Kardiana village you can swim and take cocktails along a succession of sandy beaches, then eat next to the waves at famous To Thalassaki ('To the sea') on the quay at Isternia Beach.
Tinos landscapes
It takes around 1½ hours to drive from the wild north-west Tinos coast overlooking Andros, through the pretty marble town of Pyrgos, passing terraced slopes and ancient white villages, to the sandy beaches facing Mykonos in the south-east. Halfway is the Tinos port, the principal town, Chora with old-fashioned shops, lots of tavernas, a daily farmers' market, fresh fish and meat. Here is the extraordinary church of Panagia Evangelistria, a Greek Lourdes with an ikon venerated by pilgrims who travel from all over Greece and can often be seen crawling the 500m uphill from the harbour to the church.
There are flowers from irises to orchids in almost every month (see greekflora.gr), and in March and June the island's meadows present a spectacular firework display of blossom. A few minutes walk from Xinara House you can practise your climbing, with 360º Mediterranean views from the top of Exomvourgo mountain.
Island food
Cooking's a big part of Tinos life and the island produces a lot of its own food - vegetables (available at the farmers market), fresh milk and eggs, excellent meat, cheese (you can visit producers of Tinos gravieraki, mizithra, anthotiro and kapanistri cheeses), and is well-known as an artichoke exporter (there's a mid-June festival in Komi with dozens of artichoke recipes), and for delicous, rather sweet confectionery. Bakers are everywhere selling koulouri (sesame-covered bread rings), and cornbread, even sourdough, and all kinds of filo-pastry snacks, and at Easter there are loaves stamped with the cross.
Some days you can buy fish from the quay, otherwise there are two wet fishmongers (one on the left as you go down into town). You can help yourselves to fruit and veg at Xinara House including (seasonally) artichokes, figs walnuts, salads. In spring you can forage wild asparagus in hedgerows, and in autumn hunt wild mushrooms from the mountain slopes behind us. The island also has well-stocked supermarkets and it's easy to cook while staying, otherwise we can arrage a cook, or there's plenty of good places to go out to, from small family-run tavernas (nearby rustic Agnánti or Tereza's are good) to well-known beach restaurants like Marathia and To Thalassáki, or smart newcomers like Boui Boui, Maru or Svoura. We'll help with where to go and booking: xinarahouse.com/
Shopping
The farmers' market, very fresh, but not organic, is open mornings all week - it's on the right as you drive into the port. On stalls here and around the island there will be capers, honey, artichoke products and herbs. For clothes, stylish Ukrainian-run Katsika is in the town centre. Opposite is the home store Trela. Smart home-store, Karybu also has good clothing. On the road up to the main church (where the devout crawl from the port) and the parallel pedestrian road are dozens of religous shops with 2-metre red candles, tama (press-metal offerings), jewellery, ikons and arrays of Tinos sweets. To the east of the town is a good wine shop, Potopōleíon with greek wines, ouzo, raki, etc. At the NW of Tinos is attractive Pyrgos, one of the few tourist villages on the island, with boutiques, an antique shop and a shady square with cafes and restaurants.
Ancient dovecotes
Most extraordinary about Tinos is the proliferation of ancient decorated dovecotes, a sort of folk art with stone arrangements of checkered, fishbone, cedar tree, or criss-cross patterns, with finials sprouting oddly-shaped ears of stone. Flocks of white doves remain all over the island although they are no longer a source of food (or guano). While lots of the old dovecotes are in ruins many are still maintained, and even a few new ones are built. Xinara House has a miniature example.
Ancient tracks to walk
Much of the island can be hiked on a network of old donkey tracks, mostly signposted. Xinara House has a short walk up to the ruins of the medieval capital near the peak of Exomvougo mountain, and from here cobbled routes radiate across the island. You can easily walk down to the port by a pleasant ancient stone road right into town (75 mins), or go swimming by hiking across to the old wine town of Falatados and on down through an exquisite wooded valley to the sea and a (summer) taverna at beautiful Lavada beach (2.5hrs). Or a 45 min. downhill stroll from Xinara to the pleasant summer bars in Komi village square past streams and pretty churches. https://www.avenzamaps.com/ do a digital GPS walking map - download their app, then buy 'Tinos Trails' from their site. Or we can arrange an accompanied hike, and even climbing on our Xinara mountain.
Traditional villages of Tinos
Tinos retains an unusual number of traditional Cyclades villages, white-painted homes tightly packed like sugar cubes along cool car-free lanes often barely visible from the road. Because Tinos has a tradition of quarrying and carving the houses are decorated with pretty marble features – decorated doorways, old carved fanlights (Xinara House has many 18th century examples), fountains, etc. Many villages put on festivals and traditional parties with food, live island music and dancing often into the small hours, like the big annual artichoke festival of Komi with huge quantities of food utilising every conceivable artichoke recipe.
Local vineyards
Tinos has always had good wine, with a couple of rare ancient varieties of grape that survived the arrival of phylloxera. A recent renaissance of the old vineyards has encouraged expert wine producers. There are exceptional wines such as T-oinos, and great organic wines from Volacus, Jerome Binda and others. Wine expert Julia Harding on: Tinos wine Renaissance plus her Tasting Notes. We arrange vineyard visits and tastings.
