Folegandros is an absolute delight. I can’t say enough good things about this tiny little unblemished island that has hardly any tourists choking it’s streets like so many of the other islands in the Cyclades. This is a quiet, sleepy, relaxing little island with one main road. There’s almost nothing of note to do in Folegandros, but that is it’s charm. It’s a relaxing oasis in a sea of otherwise buzzing tourist driven islands. Come to Folegandros to disconnect from the real world, to forget the stresses of home and to experience the closest thing you can to traditional Greek Island lifestyle unchanged for generations.
If you decide to spend a couple days relaxing in Folegandros there is only one place you should consider staying. Book a room at Polikandia Hotel. The hotel is absolutely adorable. They have comfortable rooms with stunning views as seen above. The hotel has a beautiful pool area, is covered with drop dead gorgeous bougainvillea trees, provides a nice breakfast, has their own cars to rent and most importantly is run by the most intensely nice man who will bend over backward to accommodate any request you have and goes above and beyond to make your stay special. He rented us his cars at a discount, moved our room to the room with the best view when we casually mentioned it was our honeymoon in passing and booked us an incredible boat trip to a local restaurant you can only reach by boat.
Book them directly to receive the best rates:
https://www.polikandia-folegandros.gr/
Right outside the pool area in this gorgeous compound is the small central town where most of the islands restaurants and bars are located. You’ll walk out the gates of this hotel and walk about 2 blocks to your left to find the main city square. Here you will find tons of great restaurants, none better though than Eva’s Garden. Make a reservation here for your first night in Folegandros.
The main town in Folegandros, called Chora (like every other island in Greece) is filled with cute local bars and restaurants. Old Greek men sit outside playing dominos and chess. Local couples sit and sip on ouzo and eat ice cream. It’s literally a place that time forgot. It feels like the type of summer vacation living where families just relax and enjoy the simplicity of life like they no longer do in the United States. Folegandros is the type of place that would be perfect for a 2 day trip, make me incredibly restless for a 4-5 day trip as the lack of stimulation and things to do would start to drive my go-go-go brain nuts, but after cleansing myself of that mentality it would probably restore my soul over a 2 week trip.
Right outside the main town there are two places that you will want to walk to in order to view a stunning, perfect sunset. Pictured above is the incredible view from the back end of the main town. Just walk to the back and keep walking until you hit the sea. It’s only a couple blocks. The views at sunset are incredible.
The other thing you should do if you have the energy is to walk up to the big church on top of the hill outside of Chora. It’s a long walk but the crisp white Church of Panagia at the top offers spectacular views of the entire island, particularly at sunset.
During one day of your trip, rent a car from the Polikandia Hotel and head out to go explore the rest of the island and it’s handful of beaches. Don’t expect the beaches to be powdery white sand. Many of these are much rockier than the beaches you find in, say, Naxos. But, there are a couple nice white sand beaches. Instead of writing out how to get to these beaches, I’ll simply direct you to Folegandros’ own website which does a more thorough job than I ever could without simply cutting and pasting their info here.
https://www.folegandros.com/beaches/
There are some decent hikes you can take as well to get to some of the more hard to reach beaches if you are into hiking.
After your stop at the beaches, take the one and only road that runs the length of the island and drive out of the Chora area towards the other end of the island. On the way you will pass a small roadside restaurant with a blue awning called Sinadisi. You will never forgive yourself if you don’t stop at this restaurant and order Folegandros’ world famous, handmade pasta dish Matsata.
This thick cut, doughy pasta is handmade to order and never frozen or stored. It goes straight from the ingredients in the kitchen to your plate. It is, to this day, one of my favorite meals I’ve ever eaten. I have had vivid dreams about this dish. Do not under any circumstances leave Folegandros without eating at least one plate of Matsata. The restaurants in Chora will serve it too, but not all of them make it the traditional way to order. Sinadisi does though and you should make the 15 min drive to experience it.
This meal is simplicity taken to perfection. It’s no frills and not expensive, but their Matsata was to die for, their meatballs were delicious and they served some of the best fresh homemade Tzatziki that you’ll ever eat.
There’s a few great looking restaurants along that same road, like Ristorante Flora Mimis and Marankoudiko. All of these places serve up traditional Greek food, particularly Matsata. But, Sinadisi was so perfect I’d highly recommend that you go there first.
No trip to Folegandros is complete without a boat trip to its only restaurant accessible solely from the sea. Have the owner of Polikandia call up the restaurant and set up your reservation. You will drive your car to a local port about 5 min from the hotel and wait for a small inflatable motor boat to come pick you up. It’s best to book the meal so that you drive out on the boat while the sun is still up and come back after dark. This lets you experience the coastline both at sunset and at night which are both beautiful.
The boat will bring you to a dock and a large flight of crooked stone stairs. At the top of the stairs is a local seafood restaurant that serves only fish caught earlier that day. You literally pick your specific piece of fish out and have them prepare you a meal based on the fish that they have. The food is fantastically fresh, but the view is even better.
A super fun way to get around the island is by buggy. Check with the local rental car agencies and rent a dune buggy for around $40 a day and take a spin around the island.
