Read Your Indulgence

Destinations: The Aegean /// The Secret Island

June 29, 2015

With Greek islands, it is usually all or nothing. They are either wildly popular — Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes — or almost off the radar completely — Skiathos, Samothrace, Arkoi. Similarly, you find corresponding extremes in wallet-damage. Mykonos and Santorini take price-gouging to an art form, while you can live like a king for the same price on Arkoi. Of course, Mykonos can keep you busy for days on end, while Arkoi attracts only if doing absolutely nothing at all is the goal. And sometimes, it is.

But when something in the middle shows up (and that’s a rarity), it is time to take note. This is how I found Anafi.
Almost dead center in the Aegean Sea and about half-way between Athens and Crete, the island was in its heyday one of many sacred to Apollo, god of the Sun, and a surprising amount of temple remains cluster on this tiny, 15-mile speck of land. The monastery of Zoodochos Pigi in fact sits over an Apolline shrine, and incorporates some of the original sanctuary into its walls. Presently, however, Anafi is very much off the beaten track, and the main town of Chora, perched high on a ridge overlooking the harbor, is barely above a small village. The island museum consists of one room.
And amazingly, this little island has become the Greek nexus for the artsy-and-on-the-move crowd. Millennials and GenXers, drawn by the promise of a more authentic Aegean experience and environment, are forgoing the typical “done up” destinations and exploring, hopping on ferries or fishing boats to outlying islands that usually only exist as part of a photo’s background.
What is there to do? Well, from the looks of it, you’d think not a whole lot. There are nine restaurants, and handful of B&B’s, and no club to speak of. On the flip side, there beaches that have not seen any development since the days when Jason and the Argonauts sheltered there, coves where you can spend the entire day and not see another soul, and those B&B’s can cost as little as $46 a night. The water is glass-clear, the food is so fresh it was moving 10 minutes before it was served. And you have never seen a nighttime sky like the one over Anafi.
And that is the allure. Anafi is part of a growing otherworld of places to go and things to do that  eschew luxury price tags for bona fide cultural immersion. Haul out a map, do a Google or two, and the Aegean Sea is speckled with such finds. Anafi is the first, but get it while the getting is good—no secret lasts forever.
For more information, go to anafi.gr/en/.  Steele Luxury Travel will assist with all of your travel planning need to Greece and the Greek Islands.  Contact Steele Luxury Travel at www.SteeleTravel.com to start planning your exclusive trip!