Tilos - a small forgotten island, the ideal place for a sailing trip
Some years ago, Tilos, a small island of the Dodecanese between Kos in the northeast and Rhodes in the southeast was a real secret for some weekend guests from Rhodes, sailors or mostly italians in august only, which could only be reached by the small island ferry of Dodecanes, the Dodekanissos Express, that connected the island with Rhodes or Kos.
Since 2002, there is a daily ferry (in summertime there are several ones, fast ones as well), and the touristical development increased a lot, as well as prics for real estates!
Sometimes, 2 ferries arrive at once, can cause big swell and if you are
in their way, they "blow you away" with their horns!! Make sure,
your anchor is not dropped in the danger zone, especially when your
boat is circling ...
Sailors mostly enter the bay of Leivada, and they have a small harbour giving shelter from the hard falling wind blowing down from the mountains. Coming from Turkey or Symi or from Kos/Nisyros, you´ll see the 4 big antennas of the mobile-phone companies on top of the highest mountain as a landmark to follow. One can moore on his own anchor in front of the 3 km beachline, but must be sure, the anchor is very well fixed, better drop a second one, because the falling winds are very (and I mean very!!) strong sometimes, and often there is trouble in the night with drifting boats, who did not consider that!
Have a look at the long beach-panorama...here...
The center of each greek island is the "Chorio", which is always up in the mountains, but there is always a harbour. Here at Tilos, it is called Leivada. All ferries arrive and depart from here, in summer several times a day (and night!) So make sure, you do not drop your anchor too close to the ferryboat´s circle-lines (see above, that was too close...)
Best
is, you choose a place southeast (leftsided) the church (see panoramaview
above), where the water is 3-5m, and get´s shallow slowly, less than
2 m about 30m from the shore. Carefull: left of the church, in front
of
a Taverna, about 40m from the shore is a small wreck under water!
Drop your anchor on one of the sand-areas and not on the seaweed, and
make sure, it is very well fixed, choose to give all chain, and if you
are not lazy, drop a 2nd anchor. In the night, very often extremely hard
falling
winds come from W and NW and that can cause a lot of troubles!
Of course, you can enter the small port, which has space for about
10 boats. You can get water there and electricity, a german lady
will pass
by to ask for your needs and collect the payments.
From
there, it is 3 minutes to the 2 small markets, Cafenions, restaurants,
there
is
a laundry and close to the bakers you can find a place
for email and internet. The port-area was finished end of 2005:
Tilos seems to be a small place for one night only, but it has some hidden secrets.
First, it is calm...mostly. So it is a nice place to stay for some days and just relax, stroll around to one of the Cafenions, buy an icecream and sit on the pebble beach in the shadow of one of those trees.
Some restaurants offer good food at reasonable, but not always cheap prices, especially prices for fish should be asked, before you order. A very nice bar on the beach (not noisy!), makes you enjoy the end of a wonderfull evening....
If you are interested in some more informations about Tilos, visit the office of the Tilos Park Association close to the corner behind the church. Next, you can rent a car at Tilos Travel and drive to the other side of Tilos, Eriston, which can be entered by boat as well.
A 2km sandy beach, only a few people, only in July and August... you
can see Chorio about 4 km stretching over the hills and above all a big
castle, where one can climb up as well.
Tilos has a museum with the bones of the small elefants, scientiests
found, on the road between Leivada and Chorio.
As well you should visit the closeby old abandoned village of Mikro Chorio.
There is a late night bar/Disco since years, and it is pretty interesting
to see those old houses and ruins, and have a nighclub athmosphere up
there (starting every night a 11 p.m. untill... open end)
But keep in mind:
don´t dringk and drive... as well in Greece! There is a bus from Leivada,
so
take
this
or choose
a
Taxi...the
road
to Mikro
Chorio is very poor!
In the daytime, you can drive to the NE edge of Tilos, and see a very
small harbour directing to Nisyros.
There are no tourists at all, and the harbour is uised by fisherboats
only, but it is deep enough (3m) , so one could come in there for 1 night
as well , maybe on the way from or to the Cyclades (Astipalaiia), or
in need of quick shelter... (by the way: the doctor is in Chorio)
If you follow that small street leading to the westerly side from there, you reach a very nice monastery with a beautifull garden - the food up there is very expensive. Opening hours till 5 p.m., properly dressed only!
Sailing, Yachchtcharters Greece, Dodecanese Tilos,Charterboats,boatcharter