Kimolos Island

Kimolos sits in the southwestern Cyclades, separated from much larger Milos by a channel about a kilometre wide. The island covers 36 square kilometres (14 sq mi) and has roughly 810 residents, most of them in Chorio, the main town; Psathi below it is the port. The municipality also takes in the uninhabited islands of Polyaigos, Agios Efstathios and Agios Georgios.

Kimolos was mined for centuries for kimolia, the fine white earth that gave the island its name and was traded around the ancient Mediterranean as a cleaning and fulling material. Its medieval name, Argentiera, came from the silver colour of its rock. What that geology leaves behind is a coastline that changes every few hundred metres, white cliffs in one bay and red and grey volcanic rock in the next, with a good number of beaches that no road reaches.

Nereids, Chorio and Skiadi

Local stories put Nereids in the sea caves around the coast. In Greek myth the Nereids are the fifty daughters of Nereus, the old man of the sea, and the Oceanid Doris; they attend Poseidon and, unusually among sea spirits, they are well disposed towards sailors. Island depictions give them white and gold robes with red coral in their hair.

Chorio is built in the usual Cycladic manner, whitewashed walls with blue trim, and holds the island's archaeological museum. The oddest thing on Kimolos is inland: Skiadi, a mushroom of rock left standing where wind-driven sand ate away the softer stone under a harder cap. It stands at about 260 metres in the northwest of the island, west of Mount Sklavos, and there is no driving to it. From the nearest parking it is roughly two kilometres of old mule track, about thirty-five minutes each way, with a view over the sea and the neighbouring islands at the top.

Wind and Water

The wind that matters here is the Meltemi, northerly to northeasterly, blowing from late spring into early autumn and hardest in July and August, when force 5 to 7 (17 to 33 knots) is normal and gusts touch force 8. Afternoons are generally stronger than mornings. June and September, at either end of the season, are the calmer months and the usual choice for anyone who would rather sail than sit out a blow. Sea temperatures stay above 23 degrees Celsius (73 Fahrenheit) from late June into early October. Depths off the beaches change quickly and currents run through the channel towards Milos, so open-water swimming is best kept close in.

Under the Water

Off Ellinika, on the neck of land that once joined Kimolos to the islet of Agios Andreas, lie the remains of the island's ancient town, now submerged in shallow water: house walls, wells and tombs, with finds running from Mycenaean through Geometric, Archaic and Classical to Hellenistic. The acropolis stood on the islet itself and its ruins are still visible. The sinking is generally put down to an earthquake.

Polyaigos, off to the southeast, is the largest uninhabited island in the Aegean at about 17 square kilometres. Its sea caves shelter Mediterranean monk seals, and the island is protected twice over, as a Natura 2000 site and, since 2025, as an archaeological site, a designation that extends to underwater remains in Sykia Bay on its southeast coast. Closer to home, the cave at Gerakia can only be entered from the water.

Where to Stop

Prassa, also called Agios Georgios, is on the northeast corner: white sand, shallow turquoise water and the most photographed beach on the island. Bonatsa is the wide sandy bay families use, with umbrellas, sunbeds and somewhere to eat. Mavrospilia faces west and is where people go for the sunset, next to Aspragremna, a rock formation in the sea that snorkellers work along. Along the north coast, Paralia Vromou, Monastiria and Soufi can be reached only by boat or by quad over dirt track, and Agioklima, small, with a thermal spring at the water's edge and a few tamarisks for shade, has no land access at all. The ones without a road are best reached during a gulet cruise along the Greece coast; the rest are a walk or a hire car away.

Plenty of these bays are rock rather than sand, so swim shoes earn their place in the bag. The remote ones have no water, no shade and nothing to buy, which is the trade for having them mostly to yourself.