The colours come out of the ground. The rock around the coves runs white, red, ochre and grey, cut by the sea into arches, channels and pillars, and the island still digs it up: bentonite and perlite are mined on Milos today.
The Milos Mining Museum in Adamas, the port, explains how the cliffs seen from the boats came to be those colours. It opens from April to October, closed on Mondays outside high summer, and publishes a set of waymarked geological walks across the island.
Wind and waves have worn the pale volcanic rock of Sarakiniko, on the north coast, into smooth ridges and gullies around a narrow inlet of turquoise water, with a sliver of sand at the head. There is no shade and nothing to buy.
Go in the morning, in shoes: by midday the rock is hotter and rougher underfoot than it looks. Bring water and something to sit under. In summer an island bus runs out from Adamas in about fifteen minutes.
The jumps off the walls of the inlet are the famous part and the risky one. The way out of the water runs back through a narrow gap in the rock, and on a day with any swell the sea pushes swimmers against its sides.
You can also walk there. The museum's Sarakiniko route follows the coast for about 4.5 kilometres from Agios Konstantinos, over pale pumice and white diatomite, with a bus stop at each end. Its waymarks are small and few, and the last drop into the ravine at Sarakiniko is a scramble.
Kleftiko, on the south-west tip, has no road at all. Sea caves, arches and white pillars of rock stand in deep water there, and day boats anchor so passengers can swim through the arches. Most leave from Adamas; a few smaller operators on the south coast, closer to the caves, rent out boats you can skipper yourself without a licence.
Book the boat to Kleftiko for the first calm day of the stay.
From June to September the meltemi, the summer north wind, can rise in the afternoon and cancel the boats at short notice. A cancelled trip is usually moved to the next calm day or refunded, which is no help on a final morning, so keep a spare day behind it.
On a blowing day Sarakiniko, Papafragas and Pollonia turn choppy, and the south-coast beaches such as Paleochori and Firiplaka are the calmer swim.
The old sulphur mines at Paliorema, on the east coast, signed Thiorichia, sit at the foot of a ravine at the end of a dirt road: stone buildings, wagon rails, rusted machinery and the miners' quarters. Entry is free, nothing is staffed, and a small beach lies a few steps from the ruins.
Production stopped abruptly in 1958, which is why so much of the plant is still standing. The tunnel mouths are open: do not go in.
An ordinary hire car should stop on the flat ground above the last bends of the road. From there it is about fifteen minutes on foot down to the buildings, and the climb back in the heat is the hard part. A quad bike or a 4x4 gets further.
Fill the tank and download a map before you set out. Mobile signal is patchy on the far side of the island, and the dirt roads of the empty west need a 4x4 or a strong quad.
Below Plaka, the fishing village of Klima runs along the water as a single row of syrmata, boathouses with painted doors on the ground floor and living quarters above. Fishermen hauled their boats inside for the winter, and several of the houses are now let as rooms, with the sea at the doorstep. No bus goes down: walk from the stop at Trypiti and swim from the rocks.
On the north coast, Mandrakia and Firopotamos have their own boathouses, cut into the soft pale rock. Firopotamos is a sheltered cove with a white chapel on the rocks and clear water for snorkelling. It has no sunbeds and almost no shade, the road down is poor, and the parking above it fills in summer.
Near Pollonia, Papafragas is a channel of turquoise water between white walls, ending in a tiny beach under an arch. Rough, slippery steps lead down to it, and swimming out to the open sea is only for calm days.
Plaka, the hilltop capital, fills after dark. Cars stay in the car park below the village, which runs tight in August. For the sunset, climb from the top of the village to the ruins of the Venetian castle and the church of Panagia Thalassitra.
Lower down, the terrace of Panagia Korfiatissa looks west over the same sea and is the busier of the two at sunset.
The Catacombs, an early Christian burial complex cut into the soft rock below Trypiti, close in mid-afternoon and all day on Tuesdays. The ancient theatre is a short walk away, its marble seats facing the bay.
Adamas is the base without a car: ferries, island buses and most of the boats leave from its waterfront, though it is not the prettiest place on Milos. Plaka and Trypiti suit the evenings and have no beach.
Pollonia, a fishing village on the north-east tip, is the calmest, about twenty minutes by road from Adamas. The little ferry to Kimolos, the island across the channel, leaves from its quay and takes about twenty minutes.
Book the car with the room, because hire cars sell out in high season. June and September bring warm water without the August crowds.
Conventional ferries from Piraeus run all year: the direct boat takes about four and a half hours, the slower ones calling at Kythnos, Serifos and Sifnos up to seven and a half, and in winter they sail a few days a week. Fast boats cut the trip to around three hours and run from spring to autumn, most often in summer. Small planes fly from Athens to the airport, about five kilometres from Adamas.
The Venus de Milo came out of a field near the ancient theatre in 1820 and went to the Louvre. The one on the island is a modern copy, standing in the first room of the Archaeological Museum in Plaka, a few minutes' walk from the car park.
