WanderField notes
Whitewashed village on the rim of the Santorini caldera at golden hour, with a windmill above the sea

Issue 41 · The Aegean, slowly

Take the longway round.

Twenty-nine guides to islands, mountain trains and cities that are better after midnight. Written on the road, edited on the ferry.

CurrentlyNaxos to Amorgos, deck class, 6:20am

  • Islands14 guides
  • Mountains6 guides
  • Deserts4 guides
  • Cities5 guides
The journal

Latest guides

Eight curated field entries. Every guide is walked first, written second, and revisited the following season.

Showing 8 of 8 guides

Filter the archive

Choose your adventure

Pick a kind of place and the guides above rearrange themselves. Combine it with the search box for something like: islands, November, no car.

Ferries, night trains and a stubborn refusal to hire a car. Twenty-nine guides in the archive, seven of them shown above.

Featured itinerary

Five days in the Cyclades, on foot

Paros and Naxos, one ferry in the middle, no rental car and no day over 14 kilometres.

5Days
A traveller in white standing on a whitewashed terrace above a misty sea
Day three, waiting out the meltemi above Naoussa.

Fifty-one kilometres, two islands and one ferry crossing. Built around the 7:15 bus and the fact that everything on Paros closes between two and five.

Off the overnight ferry at 6:05 and straight onto the bus that leaves the harbour at 7:15. It drops you at the edge of Naoussa; walk inland through the olive terraces before the heat arrives. Lunch at the taverna on the Lefkes square, then sleep in the village rather than on the coast.

Distance
11 km
Sleep
Lefkes village
Budget
52 euro

The marble path from Lefkes to Prodromos is a thousand years old and slippery in trainers. Start at seven, finish before eleven. The afternoon is for the bus back to Naoussa and a swim at Kolymbithres while the ferries queue up outside.

Distance
8 km
Sleep
Naoussa
Budget
61 euro

The crossing takes 55 minutes and costs less than the coffee on board. Walk out to the Portara before the afternoon boats arrive, then eat properly in the old market. This is the day you do almost nothing, and it is the day people remember.

Distance
4 km
Sleep
Naxos Chora
Budget
68 euro

The longest day. Through Halki and Filoti on the old road, with two kilometres of shade in the whole stretch, so carry three litres. The unfinished kouros lies on his back at the end of it, and the last bus back leaves at 17:40 whether or not you are on it.

Distance
14 km
Sleep
Apollonas
Budget
47 euro

Twelve kilometres along the coast to Agios Prokopios with a swim every third one. Shower at the beach taverna, eat early, and take the 21:10 back to Piraeus. Deck class is fine in July and a mistake in October.

Distance
12 km
Sleep
Overnight ferry
Budget
39 euro
Timing

Best month to visit

Scored out of 100 on the only three things that decide a trip: weather, crowds and what is actually open.

Late May to mid June

The sea is swimmable, the meltemi has not started and the ferries are still on the shoulder timetable.

Go nowWorth itOnly if you must

Printable guides

The shop

Long-form PDFs with the maps, timetables and phone numbers that do not fit in a blog post.

No. 01PDF · 68ppThe Cyclades Ferry HandbookRoutes, ports, deck class

Every route between the fourteen inhabited islands, which company to trust in a swell, and how to read a Greek ferry timetable without crying.

€14Buy by email
No. 02PDF · 44ppAthens: 48 Hours, No MuseumsWalks, markets, late food

Two days on foot for people who have already done the Acropolis, or who never intended to. Three neighbourhood walks and eleven places to eat after eleven.

€9Buy by email
No. 03PDF · 52ppSlow Roads: Utah and ArizonaFuel, water, light

Eleven days of driving with the fuel stops marked, the two water caches that matter, and the hours each viewpoint is worth photographing.

€12Buy by email
BundlePDF · 164ppThe Winter Islands SetAll three, plus notes

All three guides together with the off-season appendix: what closes in November, what opens again in March, and the ferries that run regardless.

€35€28Buy by email

Buying by email is deliberate. Send a note and you get the files back the same day, along with anything that has changed since the last revision.

Nell Farrow, the writer of this journal, photographed in black and white
Nell Farrow · Lisbon and Syros
The author

I have missed more ferries than I have caught.

Wander started in 2019 as a notebook I kept losing, and became this because three people asked for the bus times.

I am Nell Farrow. I write about slow travel from a flat in Lisbon and a rented room on Syros, and I have not owned a car since 2016. Everything here has been walked, ridden or waited for in person, usually badly, which is the useful part.

Before this I spent nine years subediting travel copy for other people, which taught me that most guides are written from a hotel lobby. These are not. If a bus time is wrong, write to me and I will fix it that week.

29Guides published
41Islands, so far
0Sponsored stays
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