Amorgos reveals its character in three distinct settings: its beaches, its sacred sites, and its main town, Chora.
The swimming beaches are among the island’s most inviting features, such as the one we visited, Maltezi Beach. It is one of Amorgos’s most picturesque stretches of sand. Fine, pale sand along with large pebbles meets turquoise water that shifts from pale green to deep blue.
On the opposite side of the island, the Panagia Hozoviotissa Monastery clings dramatically to a sheer cliff face high above the Aegean. It is a historic Greek Orthodox monastery dramatically built into a sheer cliff rising about 980 feet above the Aegean Sea. Visitors reach the monastery by climbing a long stone staircase of almost 300 stone steps from a nearby parking area.
Inland, Amorgos Chora rises gently on a low hill, a classic Cycladic village of whitewashed houses, winding lanes, windmills, and small chapels clustered beneath the remnants of a Venetian fortress. The old fortified area still defines the upper part of the village, where stone walls and narrow passages reflect its defensive origins against pirate raids. Today, Chora feels peaceful and timeless, with shaded squares, quiet alleys, and wide views over the island’s rugged interior, offering a calm counterpoint to both the beaches and the monastery’s dramatic cliffs.
