Adamas

Adamas is without doubt the centre of tourist life in Milos. However, that sounds worse than it is since Adamantas with about 800 inhabitants is no more than a small village that only boasts more than its fair share of accommodation, tavernas, cafés and souvenir shops. In high summer it is inevitably rather crowded but still otherwise very tranquil. As long as the impact of tourism is restricted to restaurants which provide dinners as early as 19.00 whilst elsewhere the chairs are still standing on the tables, the situation is definitely still OK.

I have known Milos for over 20 years and have watched as the island has opened up more and more to tourism. As a result, Adamas, the tourist capital has also changed. But even today it’s not the souvenir shops and fast food stalls that dominate but many long-established businesses, be they tavernas, cafés, bakeries or grocers’ shops. They have simply developed and presented themselves in a more contemporary fashion and with more feel for their guests or customers.

Does anyone still recognise the old port of Adamas?

A serious incursion that has significantly changed the look of Adamas is without doubt the construction of the new harbour facility, which was completed in 2000. The harbour had previously had that charm that can still be experienced on the idyllic harbour promenade in Pollonia today. The charm that gives small Greek harbour villages their original appeal, which has not yet been displaced by mass tourism. Until the end of the 90’s, in Adamas too you could still sit outside the tavernas directly on the waterfront and while you sipped your wine or mocha, the sea splashed against the old stone harbour wall right beneath you. Scarcely conceivable today. Of course, back then it was fairly cramped and the traffic had to be able to get through somewhere to the ferry terminal but it was precisely this improvised confusion, in which despite everything it never became hectic, that was in fact so endearing.