Miland Suites is one of the places to stay in Milos listed in our Suites in Milos section.
Miland Suites Milos stands on a rise in the Korfos area of Milos, the south-westernmost island of the Cyclades. The whole island is set out on the Milos overview page, and this account keeps to Miland Suites Milos and its setting. Eight separate suites occupy the grounds of Miland Suites Milos, the gulf lies below, and the villages of Adamas and Zefiria stand on either side.
The first section fixes the place on the map, between the port town of Adamas, the commercial quay at Kanava and the old capital of Zefiria. Later sections take the eight suites and their grounds, the pool, the bar and the view, the deep gulf below, the warm ground of the island, the animals that live on Milos, and the road south to the coast.
Where does Miland Suites Milos stand between Adamas, Kanava and Zefiria?
Miland Suites Milos stands on a rise in the Korfos area near Kanava, on the eastern shore of the gulf, between the port town of Adamas and the old inland capital of Zefiria, a short distance from the main harbour.
The island has the shape of a horseshoe, and the gulf that gives it that shape cuts in from the north-west as one of the largest natural harbours in Greece. The land on the eastern shore rises from the water in low steps. Miland Suites Milos stands on one of those rises, with the gulf in front and open country behind. Adamas holds the north-eastern corner, Kanava the head of the gulf, and Zefiria the inland plain.
Adamas is the harbour town and the main port of Milos. It counted 1,268 residents in 2021, and it holds the cultural and commercial life of the island. The settlement grew from 1831, when Cretan refugees settled there after a decree of the government, and their descendants are called Milocretans. The town keeps the mining, maritime and ecclesiastical museums, the old church of the Holy Trinity, and a cemetery of French and English graves from the Crimean War.
Kanava is a settlement and a beach at the head of the gulf, about three kilometres south-east of Adamas. The name comes from the local word for a closed space used as a wine store. The village holds the commercial quay of the island, where bulk cargo is loaded onto ships, and it counted 37 residents in 2021. The airport of Milos lies south of the village, and Kanava belongs to the Community of Trypiti, as Zefiria does.
Zefiria was the capital of the island before the seat moved to Plaka. It lies inland, in the eastern part of Milos, at ten metres above the sea, five kilometres south-east of Adamas and nine kilometres from Plaka. It was founded in the Venetian period, in the thirteenth century, and began to empty in the middle of the eighteenth century, after strong earthquakes pushed residents toward the port. It counted 190 residents in 2021 and keeps an agricultural character.
- Adamas: the harbour town and main port, with 1,268 residents in 2021.
- Kanava: the settlement at the head of the gulf, with the commercial quay.
- Zefiria: the old capital of the island, inland, five kilometres south-east of Adamas.
- Korfos: the area where Miland Suites Milos stands, on a rise above the eastern shore.
- Gulf: the inlet that gives the island its horseshoe shape and holds the main harbour.
The eastern shore therefore has three fixed points. Adamas is the port, Kanava is the head of the gulf, and Zefiria is the old capital of the interior. Miland Suites Milos stands on a rise in the Korfos area, a short distance from the main port, between the water and the villages. From that height the shape of the gulf and the pattern of the plain are read in one view.
What do the eight suites and the grounds of Miland Suites Milos hold?
Miland Suites Milos holds eight separate suites on six and a half stremmata of grounds, built in the Cycladic style on a rise above the gulf. Each suite at Miland Suites Milos differs from the others, and the grounds keep the pool, the bar and the parking.
The eight suites in Milos of Miland Suites Milos differ from one another in plan and in position. The buildings follow the Cycladic aesthetic of the islands, with plain walls, low lines and simple openings that suit the dry landscape. Miland Suites Milos is built with care for hospitality, so comfort and a warm family welcome stand together. The pool and the bar stand among the buildings, and the water of the gulf lies open below them.
The grounds of Miland Suites Milos cover six and a half stremmata, a stremma being the land measure used in Greece. At Miland Suites Milos, that space holds the eight suites, the pool, the bar and the parking area, with open ground between them. Trees and low planting break the white of the walls. A rise of this kind keeps the buildings low against the skyline and gives each one an open side. The airport of the island lies close by, and the port town stands a short distance away.
Each suite at Miland Suites Milos keeps its own comforts and its own space. Air conditioning cools the rooms in the hot months, and a mini bar stands inside each one. A kitchen allows a meal to be prepared indoors, and a television and internet access fill the quiet hours. Rooms are set aside for non-smoking guests. Parking is kept on the grounds of Miland Suites Milos, so a car stays beside the suite, and the port and the beaches are reached without a long walk.
The style of the building belongs to the islands of the Cyclades. The white houses of the port town show the plain walls that a traveller meets first from the water. A mark of Cycladic building on Milos is the shelter for small boats cut into the soft volcanic rock beside the sea, where a chamber protects a boat through the winter and a slip leads to the water. Miland Suites Milos keeps that plain manner, with openings that frame the gulf below.
- Suites: eight separate suites, each one different from the others.
- Grounds: six and a half stremmata of land around the buildings.
- Style: the Cycladic manner of the islands, with plain walls.
- Rooms: air conditioning, a mini bar, a kitchen and a television.
- Outside: a pool, a bar and a parking area on the grounds.
Eight suites, six and a half stremmata and a Cycladic manner of building make up Miland Suites Milos. The grounds of Miland Suites Milos hold the pool, the bar and the parking area, and the rooms hold air conditioning, a mini bar, a kitchen, a television and internet access. Each suite at Miland Suites Milos differs from the others, and the position of each one is part of the stay. The setting of the island does the rest.
What do the pool, the bar and the view at Miland Suites Milos offer?
Miland Suites Milos offers a pool and a bar on the grounds, and an open view to every side of the horizon. The rise of Miland Suites Milos carries the eye over the water, the port town below and the inland plain behind.
The pool gives water at the door on an island where rain is scarce. Rainfall on Milos reaches 50.6 millimetres in February and 47.2 millimetres in March, then falls to 3.3 millimetres in June and 0.3 millimetres in July, with 410.8 millimetres over the year. The climate is Mediterranean, with mild, rainy winters and warm to hot dry summers. The pool therefore holds its own water while the gulf lies open on the shore below the rise.
The bar serves the warm months, when the island turns hot and dry. Record temperatures on Milos reached 44.0 degrees Celsius in June, 41.0 degrees in July and 39.8 degrees in August. The hours around midday pass under shade, and a cool drink belongs to them. The bar stands among the grounds, near the pool and the rooms of Miland Suites Milos, so the middle of the day is spent in one place. The evening then brings the open air back.
The view takes in every side of the horizon. Miland Suites Milos stands on a rise above the eastern shore, so the gulf fills the western side of the outlook. To the north-east lies Kimolos, 1.6 kilometres from Milos, and beyond it Polyaigos, two kilometres south-east of Kimolos. Antimilos stands 21 kilometres to the north-west, an uninhabited mass of trachyte. The port town, the plain of Zefiria and the hills of the interior complete the circle on land.
The horizon changes through the day. In the morning the light falls on the water from the east, and the gulf carries a bright surface. The middle hours flatten the colours, and the shade of the pool and the bar becomes the useful place. Toward evening the light softens, and the western side of the horizon, where the gulf opens to the north-west, holds the longest light. Each hour shows a different face of the same view.
- Pool: water at Miland Suites Milos, on an island with dry summers.
- Bar: a place to sit through the hot middle hours.
- View: the gulf below, with the horizon open on every side.
- Islands: Kimolos, Polyaigos and Antimilos lie on the horizon.
- Weather: record heat on Milos has reached 44.0 degrees in June.
A pool, a bar and an open view to every side of the horizon are the outdoor part of the stay. The pool answers the dry summer, the bar answers the heat of the middle hours, and the rise above the gulf answers the wish for open water. The port town and the islands on the horizon fill the outlook, and the grounds of Miland Suites Milos hold the three together in one place.
How was the gulf of Milos below Miland Suites Milos formed?
Miland Suites Milos looks over the gulf of Milos, the hollow of the principal crater of the island. The volcano began to erupt two to three million years ago and last erupted ninety thousand years ago, and the inlet strikes in from the north-west.
The gulf belongs to a volcanic island. Volcanic rock covers the greater part of Milos, and tuff, trachyte and obsidian stand among its ordinary rocks. Columns of dacite lava rise on the Glaronisia islet north of the island, and the lava there is of late Pliocene age. The volcano began its activity two to three million years ago and last erupted ninety thousand years ago. It is counted dormant, and a return of activity is not ruled out.
The shape of the gulf follows the ground. The natural harbour is the hollow of the principal crater, and its depth falls from 70 fathoms at the entrance to 30 fathoms inside, from 130 metres to 55 metres. The inlet strikes in from the north-west and separates the island into two fairly equal portions, joined by an isthmus not more than 2.2 kilometres broad. The island measures about 23 kilometres from east to west, 13 kilometres from north to south, over 151 square kilometres.
The gulf works as a harbour. It counts as one of the largest natural harbours in Greece, and it ranks among the largest natural bays in the whole Mediterranean. The port town holds the north-eastern shore, and the commercial quay at Kanava stands at the head of the water. The depth and the shape together give ships a wide, sheltered basin, and the passage between the two halves of the island stays open to the north-west.
The shores of the gulf carry the marks of the same ground. Hot sulfurous springs rise on the eastern shore, and in one of the caves on the south coast the heat of the volcano is still strong. The gulf holds 25 of the 90 beaches of the island, among them Kanava, Alyki, Papikinou, Lagada and Klima. The water inside is deep, and the beaches take their colour from the volcanic rock and the coloured pebbles that the rock breaks into.
- Origin: the gulf is the hollow of the principal crater of the island.
- Depth: the water falls from 130 metres at the entrance to 55 metres.
- Shape: the inlet strikes in from the north-west and divides the island.
- Isthmus: the two halves are joined by a neck 2.2 kilometres broad.
- Beaches: 25 of the 90 beaches of Milos lie inside the gulf.
The gulf below Miland Suites Milos is the hollow of a crater, 130 metres deep at its entrance and 55 metres inside, cut in from the north-west. Two nearly equal halves of the island stand on either side of it, joined by a narrow isthmus. Warm springs, a hot cave and 25 beaches belong to its shores. Miland Suites Milos looks down on that water from the rise above the eastern side.
Which warm springs and hot ground lie near Miland Suites Milos?
Miland Suites Milos stands on an island of warm ground. The best known baths lie in a natural cave near the port of Adamas, where the water reaches thirty-nine to forty-one degrees, and hot water also rises on the sand at Kanava.
The best known baths of the island lie in a natural cave near the port of Adamas. Chambers with baths are cut into the rock, and the water rises through them. Its temperature reaches 39 to 41 degrees Celsius, a range set by the level of the sea and the weather. The water is rich in chloride and sodium and carries silicic acid and iron nitrite ions. The baths are used for skin complaints, arthritis, rickets, sciatica, adenopathy and chronic rhinitis.
Hot water also reaches the surface at Kanava. It comes out on the sand and pours into the sea, south-west of the electricity works on that shore. The water carries salts that shine in daylight. A short distance away, steam rises through the sea itself and warms the shallow water. The water at Kanava is held to help arthritis, and it belongs to the same warm ground that runs under the eastern shore of the gulf.
The warm ground covers a wide area. Active solfataras and fumaroles reach 100 degrees Celsius at Agia Kyriaki, Paliochori, Pyromenes and Adamas, and sulfur is strong around them. Submarine vents release gas that reaches the surface as bubbles. The hot springs of the island reach 55 degrees Celsius. Steam was found at a depth of 1,100 metres, and sulfur was mined on Milos, which was the richest supplier of sulfur in the ancient world.
The baths were known in antiquity. An ancient physician described them in a work on epidemics, and a French professor of botany wrote of them in 1717. Other springs belong to the same field: the baths of Makrinos at Adamas, the Pikropigi at Mantrakia, the baths of Provatas, the springs at Paliochori and the baths of Alyki. The island counts more than 250 geosites, and the residents once opposed a plant that was to draw power from the warm ground.
- Adamas: baths in a natural cave, with water at 39 to 41 degrees.
- Kanava: hot water on the sand, close to steam vents in the sea.
- Vents: solfataras and fumaroles reach 100 degrees Celsius.
- Springs: the hot springs of the island reach 55 degrees Celsius.
- Depth: steam was found 1,100 metres below the surface.
Warm water belongs to the ground under Miland Suites Milos. The cave baths near the port hold water at 39 to 41 degrees, the springs at Kanava rise on the sand, and the vents around the island reach 100 degrees. Springs of the island run to 55 degrees, and the ground has been known for its heat since antiquity. The rise where Miland Suites Milos stands sits above that warm layer.
Which animals associated with Milos live around Miland Suites Milos?
Miland Suites Milos stands on an island with two reptiles that carry the name of the island: the Milos wall lizard, Podarcis milensis, and the Milos viper, Macrovipera schweizeri. Both live on a small group of Aegean islands, and the viper carries strict protection.
The Milos wall lizard is a small Mediterranean reptile. Its body grows to no more than 6.5 centimetres, and the tail is twice as long as the body. The build is sturdy and the head is broad. The back is brown, with a slight line running down the middle. The flanks, the throat and the sides of the head are black with white, yellow, blue or light green spots. Females show white stripes along the edges of the back.
The lizard lives on a small group of Aegean islands: Milos, Kimolos, Falkonera, Antimilos and Parapola. It favours cultivated land, and it takes the sun on banks and on piles of stones. It hunts on open ground and among plants. The species is becoming rare as its habitat is lost, and it is counted among the vulnerable animals of the region. The western part of Milos, much of it inside the Natura network, holds ground of this kind.
The Milos viper is a venomous snake of the viper family, and it lives only in the south-western Cyclades. It is the smallest of its relatives, with an average total length of 50 to 70 centimetres and a maximum of 98.5 centimetres. Seen from above, the head looks rounded and blunt, and an older name for the snake came from the look of the head. It lives on Milos, Siphnos, Kimolos and Poliaigos, four islands of the Cyclades.
The viper feeds on birds and lizards. Adults take passerine birds, while young snakes under 35 centimetres feed mainly on Milos wall lizards and European copper skinks. The snake stays on the ground for much of the year, yet it forages in trees on autumn nights. Fewer than 4,000 adults remained in the wild in 2022, and the species is counted endangered. Feral cats, persecution and collectors are the main threats, and the snake is protected under an international agreement.
- Lizard: the Milos wall lizard grows to no more than 6.5 centimetres.
- Tail: the tail of the lizard is twice as long as its body.
- Viper: the Milos viper reaches 50 to 70 centimetres in length.
- Young: young vipers feed on wall lizards and copper skinks.
- Numbers: fewer than 4,000 adult vipers remained in 2022.
Two reptiles belong to the island. The Milos wall lizard keeps to banks, stone piles and cultivated ground, and the Milos viper lives in the same dry country, feeding on birds, lizards and skinks. Both are found on a small group of Aegean islands, and the lizard is losing ground. The viper numbers fewer than 4,000 adults and carries strict protection. The ground around Miland Suites Milos belongs to that same habitat.
How does the south road from Miland Suites Milos reach Zefiria, Paleochori and Provatas?
Miland Suites Milos sits close to the road that leaves the port and crosses the interior to the south coast. Zefiria stands about five kilometres along it, and the beaches of Paleochori and Provatas lie further south on the shore.
The road leaves the port area and crosses the interior of the island toward the south coast. The crossing is short, because only thirteen kilometres separate the north coast of Milos from the south coast. The road passes the plain that spreads around Zefiria, where the ground is worked for crops, and then drops toward the shore. The south side of the island holds 21 of the 90 beaches of Milos, and the road gives access to the nearest of them.
Zefiria stands about five kilometres south-east of Adamas and nine kilometres from Plaka. The village was the seat of a municipality in 1835, and it keeps an agricultural character. It belongs to the Community of Trypiti, as Kanava does, and it counted 190 residents in 2021. The plain around it takes the name Kampos. The road through the village joins the interior of the island to the coast, and it carries on toward the southern beaches.
Paleochori lies on the south coast, about fourteen kilometres south-east of Adamas and thirteen kilometres from Plaka. The settlement is small, with 17 residents in 2021, and the shore beside it runs for almost two kilometres. Red, yellow, pink and white-grey rock rings the water, and coarse sand carries coloured pebbles. Warm water rises from the ground at the edge of the sea, and vents release gases from inside the earth. Paleochori belongs to the Community of Trypiti, and the shore is known for food in Palaioxori.
Provatas stands further west on the same coast. Three small coves, divided by rocks, make up its beach, and the sand carries a golden-red colour that comes from iron oxides. The water stays shallow close to the shore. The settlement is small, with 33 residents in 2021, and a paved road with signs leads to the beach. A bus runs along the same road, so the coast is reached without a car. The road ends among the coves of the south.
- Zefiria: the old capital, five kilometres south-east of Adamas.
- Plain: the ground around Zefiria is worked for crops.
- Paleochori: a south-coast beach of almost two kilometres, with warm water.
- Provatas: three coves of golden-red sand on the same coast.
- Access: a paved road with signs leads to Provatas, and a bus runs there.
The south road joins the port, the interior and the coast. Zefiria stands on the way, the old capital with its plain and its agricultural ground, and Paleochori and Provatas wait on the shore beyond it. The island is narrow from north to south, and the crossing passes quickly from the gulf to the open sea. The beaches of the south side lie at the end of that road.
What do visitors ask about Miland Suites Milos?
Miland Suites Milos raises questions about its place on the map, the number of suites, the view, the water of the gulf, the warm ground and the animals of the island. The six answers below take each point in turn.
Where exactly is Miland Suites Milos on the island?
Miland Suites Milos stands in the Korfos area, on a rise above the eastern shore of the gulf. The main port, Adamas, lies a short distance away, and the commercial quay at Kanava stands on the same side of the water. The old capital, Zefiria, lies inland behind the shore.
What is the number of suites at Miland Suites Milos?
Eight suites stand on the grounds of Miland Suites Milos, and each one differs from the others. Miland Suites Milos covers six and a half stremmata. The rooms of Miland Suites Milos carry air conditioning, a mini bar, a kitchen, a television and internet access, and rooms are set aside for non-smoking guests. The pool, the bar and the parking area stand among the buildings.
What can be seen from Miland Suites Milos?
The view runs to every side of the horizon. The gulf fills the western side, with the port town on its north-eastern shore. Kimolos, Polyaigos and Antimilos stand on the horizon to the north-east and the north-west. The plain of Zefiria and the hills of the interior close the circle on the landward side.
Why is the gulf below Miland Suites Milos so deep?
The gulf is the hollow of the principal crater of a volcanic island. Its depth falls from 70 fathoms at the entrance to 30 fathoms inside, from 130 metres to 55 metres. The inlet strikes in from the north-west and divides the island into two parts that are nearly equal in size.
Are there warm springs near Miland Suites Milos?
Warm water belongs to the ground around Miland Suites Milos. The baths near the port of Adamas lie in a natural cave, where the water reaches 39 to 41 degrees Celsius. Hot water rises on the sand at Kanava and pours into the sea. The hot springs of the island reach 55 degrees Celsius.
Which animals live around Miland Suites Milos?
Two reptiles live on the island. The Milos wall lizard grows to no more than 6.5 centimetres and takes the sun on banks and stone piles. The Milos viper reaches 50 to 70 centimetres, feeds on birds and lizards, and carries strict protection. Both live on a small group of Aegean islands.