The Busiest Month of the Year

It is a bright and breezy sunny summer’s day on Symi and the weather forecast for our corner of Greece is set fair. It is not for nothing that the Greek word for summer is kalokairi which means ‘good time’. The pile of empty beer crates outside Pachos is testimony to thirsty weather and ice cream has taken over from gyros as the street food of choice during the midday promenade. The meltemi is blowing hard this year and the weather forecast for the central Aegean and Cyclades is for Force 8 northerlies but in our small corner of Greece where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean, there is little more than a ripple on the water, a slap of waves against the rocks and a fluttering of flags in the harbour.




The Symi Festival has its official premiere in Yialos tonight and many visitors are coming over from Rhodes especially for the concert, starring popular Greek musicians Eleni Tsaligopoulou , Giorgos Andreou and Manolis Karantinis .  Restaurants with views of the town square are already booked out for tonight. As Symi harbour is a natural amphitheatre shape and funnels sound the music is audible right up to Chorio so many people enjoy the festival events from their terraces and balconies. The premiere traditionally ends with a firework display over the water, a safety measure to avoid fires as Symi is, like the rest of Greece, tinder dry in high summer.

August is the busiest month of the year on Symi with more visitors arriving than departing every day for the next four weeks. In the present economic climate people are taking shorter holidays and many regular visitors who used to take houses here for the whole month of August are now only staying 1-2 weeks. This means, however, that more individuals are actually visiting the island over all and people who have been wanting to visit Symi for years are finally able to find August availability. The British August edition of Conde Nast Traveller includes Symi in the list of Top 20 Greek islands. Symi has also been receiving a lot of attention on Greek television in the form of various travelogues which has given local tourism a boost.



Have a good weekend.



Regards,

Adriana