The Nikos Pension is a group of apartments off the main street in Apollonia, the capital of Sifnos. This means that virtually every street is pedestrianised, everything shuts down between noon and three p.m. but is very buzzy at night - but not noisy.. The town has everything you need and a very good bus service to the rest of the island as well as many taxis. Most people go for the beaches but we stayed without once going near any sand and had a fantastic time - so much so that we're going back next year for three weeks. The apartment we stayed in had one large bedroom, a spacious living room with two extra beds and a very well equipped kitchen and good bathroom. It was cleaned daily and fresh sheets and towels provided regularly. It is an old complex of buildings sympatheticly restored. In the living room of our apartment was an old well [covered by an original cover] and antique furniture. We had a terrace with views over the church to the rest of the island. It was protected from the hot Greek sun by a bamboo shade and ideal for drinking too much retsina and playing lots of backgammon. But perhaps the most suprising thing was the way the owner left her mobile phone on the table outside the place she kept her cleaning materials without any thought it might get stolen - not like living in London then. Apollonia is very friendly and very Greek.

We booked our accommodation through Aegean Thesaurus - a company we have used for many years and is based in Apollonia. They will organise evrything for you if you want, (including cooking lessons - learn how to make 'little slippers'), speak excellent English and are incredibly helpful. When our ferry from Athens was cancelled, Georgios contacted us on our mobiles to arrange alternative ferries - fantastic. Aegean Thesaurus has also arranged hoilidays for us in many other Greek islands and we can only recommend them very highl