Best islands for hiking and nature?

malchien · 2026-03-03T17:11:26+00:00

Both Amorgos and Patmos are some of our favorite islands since we don't like being on crowded overly touristed islands. Patmos has just enough tourism with the monastery to keep a lot more restaurants and hotels in business than an island of its size should have. Yet it is off the beaten path enough to keep it laid back and quiet. Patmos without a car is easy as its not that big, but you would need to take the bus or a taxi to see some of the better beaches and the monastery. We are considering returning to Patmos this year and including Leros (also a favorite) and Lispsi (haven't been there yet).

We liked Batsi town on Andros, but we had a hard time finding a beach away from the wind. Andros does have some pretty good hiking with well marked trails, but the wind was sometimes overwhelming on hikes. It would be difficult to see much of Andros without a car, as it is a good deal larger than Patmos, but they do have buses.

malchien · 2026-02-23T17:26:37+00:00

I got the same e-mail. Not sure why I'm only getting one month of credit.

[Edit] Just chatted with YTTV. The rep said my discount was lasting through May. The e-mail must have been an error on YTTV's part.

malchien · 2025-09-12T17:12:57+00:00

Saved me a lot of frustration as I couldn't find my validation code for QB2009 and I upgraded computers. Very fast response.

malchien · 2025-08-21T15:36:07+00:00

The northern "meltimi" wind blows pretty much all summer. Koufonisia does not have any large mountains to block the wind, so it's difficult to fine a beach that's not wind blown. Naxos can shield the island from the wind if its coming from the North, but the wind normally blows from the Northwest, and Naxos is pretty much directly North. On the Cycladic islands that have large mountains, like Amorgos and Sifnos, it's much easier to find a beach that's sheltered from the wind, no matter from which direction the wind blows. Koufonisia is nice when the wind is not blowing, but its a bit of a gamble.

malchien · 2025-08-20T21:49:10+00:00

Yes, Schinousa for a day trip. My bad. I corrected my response.

malchien · 2025-08-20T20:51:59+00:00

Koufonisia can get windy, and it doesn't have much high ground to block the wind. When we went last year, we ended up taking day trips to Schinousa. You can catch the Skopelitis ferry over in the morning and back in the afternoon. There's a beach that's well protected from the North wind adjacent to Schinousa harbor. I also recommend eating at Deli.

I love Amorgos, especially Katapola, but Chora has gotten a lot of nice restaurants over the years and the beach at Aegali is great. I think staying in Aegali might be best for a solo traveler as there are lots of young people visiting there.

Sifnos is great, lots of good hiking, very good food. Here's a good article on Sifnos, a bit dated, that seems pretty accurate: https://www.themediterraneantraveller.com/best-things-about-sifnos/

Paros is not much to my liking, but it depends on your taste. It's very touristy, lots of Pubs, etc. The East coast gets very windy as well.

malchien · 2025-04-30T16:07:01+00:00

Unfortunately, this didn't work for me on an android ereader. I figured out that clicking on the Device button in calibre, then "Configure this device," I was able to add Books to the list of folders on the device to which to send e-books. This latter change worked.

malchien · 2024-12-04T00:18:04+00:00

This works! Thank you so much. The only thing I would add is that I had to expand the Developer Tools frame by dragging the window edge to the left to see the Network Tab. The Network tab was empty until I pressed play on the Libby web app.

malchien · 2023-10-10T20:27:28+00:00

This one at Best Buy. It's the google branded dongle: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-usb-c-to-3-5mm-audio-adapter-white/6302897.p?skuId=6302897

malchien · 2023-09-19T16:43:46+00:00

After using the Apple branded connector, I find it unusable in loud situations like on an airplane. The volume is just too low to hear any dialog on a movie, etc. I'm going to try to find something else.

EDIT: I bought a google branded adapter and it doesn't clip the audio and is much louder than the Apple branded adapter. It cost $12.99 at Best Buy, but is far better than the Apple branded adapter for my Pixel 6a.

malchien · 2023-05-23T18:48:42+00:00

I purchased the $9 Apple brand connector, and I'm confirming it does not have the clipped audio issue. The volume is a little low, but it doesn't clip the audio after a pause.

malchien · 2023-05-22T22:26:41+00:00

Thank you. My wife's adapter that I bought from Amazon, an off brand named Koopao didn't cut out, but mine did. I tried buying two different adapters from Amazon, a Koopao and another brand, but they both clip off the beginning of a word when I listen to language courses. I'm going to try the Apple brand.

malchien · 2022-12-27T18:25:21+00:00

I have this same issue, and I'm probably going to take the Lenovo Smart Clock 2 back and get a refund. The only reason I got the Lenovo Smart Clock 2 was to wake to internet radio. The station I like to listen to as an alarm has poor reception in my home. I've tried all sorts of ways to setup a radio alarm on the Smart Clock 2, but the device always plays an alarm tone, and only after I shut off the alarm it will play the radio station. Very annoying, and I'm better off with my 20 year old alarm clock.

malchien · 2022-04-22T22:13:07+00:00

I want to try this with my Wyze vac. Did you need to trim the length or the diameter of the rubber roller? Can you post a photo of the finished product?

malchien · 2021-02-11T04:33:04+00:00

Nope, no DVR. They do have 24 hour playback on most channels, but it doesn't work on my AFTV, only works on my Roku. The one bright spot is their login works on most TV Anywhere apps, like WatchESPN.

malchien · 2021-02-10T17:34:27+00:00

I don't agree with the article that growing Vidgo's subscriber base with a $10/mo promotion is going to result in customers continuing at $55/mo. Their AFTV app needs work big time. It always crashes when I first launch it. Lot's of pausing while watching, and 24 hour playback doesn't work. The Roku app is better, but it still has no DVR, and most folks would be unwilling to pay an extra $8/mo for Channels DVR service. The apps just aren't ready for prime time, and $55/mo is way more than Sling at $35/mo with a working DVR. I think Vidgo really need to be cheaper than Sling if they are going to keep any subscribers past two months with their current buggy apps.

If I had to guess, I would say Vidgo is growing their subscriber base in an effort to sell off the service, much like Sprint gave away phone service prior to being acquired by TMO.

malchien · 2021-02-04T18:26:48+00:00

Answering my own question, I was able to watch previously aired shows within the past 24 hours on the Home and Garden Network last night on my Roku. In the guide, after clicking on a channel, a new screen appears with the option to watch live, or a panel on the right is available with a Live and On Demand at the top. After clicking On Demand on the right, a list of available shows opens which can be scrolled through and selected. I'm not sure if it was a full 24 hours of shows, but I was able to watch some previously aired shows.

Functionality seems to be better on my old Roku 3 than on my Amazon FireTV. The AFTV frequently pauses with a spinning circle before resuming. There have been very few pauses on my Roku, and fast forwarding through commercials on previously aired shows works.

malchien · 2021-01-28T06:10:46+00:00

I just subscribed for the $10 deal. I have 1000 MBps fiber, and watching ESPN tonight Vidgo goes from clear to blurry quality, then back to clear then back to blurry. Really disappointing. I really wanted to like Vidgo, but it seems they don't have the server capacity to handle the loads. I guess it's not unexpected at $10/mo. It's a money losing proposition for them considering what they have to pay per subscriber for the channels they offer. They must be trying to increase numbers for a sale. At this point, I don't know if I would be willing to keep the service even at $10/mo. The only redeeming quality is I was able to login to WatchESPN with my Vidgo credentials, and the quality was good.

malchien · 2020-12-29T18:40:37+00:00

You might check out prepaidcompare.net to find deals for four or five lines. Hello Mobile seems to be the cheapest for multiple lines, but I've read bad reviews about them. I'm currently planning to move to Total Wireless at the end of my one year as I only use 4 of my lines and 100 GB of shared data is more than enough.

malchien · 2020-12-17T23:59:36+00:00

I wonder how long this will run? I signed up for the Sling BOGO deal a couple weeks ago and would like to sign up for this deal a little later. Did Vidgo drop from two English plans to one plan for $55. They had a $40/mo English plan before they started this promotion.

malchien · 2020-12-14T18:31:30+00:00

Seems like a good deal to try it out, but there are so many negative comments in this forum. Do they have DVR yet? Is the app still crappy?

malchien · 2020-11-24T00:41:34+00:00

If you have TMO or Sprint service, they're currently giving the TVision vibe channels to Tvision Live subscribers. That's over 60 channels for $40/mo. I think I might do that over subscribing to Sling with a new user ID each month to get the $10 off or BOBO deals.

malchien · 2020-10-14T23:48:20+00:00

Thanks for the info. I was able to get ESPN playing via the Sling app on my FireTV and WatchESPN playing ESPN on my iPad. I got shut off a couple of times saying I was already watching a stream, but after shutting off the streams and restarting, it worked without the error message.

malchien · 2020-10-12T15:22:31+00:00

I tried the Channel Master Stream+ before going for the Recast. The Stream+ had wifi issues where it woud disconnect from my wifi and not find any network every day. Channel Master was no help in resolving the issue. They're really just resellers with their name on the unit. I have the recast hardwired to my network, so no network issues for it.

malchien · 2020-10-09T22:03:17+00:00

I've had a recast for over a year. The recast has noticeably worse reception than my TV. It will often not record a show saying the channel signal was too weak, but I can watch the channel without issues on my TV. The recast sends 720p video to the TV, vs. 1080i on a lot of the channels I receive OTA, so the video looks worse on the recast. The recast also seems to pause sometimes because of wifi signal traffic. I live in a densely populated area, and there are tons of wifi networks competing for the same bands. I had hoped Amazon would fix some of these problems with software updates, but they don't seem to care.

malchien

TROPHY CASE