Ios Travel Guide

Mountainous Ios, with its green sea and beautiful beaches, is popular with a young crowd but slowly changing to accomodate older, higher-end visitors. Though there are many beaches on the Island, Far Out beach down in the Mylopotas area is the place most people head for during the day that offers sand, sun and water sports. They also offer a pool on the "chill side" that plays easy listening music and then you have the other "happening" side that offers a pool of it's own. Regardless, both sides have plenty of food and booze.

For nightlife, the Main Road offers top notch nightclubs like the brand new Seven Sins or the world famous Planet Ios (DJ MAG said Planet Ios is "the only club on Ios to fly the true club banner"). Good places to warm up early in the village are spots like Red Bull, Flames and Slammer Bar.  

For food, La Buca and Lord Byrons are very good but a bit expensive. Seven Eleven and The Nest are less expensive and in some cases just as good. Munchies is open 24 hours a day and offers everything from gyros to hamburgers.

The Island's main town is white Chora where one can spot the ruins of an old Apollo temple and the church of Panaghia Gremiotissa. It is the only settlement that stay inhabited during winter time. The port of the island, Ormos, and the busy touristy area of Mylopotas (or Mylopotamos) are lively only during summer. Mylopotas has been almost exclusively built for the entertainment and needs of tourism and doesn’t have many permanent inhabitants (the Island only has approximately 1000 to 1500 inhabitants during the winter and maybe 30,000 during peak season).

You can either take the bus or hire a motorbike in Yialos (main port) and explore Plakato, where you can visit the tomb of the poet Homer (that is, it is claimed to be his tomb).

The architecture in Ios is typically Cycladic. Little whitewashed cubic houses with blue painted doors and shutters are standing close one to another, surrounded by narrow stone-paved streets.