Ίος · The party island of the Cyclades, with a hill town of bars, a long sandy bay below it and, at the northern tip, the tomb of Homer
Dance until dawn in the bar lanes of Chora, sleep it off on the sand at Mylopotas, then find the other Ios: a Bronze Age town, empty beaches on the far coast and the hill where, the ancients said, Homer died.
Greetings from Ios
Ios
The boat came into a deep bay with a white church at its mouth and a white town on the hill above. By the afternoon we were on the sand at Mylopotas, between the sea and the pools at FarOut. We watched the sun go down from the hill at Ios Club to classical music, ate in a lane under bougainvillea, and after midnight the whole of Chora turned into one big party, from Slammer to Disco 69. Tomorrow, we have promised ourselves, we go and find Homer's grave.
Hour by hour
A late start on the sand, FarOut in the afternoon, sunset at Ios Club and the bar lanes of Chora until dawn.
Start late at Mylopotas, with breakfast on the sand and a first swim in the shallow, clear water.
Move to the southern corner of the bay for the pools, the DJs and the crowd at FarOut Beach Club.
Take the bus up to Chora and walk to the windmills on the ridge, or stop on the way at Skarkos, a town of about 2800 BC.
Find a seat on the western hill of Chora as the sun goes down into the sea, to classical music, as it has since 1968.
Eat on the main square or in the lanes just off it, before the music starts.
Start around the main square at Slammer and its neighbours, then go on to Disco 69 and Sweet Irish Dream, and stay until the sky turns pale.
Take the night bus or walk down the hill to Mylopotas and watch the sun come up over the bay.
Where to stay
Mylopotas
FarOut Beach Resort & Camping · Camping & bungalows · €
Mylopotas
Ios Palace Hotel & Spa · Hotel & spa · €€€€
Chora
Ios Resort · Hotel with pool · €€
Only on Ios
What makes Ios different from every other Greek island.
Herodotus, Pausanias and Strabo all say Homer died on Ios, and the island's ancient coins of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC carry his head. The legend says the poet failed to solve a riddle put to him by fishermen's boys about the lice they had picked, and died soon after. A stone doorway on a hill above Plakotos, in the north, is still called his tomb.
Ios Club opened on the western hill of Chora in 1968, one of the first sunset bars in the Mediterranean, at a time when the island had barely any tourism at all. It still plays classical music as the sun goes into the sea, and the hill it stands on had a sanctuary of Demeter in the 6th century BC.
Skarkos, on a hill between the port and Chora, was a town of about 2800 BC. Its houses had upper floors, and in places their stone walls still stand nearly 3 m high, which is very rare for the Early Cycladic age. It won the Europa Nostra award in 2008.
Of about 86 km of coastline, some 32 km is sandy beach, an unusually high share for the rocky Cyclades: from the party bay of Mylopotas to Manganari, Agia Theodoti, Psathi and Kalamos, which you can still have almost to yourself.
“What we caught we left behind; what we did not catch we carry with us.”
Towns & villages
A white hill town by day and the liveliest night out in the Cyclades, with a Kastro, a row of windmills and dozens of bars in a few lanes
Chora, the island's only real village, climbs a steep hill above the bay of the port, about 2 km inland. By day it is a classic Cycladic town: whitewashed lanes paved with marble, blue-domed churches, the cathedral on its square, a row of windmills on the ridge and, at the very top, the church of Panagia Gremniotissa on the rock of the old Kastro. After about eleven at night the lanes around the main square turn into the party quarter of Ios, one of the densest knots of bars in Greece, where Slammer, Disco 69, Sweet Irish Dream and a dozen others play until dawn. Cars stay outside, at the foot of the hill.
A long sandy bay 3 km below Chora, with the island's beach bars, campsites and FarOut Beach Club at its southern corner
Mylopotas is the beach of Ios: a long, gently curving bay of fine sand on the south-west coast, 3 km below Chora, with clear, shallow water and a low hillside of hotels, rooms and campsites behind it. The name comes from the watermills, mylos, that once stood on the stream that runs down to it. It is the island's most organised beach, with straw umbrellas, beach bars, water sports and tavernas, and in summer it is where the day of a party week on Ios takes place. At its southern corner FarOut Beach Club runs pool parties and DJ nights; at the northern end, nearer Chora, it is quieter.
Things to do
Festival
After eleven at night the lanes around the main square fill with music: Slammer, Escobar and the bars around them, then Disco 69, a few steps from the square since 1979, and Sweet Irish Dream on the road below. Most stay open until four or five in summer.
Chora
Beach
Pools, a restaurant, VIP tables and international DJs on a corner of Mylopotas beach, with events through the summer.
Mylopotas
Culture
The sunset bar on the western hill of Chora, open since 1968, plays classical music as the sun goes down into the sea.
Chora
Good to know
Ios is a mountainous island of about 109 km² in the southern Cyclades, between Naxos and Santorini, with 2,299 people (2021). Since young travellers found it in the 1970s it has been the party island of Greece, and in July and August its hill town, Chora, fills with bars that play until dawn while the day moves down to the long sandy bay of Mylopotas and FarOut Beach Club. It is cheaper and younger than Mykonos, with rooms, campsites and buses that run through the night. But the island has another life too. A third of its 86 km of coast is sand, much of it on empty beaches at the end of long roads; on a hill above the port stands Skarkos, a town of about 2800 BC; and at the northern tip, the ancient writers said, Homer died and was buried.
When to go
For the parties, come from late June to early September; July and August are the peak, busiest and loudest. For the beaches and the history, May, June and late September are warm and much quieter, though many bars only open in high summer. In winter the island is very quiet.
Getting around
The bus links the port, Chora and Mylopotas all day and late into the night in summer, and runs to Manganari and Agia Theodoti in season. For the east coast and Homer's tomb rent a car or a scooter, but never ride one after a night out.
How long
Three to five days lets you have a few big nights in Chora and on Mylopotas and still see Skarkos, Homer's tomb and a remote beach or two. Pair it with Santorini, Naxos or the quiet islands of Sikinos and Folegandros.
Getting there
No airport: take a fast boat from Piraeus, about 3.5 hours in summer, or fly to Santorini and hop over by sea in well under an hour.
Flights & ferries
A Bronze Age town above the bay, an ancient city that claimed the greatest of poets, Venetian lords, pirates and a resettled island, and, from the 1970s, the young travellers who made Ios famous.
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