Beaches Lovers of the sea will he enraptured by the superb beaches of Ios, some of them busy, (such as Milopotas, near Hora), and others no less attractive but much quieter (Agia Theodoti, Psathi, Kalamas, Plakes, Tzamaria, Kolitsani and Manganari). Among the most beautiful beaches of Greece is Milopotas and Magganari.
Sports You can rent surfboards for wind surfing on the island. Night Life Hora and Ormos (harbor) attract most of the people at night. You can find discos, bars and pubs.
Transportation From Piraeus there are more than 2 ferries a day during the summer period (duration:8h). Or you can travel from Paros and Naxos, taking approx 5/6 hours on a slower ferry, costing….
Opinion/ our experiences Ios was slightly less confusing than Paros when arriving, you have the usual people offering rooms, and there is a chiosk selling accommodation. We approached a few people and asked prices, we wanted to be near the beach, (as we had missed out on this in Paros, as we stayed in Parikia) which we presumed would be near the main town, Hora (as we later discovered was incorrect). We finally found a hotel that sounded nice and within our price range, this again was about 12 pounds a night each for a twin room per night, we were taken by bus to the hotel which we thought was in Hora. We arrived at a beach resort where our hotel was just a few metres back from, it looked amazing, this was Milopotas beach. Our hotel room had bathroom, balcony over looking the beach this time air conditioning, and again it was clean. Just watch out for the towel steeling scam. I will sidetrack slightly: When we left the hotel we were called back in and told we were to empty our bags, as we were told we had stolen their towels. We were confused because we hadn’t been given any towels. We refused and told them it was stupid, they then said that they wanted money from us to replace them. We laughed and said no, they were very unpleased and kept on saying that we had either lost them on the beach or had stolen them. After much arguing and attempted to show them that we hadn’t stolen the towels, they let us go. We thought that they we just trying to make some money, they were not asked for much, but it is the principle. We actually saw some other people emptying their backpacks when we were arriving, but thought nothing of it at the time. It was a shame the people were so rude, because it was a nice hotel. Anyway although at this point we were still confused where we were and learnt at this point it was probably better to do some more reading on the island we were next going to visit. We later discovered where we were and found that Hora was only about 10 minutes away by bus, which ran frequently, about every 30/45 minutes and was cheap, although the service stopped at about 13.30 at night. Hora by day like I said earlier is a normal relaxed Greek town but by night it comes alive. The streets are extremely narrow and the steps are uneven, it gets very busy by night so the streets become congested. The bars and clubs over a variety of different music to suit all tastes, although they are extremely crowed and hot! Drinks are reasonably prices and there are a variety of buy on get one free offers, but not the cheapest on the Greek islands. Amidst the drinking and sun worshipping we did when we were there, it is a must to see the sunset from the hill in Hora. Leave your self plenty of time to find your way among the alley ways, and once you are there you get the most amazing views and some fantastic pictures. One word of warning, if you do feel the cold, it can get a bit nippy when the sun goes down, but then you walk down back to Hora and the temperature picks up.
Accommodation Name: Address: Tel: Cost: 12 pounds a night each Rating: 7/10
