Homer's Inn Hotel

Traveling to Ios · 65 days ago by Panos Gkikakis

Ios does not have an airport and therefore it is only accessible by boat at the moment.

There are four possibilities when traveling to Ios from abroad:

1. Flight to Santorini Airport (JTR)

Beware that Santorini is also known as Thira. This is the most convenient route, however it may be difficult to find a direct flight from your country. Please note that it may be possible to get a low cost flight by booking a flight only ticket on a chartered flight.

List of carriers known to provide flights to Santorini:

From the UK:
- EasyJet (From May 3rd 2009, Gatwick)
- flythomascook.com
- Thomson Fly (Choose the "Destination" tab)
From Italy:
From Germany:
- Air Berlin
- Condor
From Austria:
- Air Berlin

You may also wish to visit this site and this one

You can then reach Ios by boat (see Travel by Boat). Santorini's port is called "Athinios". You may get a bus or a taxi from the airport to the port (the taxi ride should cost about 15 Euros).

2. Flight to Athens International Airport(ATH)

The advantage of this option is that there are many flights from all over the world to Athens International Airport (Eleytherios Venizelos).

Once arrived you may reach Ios:

By a Flight connection to Santorini Airport. See Flight to Santorini Airport (JTR) for next steps.
By boat from Piraeus (Port of Athens) [kmz] to Ios (See below for more) [kmz].
To get to Piraeus you may use the Public Transport Buses. The Bus Station is right outside the arrivals level. You should buy a ticket from the kiosk (easy to find, next to the buses). The route to Piraeus is named "X96". The ticket costs about 3 Euros (a taxi ride may cost 35 - 50 Euros). It takes about 1 hour (depending on the traffic conditions) to arrive to the port. It will be quite easy to understand when to get off the bus, the stop is named "Karaiskaki Sq." (Πλ. ΚΑΡΑΙΣΚΑΚΗ) [kmz]. If unsure do not hesitate to ask the bus driver.

If you require information about Public Transport in Athens please visit Athens Urban Transport Organization.

The Ministry of Transportation announced that the suburban railway will connect Pireaus Train Station [kmz] to Athens Airport [kmz] in less than 50 minutes. The new route is expected to be effective by the end of May 2007. Tickets will have a very low cost.

From Piraeus port you may get a boat to Ios. Conventional boats reach Ios in about 8 hours. Highspeed boats in 3 hours and 30 minutes. See Travel by Boat for more.

3. Flight to Mykonos Airport (JMK)

From the UK:
- XL Airways
- Thomson Fly (Choose the "Destination" tab)
From Germany:
- Air Berlin
- Condor
- LTU
From Austria:
- Air Berlin
From various European cities:
- TUI Fly

And then you should get a boat to Ios, see Travel by Boat.

4. Flight to Crete (Chania (CHQ) or Heraclion (HER))

From the UK:
- Jet2
- Monarch[Flights from Manchester, Gatwick, Birmingham and also Dublin]
- flythomascook.com
- Thomson Fly (Choose the "Destination" tab)
From Germany:
- Air Berlin
- Condor
- LTU
From Austria:
- Air Berlin
From Sweden:
- Sterling
From Norway:
- Norwegian.no
- Sterling
From Denmark:
- Sterling
From the Netherlands:
- Transavia
From Hungary:
- Wizz Air
From Czech Republic:
- Smart Wings
From Poland:
- Central Wings
- Wizz Air
From various European cities:
- TUI Fly

And then you should get a boat to Ios, see Travel by Boat.

Traveling by boat

Before getting to the port you should check that there is a boat to get you to your destination. The definitive website to do that is OpenSeas which has the most up to date boat schedule. Please note that the schedule changes sometimes (mainly from a Season to the next, so check 20 days before traveling anyway).

There are two types of boats to Ios:

The conventional boats. The most affordable.
- From Piraeus it takes about 8 hours. The standard route is Piraeus -(~5 hr)-> Paros -(~1.5 hr)-> Naxos -(~1.5 hr)-> Ios -(~1 hr)-> Santorini. Please make sure to get off the boat at the right Island!
- From Santorini (usually) directly to Ios in approximately 1 hour.
The high speed vessels. Faster and smaller boats. The tickets cost a bit more. Please make sure you don't get in a fast boat that reaches Ios no sooner than the conventional (because of the route it takes). The fastest service from Piraeus is the HighSpeed 5 (aka the "red Vodafone", rumored to be replaced by Highspeed 6 in 2010) in 3 hours and 30 minutes (route is Pireaus->Paros->Ios->Santorini).

Also you should be aware that boat trips from Mykonos and Crete to Ios are not as many as from Santorini and Pireaus. Also watch out for one of the latest trick, boat companies do (company really, they exercise monopoly strategies): Some scheduled trips from Piraeus will arrive on Santorini first (~8 1/2 hr) and then approach Ios! In general do pay attention to the route and ask what the duration of the trip is. You should also book tickets as soon as possible especially for the high speed vessels and especially during August.

You can actually book tickets on line. When searching in the Open Seas website there is a ticket button next to each trip. Clicking on that should present a number of travel agencies with on line booking service. Alternatively you may go directly to Acteon's booking service, which is our local travel agent. When you book a ticket you'll get an electronic reference number which you should keep. You must then get a physical ticket from any travel agency or issuing kiosk in Greece before traveling.

Hydroplanes

Hydroplanes used to run several times a week connecting Ios to Santorini and Layrio. You may find out more at http://www.airsealines.com. They have some legal issues to resolve before they approach Ios again.

Update: Legal issues resolved but investor lost interest. Thank you Greek government for taking 5 years to come up with policy for hydroplanes :-).

Cruises

EasyCruises unfortunately dropped Ios out of their cruises route.

Comment [1]

Welcome! · 233 days ago by Panos Gkikakis

Welcome to our website.

Make sure to check out the brand new Liveport service.

Download our placemark collection for Google Earth!. It contains various marks on Ios and Athens.

I would like to inform you that we have changed all the windows and doors of the Hotel with sound proofed PVC ones.

Furthermore the main building’s 1st floor has been retiled.

The installation of the water purification unit by EUBizz Water is now complete and in working order. See this for details.

The addition of 5 satellite channels was completed on the 5th of May 2007. With this addition all room TVs receive BBC News, CNN, Italia 1, Canale 5, Slovenia 1, DAS 1, TV Europe 2 in addition to the Greek TV stations.

I would also like to remind you of our Web Access service at the swimming pool. This is completely free of charge for everyone! A computer with web access, packed with games is at your disposal.

I would be also grateful to receive photographs to be published to the gallery.

Finally, I would be grateful if you can inform me of any errors technical or otherwise you’ve encountered navigating the new site.

A link to the old site for those interested, will be left until more content is available.

Comments are welcome click on the link below to get the comment submission form.

Thank you for visiting!

Panos Gkikakis
Homer’s Inn Hotel

Comment [10]