Why Ios
There are islands in the Cyclades that have built their identity around a single, defining experience offered to a specific generation of visitors, and that have been shaped so completely and so lastingly by that identity that the image and the reality have become essentially indistinguishable — islands where the combination of extraordinary natural beauty and extraordinary social energy has created something unique in the Greek island world: a place of genuine Cycladic magnificence that is also one of the most vivacious, most animated, and most completely alive island destinations in the entire Mediterranean. Ios is this island. Lying between Paros and Santorini in the central Cyclades, its dramatic volcanic silhouette of bare golden hills and brilliant blue bays visible from a great distance in every direction, Ios is an island of extraordinary natural beauty — one of the finest Cycladic coastlines, the best and most varied beaches in the central Cyclades, a Chora of exceptional architectural perfection, and a landscape of such complete elemental beauty that it draws, by its physical qualities alone, visitors of every age and every temperament. But it is known, above all, for its summer energy — for the combination of extraordinary beaches and extraordinarily animated nightlife that has made it, for three generations of young international travellers, the definition of the perfect Greek island summer experience. It is both more beautiful than its party island reputation suggests and more energetic than its natural beauty alone could explain. It is, in the truest sense, entirely and completely itself.
The mythological distinction of Ios is extraordinary: according to an ancient tradition of considerable authority, the island is the burial place of Homer — the greatest poet of the ancient world, whose Iliad and Odyssey are the foundational texts of western literature — who died here, according to the legend, of grief at a riddle he could not solve, and whose tomb on the northern hills of the island was the object of veneration in antiquity. The tradition is unverifiable and, for some scholars, implausible. But the island has inhabited it with pride and with a certain philosophical humour: the home of the greatest poem of the ancient world is also, in the estimation of its modern visitors, the greatest party island of the contemporary Aegean. Homer would have had views on this. They would have been interesting.
The island’s Chora — the main village built on a conical hill above the port of Gialos, its 400 windmills and its labyrinthine Cycladic lanes of dazzling whiteness visible from a great distance at sea — is one of the most beautiful and most completely typical examples of the Cycladic village aesthetic in the entire archipelago. The lanes of the Chora are narrow and labyrinthine, their whitewashed walls decorated with the flowering plants and the painted shutters that make a Cycladic street an experience of complete natural elegance at any hour. At sunset, the view from the top of the Chora across the surrounding Cyclades is one of the finest in the group — the islands of Paros, Naxos, Sikinos, and Santorini visible simultaneously on the horizon in the golden evening light, the deep blue of the Aegean between them, and the entire panorama of the central Cyclades spread out from one of the most beautiful observation points in the island world.
What to Do and What to See
The Chora
The Chora of Ios is among the finest Cycladic village capitals — its 400 windmills on the ridge, its blue-domed churches, its labyrinthine lanes, and its extraordinary evening energy as the village fills for the sunset and the night giving it a vitality and a variety of atmosphere unmatched in the central Cyclades. The Chora is beautiful in the morning and extraordinary at night, and the experience of moving between the two extremes — the quiet, light-filled, photographically perfect morning village and the animated, music-filled, socially electric evening village — is the essential Ios experience.
Mylopotas Beach
On the southern coast of Ios below the Chora, Mylopotas is one of the finest and most completely equipped beach destinations in the central Cyclades — a long, wide arc of golden sand and brilliant blue water backed by dunes of pale sea grass, its beach clubs and water sports facilities and excellent tavernas giving it an energy and variety of beach experience from early morning to late evening that makes it the best and most completely satisfying single-beach destination in the group. The water of Mylopotas is of extraordinary clarity and extraordinary colour, its gradient gentle and its conditions generally calm, and the combination of natural beach quality and complete beach infrastructure makes it one of the most visited and most consistently praised beaches in the Cyclades.
The Remote Southern Beaches
Beyond Mylopotas, the southern and southeastern coast of Ios preserves some of the finest and most completely wild beaches in the central Cyclades — Manganari, a wide double bay of pale sand and calm turquoise water on the southernmost coast, accessible by boat from Gialos and one of the finest and most naturally beautiful beach settings in the Cyclades; Koumbara, a small rocky cove of great natural beauty immediately west of the port; and the series of smaller coves distributed along the eastern coast that are accessible primarily by sea and that offer swimming of extraordinary quality in complete natural solitude.
The Tomb of Homer
On the northern hills of Ios, the site traditionally identified as the tomb of Homer is marked by the ruins of an ancient monument on a bare hillside with views of the surrounding Cyclades of great natural beauty. Whether or not Homer is genuinely buried here, the site preserves the remains of an ancient tomb of the archaic period and its setting — on the highest point of the island, overlooking the sea on every side — has a quality of natural grandeur and mythological resonance entirely appropriate to the resting place of the greatest poet of the ancient world.
Why Choose Ios
Ios is the island for every traveller who wants the central Cyclades at their most naturally beautiful and their most socially alive — who wants Mylopotas beach and the Chora sunset and the energy of one of the greatest summer destinations in the Mediterranean in a setting of genuine Cycladic architectural beauty and extraordinary natural landscape. It is for young travellers seeking the finest combination of beach and nightlife in the Cyclades. It is for those who want a beautiful Cycladic village of the first quality. And it is for those who want to stand on the hill above the Chora at sunset with all the central Cyclades visible on the horizon and understand why, for three generations of Mediterranean summer travellers, this island has been the definition of exactly where they wanted to be.
