Chios holds a set of museums out of proportion to its size, the legacy of an island that grew rich on mastic and shipping and was ruled in turn by Byzantines, Genoese and Ottomans. The capital gathers a Byzantine collection in a former mosque, an archaeological museum, a folklore museum above one of the oldest … Read more
Chios is a large island of scattered treasures, and a good itinerary is what turns its distances into a single, coherent trip. The medieval mastic villages sit in the south, the mosaics of Nea Moni and the ghost village of Anavatos in the central mountains, the shipowning villages and quiet beaches in the north, and … Read more
Chios has a Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, and the choice of when to go shapes the whole trip. Beach travellers want the warm sea of high summer, walkers and sightseers want the mild light of spring and autumn, and everyone wants to dodge the fierce August heat and the … Read more
Chios holds far more than its famous mastic villages. Beyond the fortified south, the island is scattered with stone settlements that see few visitors: the shipowning twins of Kardamyla and Marmaro in the north, the hilltop village of Volissos in the west, the abandoned cliff village of Anavatos in the mountains, the fishing harbour of … Read more
Chios sits closer to Asia Minor than any other large Greek island, and that position gives it a range of day trips no Cycladic island can match. The Turkish coast lies a short crossing away, close enough that the lights of Çeşme show from the Chios waterfront at night. Two small satellite islands, Oinousses and … Read more
Chios rewards drivers more than almost any other Greek island of its size. The island runs about 50 kilometres from the northern mountains to the mastic villages of the south, and its finest places sit far apart: a medieval village here, a black-pebble bay there, a Byzantine monastery in the hills between them. Buses connect … Read more
Chios Town is a working Greek city rather than a resort, and that is the point of it. About 29,000 people live in the capital of Chios, which makes it one of the larger island towns in the Aegean, and its harbour handles ferries, fishing boats and freight instead of catamaran day-trippers. Concrete apartment blocks … Read more
Chios food tastes of one ingredient that grows nowhere else on earth. Mastiha, the aromatic resin bled from the mastic tree, flavours the island’s sweets, its liqueur, its bread and even its cheese. Around that single crop the island has built a cuisine that sits apart from the standard Greek island menu, joined by citrus … Read more
Deciding where to stay in Chios shapes the whole feel of a visit to this large, varied island. Chios is not a single resort but a patchwork of very different places: a lively working capital. A sandy beach resort kilometres away, medieval stone villages in the mastic-growing south. Green, quiet coasts in the north. Each … Read more
Getting to Chios is easier than its off-the-beaten-path reputation suggests: unlike some Greek islands. It has its own airport with daily flights from Athens, as well as regular ferries from Piraeus and its neighbouring islands. You can reach it in under an hour by air or on a scenic overnight boat, and even cross from … Read more