Ios - A gem if you avoid the late night Younglings

We arrived on pleasant Ios on Thursday afternoon for a four night stay at the charming Brothers Hotel located just outside the port of the island's main town, Chora.  The hotel was simple, clean and perfect for our needs. 

The owners, Nikos and his English partner Lisa, were very attentive (and Nikos was pleased with Christos' Greek) to the point that Lisa made sure we had bacon every day with our fresh eggs on toast breakfast!

It was about a 15 minute walk into the main port area with restaurants and stores or a 30 minute walk up and over the hill into the town of Xhora itself so certainly a relatively isolated spot which after the crowds of Santorini was a welcome break. 

It was also a completely different price point, being about 1/3rd of the price of our spots in Santorini and including breakfast and room cleaning (as it was a hotel, not a VRBO). 

After checking in we had a drink (and salty tarama) at the Allo bar in the port and checked out a few stores before heading back to the hotel to freshen up and prepare for the walk into Chora. It was certainly a hike and we both worked up a bit of a sweat. Chora is lovely with its thin winding pedestrian streets, whitewashed buildings, short covered passages, cats around every corner and lovely views from many spots. 

We wandered about for a bit before grabbing a traditional Greek dinner of keftes, giant green beans in tomato sauce and potatoes at the "The Nest" before opting to head back around 10:30PM. 

On our way out of the town we noted that it just seemed to be opening up (when we arrived at 7ish it seemed almost deserted) and we soon realized that Ios, or Chora itself in any case, is a bit of a mecca for university aged youth to party. 

All the bars and clubs don't open until 10PM or later and go quite late into the wee hours. By 10:30PM the streets were filling up with with groups of young men and women seeking music, dance, libations and each other's company.  

We were just about out of town when we heard some sweet sounds and discovered some wonderful live music, a bouzouki and guitar combo, doing songs from a Greek songbook where half the crowd sang along. 

How perfect! We stayed for a 1/2 litre of wine (which we really did not need at that time!) before stumbling back to our hotel in the late hours.

The next morning, after a wonderful breakfast of oh so fresh eggs on toast and English bacon (with good coffee to wash it down), we decided on a trip to the nearby ancient archeological site of Skarkos! 

Skarkos is a short walk ten minute from the hotel and is one of the earliest known settlements on the islands, dating from between 1000BC and 2000BC.

The site is fenced off and costs 4 euros to enter; a government employee sits watching TV in a ticket booth certainly taking in less daily revenue than his cost (ah the Greek civil service). One can see the buildings of the modern port while standing where people lived almost 5000 years ago.

After wandering around Skarkos for a bit we walked the 2km back to the port and shopped for lunch basics (like dodonis feta!) and a few local products for use on our trip or taking home. 

After a little relaxation back at the hotel we headed out for the hike into Chora as we wanted to see the sunset from the renowned Panagia Gremniotissa.

The sunset was lovely, although a bit crowded by youngsters seeking the perfect selfie, with a view over the port below and and accompanied by a perfect breeze. 

Our hotel is to the right of Lisa in the sunset picture while the main part of the town of Chora is behind Christos (taking the photo).

After a little wandering we made it back to the port for a decent fish dinner at Enigma before heading back to the hotel for a good night's sleep as we had big plans for a driving tour the next day.

The next morning the rental car we had booked showed up at our hotel and we toke possession of it for the next 24 hours. 

We spent the next lovely day touring Ios with stops at (the reputed) Tomb of Homer, the Diaseli Cheesery and the site of Palaiokastro before getting back to our hotel around 4pm. 

To get to the "Tomb" one drives east over the island from Chora to an isolated spot (past some off half finished statues) where one can park and make the short walk out to the small ruin that houses the "Tomb". Who knows how real it is but the view is worth the drive alone!

The Cheesery was quite fascinating as the proprietors provided a sampling of their yummy wares and not all the good cheese in Greece is feta! Otherwise it was a day of perfect blue skies, driving along meandering roads through the hills and amazing views of the sea and the land!

Palaiokastro is an old ruined castle on a hill that one reaches by parking by the roadside and walking  along a narrow path (without a guardrail!) out to the castle ruins and the functioning (albeit closed up during our visit) church there.

After getting back to the hotel, we rested up for a few hours before hopping back in the car for a much anticipated dinner at "Vilaeti Taverna" located about a 15 minute drive from the port. 

It was opening night for the season at the taverna which it turns out is quite a popular spot with locals. 

We arrived early at around 8:15pm and already many of the tables were taken; fortunately we had a reservation! 

As the evening progressed the place just got more and more packed and the two young waiters were worked off their feet. 

At the table next to us, a foursome of Italians settled in for dinner seemingly oblivious to the madness going on around them and the spokesperson for the group started to become more frustrated with how long it took to order and then receive wine let alone to place their food order! 

It certainly didn't help that both the Greek waiter and Italian spokesperson were conversing in English as a lingua franca. 

With it being opening night of a (mostly) BBQ joint, the local cats mobbed the place, the poor workers being too swamped to do anything other than offer a token shooing away!

We had placed our order early, mixed grill for two, early and when it arrived we dived in to the lamb, pork, sausage, meatballs (keftes like but much more moist) and chicken all washed down with local white wine from the barrel. Al the food was amazing and very reasonable priced. 

It was much more than we needed and we ended up with left-over meat for later lunches! The sun had now set and the evening was getting long but diners were still arriving when we left well after 10:30PM. Perhaps live music or some such occurred later but by this point we were beat and still had to drive back to the hotel. 

We left with the Italian foursome just starting to receive their food order which, given our portion size, was likely going to overwhelm them (I watched the spokesperson order many things from the menu!). 

Our final day in Ios had a bit of rain (?!) and was a Sunday so we took it easy, watched some TV, read a little bit, walked into the port a couple of times for fun (and a libation) and into Chora for one last visit before opting for a lovely fish dinner at the port (where we saw the Italians again) at Akrogiali. 

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by one of the beachside bars where it every seat was filled and all were entranced watching a basketball match between Greece and Real Madrid. It was very passionate and who knew basketball was now a thing in Greece!

The next morning after our final bacon accompanied breakfast of the trip it was off to the port for the ferry to our next destination; the island of Paros!