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Ios Town, also called Hora (Chora)

The 'Village' or 'Hora' are commonly used alternate names for Ios Town. Ios Town is on the hill above Ormos( the port) and walkable depending on baggage. See photo top.

Taxis, buses and donkeys make the trip as well on wide stone steps which were originally designed for donkeys and are a nice touch since they are wide when hordes of hungry tourists are all trying to ascend immediately after docking.

Ios Town, by common consensus is one of the nicest cycladic towns in existence with pretty, white washed stone houses, stone flagged streets and palm trees offering shade. Twelve windmills stand outside the town.

Little remains of the Castle of Marco Crispi built 1400, and Venetian ruler of the island. The ancient town of Ios has traces of its walls visible if you look hard enough. Near the Castle, you can see the Panagia Gremiotissa (Our Lady of the Cliffs) with a miraculous icon that floated to Ios from Crete. This icon is housed in the only spot on Ios where visibility sometimes allows a glimpse of Crete.

A new theater offering concerts and culture has been built in Ios Town. The town, however, is not a typical, traditional, Cycladic one steeped in Greece's past...it's full of fast food restaurants, bars, discos and geared to party hearty. It has some great juke boxes with hard to find classics to recommend it as well.

There's an archaeological museum in Hora in the town hall. There are some interesting historical exhibits` and it's free.