Chios Photo: Nejdet Duzen/Shutterstock.com Like most Greek islands, Chios really comes to life in summer – but unlike many of its neighbours, most of its summer visitors are Greeks from Athens and the mainland. This gives the island an authentically Greek flavour and ensures an animated nightlife and some excellent Greek cooking. There’s plenty of sightseeing to be done, and enough active pursuits to keep any visitor happy for a full fortnight. Nejdet Duzen/Shutterstock.com Top 5 Chios Cooking Lessons An enjoyable activity to be done with a group of friends, the cooking lesson... Yacht Tours A number of companies offer all-day yacht tours around Chios and to neighbor... Citrus Estate picturepartners/Shutterstock.com Citrus reigns king here in the heart of Kambos, a picturesque area south of ... Byzantine Museum The most interesting aspect of this museum is the building itself - a mosque... Nea Moni "New Monastery" is a misnomer – this imposing religious institution was foun... Nejdet Duzen/Shutterstock.com Updated 25 July 2019 Destination: Chios Publishing date: 2019-07-25 THE ISLAND DO & SEE photographer_metinn/Shutterstock.com Dimitrios/Shutterstock.com Lying within sight of the Turkish mainland, Chios Chios Town (also referred to as ‘Chora') is a is (by Aegean standards) a big and prosperous surprisingly modern city. With a crescent island. Its rolling hillsides are covered with olive harbour overlooked by oice blocks, warehouses groves, vineyards and mastic plantations which and workshops; it is dominated by the forbidding made the island wealthy during the Ottoman era. walls of the Kastro. This Genoese castle partially encloses an old quarter of narrow streets, tall Chios is also the ancestral home of several of stone houses with wrought iron balconies and Greece’s leading ship-owning dynasties, many of shuttered windows, and drinking fountains whom maintain holiday villas on the island, and bearing Koranic inscriptions that hint at their its main port bustles with merchant shipping Turkish ancestry.There is plenty to do on and and, in summer, a scattering of opulent yachts. around the island - from active pursuits to There is little to remind you of the ancient world, sightseeing and relaxing beach time. but Chios has more than a few relics of its years as a ef of the Giustiniani, a medieval Genoese Chios Cooking Lessons trading clan who controlled many of the North An enjoyable activity to Aegean islands, and as part of the Ottoman be done with a group of Empire (the island was liberated and became friends, the cooking part of Greece only in 1913). lessons organized by a Chios native will grant you insight into the intricacies of local cuisine, and give you the chance to try a hand at creating an edible masterpiece with some of the freshest local ingredients. Photo: RealChios Address: Kambos, Greece Phone: +30 6947315709 Internet: www.cookinglessons.realchios.gr/chios-cooking-lessons Email: [email protected] Destination: Chios Publishing date: 2019-07-25 Yacht Tours museum contains a clutter of Hellenistic A number of companies statuary, Roman slabs and a collection of oer all-day yacht tours Turkish, Jewish and Armenian tombstones that around Chios and to hint at the island’s multi-ethnic past. neighboring islands - an Photo: Chubykin Arkady/Shutterstock.com experience guaranteed to Address: Vounaki Square, Chios leave visitors with lasting Opening hours: Tue-Sun 8.30am-1pm, Monday closed impressions. Most tours include a BBQ lunch on Phone: +30 22710 81337 board and stops for swimming out in the open sea and/or lesser known, secluded beaches. Nea Moni "New Monastery" is a Chios Yachting: misnomer – this imposing religious institution was Photo: Marcin Krzyzak/Shutterstock.com founded in the 11th Address: Karfas, Greece century by the Byzantine Phone: +30 6937077414 Internet: www.chiosyachting.gr Emperor Constanine IX Monomachos. It is, perhaps, the nest religious Citrus Estate building in the Aegean islands, with mosaics that Citrus reigns king here in date back to the golden age of Byzantine the heart of Kambos, a religious art. picturesque area south of Photo: John Karakatsanis/Wikimedia Commons (image Chios Town. A tiny citrus cropped) plantation and museum Address: Nea Moni, Homeroupolis, Chios devoted to the sour fruit Public Transport: green bus line (route 90) connects the city will give you an insight into its processing and monastery stages, and the adjacent gift shop - an Opening hours: 8am-1pm & 4-8pm Phone: +30 22 710 79391 opportunity to stock up on some unique citrusy Internet: www.neamoni.gr souvenirs. More Info: Near Avgonyma village, 15 km west of Chios Town Photo: Chamille White/Shutterstock.com Kambos Address: 9-11 Argenti, Chios Inland from the town lies Phone: +30 22710 31513 Internet: www.citrus-chios.gr the fertile plain known as the Kambos, an area of Byzantine Museum olive groves, lemon and The most interesting orange orchards, almond aspect of this museum is trees and patchwork the building itself - a elds divided by stone walls and country lanes. mosque with the only Under the Giustiniani, this rich hinterland was intact minaret in the the domain of wealthy Genoese landowners and Aegean Islands. The many of their substantial stone mansions can still Destination: Chios Publishing date: 2019-07-25 be seen – some have been turned into holiday More Info: 4 km from Avgonyma village homes by wealthy Athenians, while a few have Inousses (Oinousses) been converted into comfortable guesthouses. This tiny island cluster in Photo: Pascal Mages/Flickr (image cropped) the narrow strait between Chios and Turkey is said The Mastic Villages to be one of the Further inland, in the wealthiest spots in southern part of the Greece – several island, lie the so-called millionaire ship owners have their roots and masticochoria (mastic family homes here. They prize their peace and villages). These quiet, so the islands are pleasantly unspoiled and well-preserved, fortied there are good (but tiny) beaches next to the villages date from the 14th-16th centuries and main island's small port village. There is also a were centres for the cultivation of mastic. Mastic Maritime Museum which celebrates the island’s is the sweet-tasting gum of the lentisk bush, seafaring traditions. which was exported all over the Mediterranean – and the area still produces around 300 tonnes of Photo: kokixx/Shutterstock.com mastic every year. Address: Inousses, Greece Public Transport: By sea from Chios The most picturesque villages are Pyrgi, with its Trips to Samos and Mytilini houses decorated in black and white geometric There are several ferries patterns called xysta Mesta, where towers and and (in summer) walls surround a baing labyrinth of village hydrofoils between Chios streets as well as Olympoi and Vessa are all a and the neighbouring worth a visit. islands of Samos (4 hrs south of Chios) and Photo: vepointsix/Shutterstock.com Mytilini (also called Lesvos, 3 hrs north). Try the Anavatos local Muscat wine in the former and ouzo in the This ghostly but latter. picturesque hill village Photo: Heracles Kritikos/Shutterstock.com has been abandoned Public Transport: ferries run from Chios port since 1822, when its 400 Phone: +30 22710 55222 inhabitants chose to throw themselves from its 300 meter high cli rather than fall into Turkish hands during the genocide following the revolt against Ottoman rule. Photo: mits dros/Shutterstock.com Address: Anavatos, Omiroupolis, Chios Destination: Chios Publishing date: 2019-07-25 Medieval City of Mesta Photo: sarikosta/Shutterstock.com The tiny castle village of Address: Vroulidia, Chios Mesta dates back to the More Info: Located on the way to Emporious and down a narrow paved road, then down a footpath to the beach Byzantine period, when its residents hid from Olympi marauder attacks behind Nowhere else on the the thick city walls. Today island is the scenery this unique historical monument welcomes more reminiscent of the visitors and invites you to taste its local wine middle ages than in the called “Mestousiko”. tiny village of Olympi, where many of the Photo: Steliost/Shutterstock.com Address: Mesta, Chios narrow windy streets aren't lit up at night, which Public Transport: Daily green buses from Chios Town's helps create an eerie medieval feel. Make sure waterfront long-distance bus station to check out the nearby caves as well. Pyrgi Photo: Kayla A/Shutterstock.com This tiny village is known Address: Olympi, Chios for the intricate black and Chios Castle white geometric patterns covering most facades. A If you have some time to true piece of folk art, spare in Chios, check out Pyrgi is a Chios must-see the town's old historic castle located right next and photographers' haunt - the curvy village to the town's port. The streets are very photogenic. castle walls encircle a Photo: vepointsix/Shutterstock.com tiny village as well as hide some architectural Address: Pyrgi, Chios treasures, such as a restored Ottoman era bath Public Transport: Daily green buses from Chios Town's house and an abandoned mosque. waterfront long-distance bus station Photo: Nejdet Duzen/Shutterstock.com Vroulidia Address: Castle of Chios, Chios Tucked away in a secluded location, this Archaeological Museum tiny bay is a hidden gem Even if archaeology on the island of Chios. doesn't particularly excite The pristine turquoise you, this Chios museum waters and idyllic certainly will - the landscape of the untamed nature are a true nd skillfully arranged if you're looking for a few hours of peaceful bliss. exposition tells a The beach itself is mostly sandy with a few fascinating story of the island's glory days and pebbles mixed in. boasts a striking collection of ancient jewelry. Exhibits date back to the 8th and 9th centuries. Destination: Chios Publishing date: 2019-07-25 Photo: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com BEACHES Address: 10 Michalon, Chios Opening hours: Tue-Sun 8.30am - 2.45pm, Monday closed Phone: +30 22710 44239 Polychoros Agio Galas Tucked away in the northwestern part of the island (about 60 km from Chios town) is a tiny mountain village of Agio Nejdet Duzen/Shutterstock.com Galas.