Chios

Hello

I am looking for things to do in Chios.... we will be visiting this port with Princess in two weeks.

I feel like the cruise tours are pretty expensive for this port...

Also I am concerned about security . Any issues with migrants?

Thank you

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We visited Chios the week of June 11th. We just got off the tender and walked their small sea front area and bought some wine and souvenirs. There were some nice restaurants along the shore. Some onboard toured their mastic villages.

Thank you for the reply. Should I be concerned about security? migrants?

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We stopped in Chios last month on the Majestic. It was a very lovely island and the people were extremely friendly. This year is first in years they have seen cruise ships according some of the locals I spoke to. Yes they do have migrants since Turkey is very close. You can see the tents along the beaches however they aren't free to roam around and are confined to certain areas so you won't really see them esp far off in the mastic villages. I will say the tender ride was very rough and bumpy however they went very fast because of this.

There were lots of rental cars available near the tender area. We booked a car in advance @ http://www.rentacarinchios.com/en/ . A group C car was 30 euro + 10 extra for full insurance. The car was brand new manual and we put about 15 euro of gas in the tank. We picked up and dropped at the port gate.

Our first stop was the Nea Moni monastery. Free admission and bathrooms with lovely grounds. It's high up in the hills with nice views.

Next we headed back down to town for gas and off to Pyrgi followed by Mesta with lunch. On the way back we stopped at some windmills and a little town called Armolia for some pottery shopping.

It was a lovely day and a car was really the best way to get around. The medieval villages were really neat to explore. Once outside the main port city you don't see alot of cars so traffic was light. Any questions just ask!

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Thank you for your response

Great pictures , looks lovely.

Have you seen people selling tours at the port? I can't drive a manual car (i know... i should ;) but in Canada it is not very popular)

Thank you again looking forward to visit Chios

Honestly I didn't see many tour guides waiting at the port exit as you see elsewhere. The ones I saw were clearly waiting for a prearranged group. I saw parked taxis but no drivers. Most people took a princess excursion and were getting on the buses from the tender. Princess tours were expensive and you had to choose between the villages only or Nea Moni/Homers rock, etc..

You can def pick up a automatic car for a bit more money and really that would be the better option. We rented a car on every island on our Med sailing and highly recommend it. Just make sure you get a international driver license. Of all the places we rented it was asked for in Chios.

Hi Anthony, we're thinking about renting a car in Chios instead of taking a tour for the exact reasons you did: the tours won't take us to both the monastery and to the mastic villages. I'm glad to hear that it is possible to do on a port day.

But I have a couple of questions for you.....when you say you dropped the car off at the port gate, do you mean where the tenders drop you off? Or did you have to go somewhere else to pick up and drop off the car?

Also, when you say you went back into town from the monastery to get gas, do you mean you drove back into Chios, then headed south? I thought we would continue toward the west side of the island from the monastery then down the coast towards Mesta, etc....

Hi Anthony, we're thinking about renting a car in Chios instead of taking a tour for the exact reasons you did: the tours won't take us to both the monastery and to the mastic villages. I'm glad to hear that it is possible to do on a port day.

 

Yes it's possible to do everything in a 8-5 port day. We were on the first tender!

 

 

But I have a couple of questions you.....when you say you dropped the car off at the port gate, do you mean where the tenders drop you off? Or did you have to go somewhere else to pick up and drop off the car?

 

 

We met the rental car guy at the port gate, about 100' from the tenders. Did the car inspection, etc.. We also arranged a time to meet him on the return. I believe it was 4pm but we were a little early.

 

Also, when you say you went back into town from the monastery to get gas, do you mean you drove back into Chios, then headed south? I thought we would continue toward the west side of the island from the monastery then down the coast towards Mesta, etc....

The car was on 1/4 tank however going up the steep hills to Nea Moni it moved and we realized we should have got gas. That's why we went back into Chios town vs going the other way which we would have. The rental guy did provide a decent map however we had wifi and google maps. Def get gas first. Roads in main town can be narrow so go slow until you get out in the country. We spent an hour tops at nea moni and 1-2 hrs at the villages along with random photo ops. It was easy day. When returning to the port take the road that loops by airport and follows the coast. (see map)

Here is a rough google map I created. The points on map are exact... parking for the villages is anywhere you can find on the streets outside town. Also they recently restored some giant windmills you can stop at on the way back. Not the four windmills in town which you can see from the ship. Also a town with nothing but pottery shops may be worth a stop.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oTRxqR33VRbJ1csQAYzk3diW6hM&usp=sharing

Thank you so much for the map - it is very helpful! Even though I think we'll plan to keep going west from Neo Moni so we will be sure the tank is on full before we leave Chios.

I emailed your car rental guy to get rates and make a reservation but haven't heard back yet.

No need to have a full tank, we only put like 15-20 euros worth of gas. You just want to deliver it back with same amount