Ios is a small, mountainous Cycladic island famous for two rather contrasting things: its beautiful beaches and its relentless party scene. For decades it has attracted a young, international crowd looking for sun by day and bars by night, and in July and August the island is genuinely packed. But Ios is not just Mylopotas beach and clubs — the whitewashed hilltop Chora is genuinely lovely, there are quiet beaches on the far side of the island, and the claim that Homer is buried here adds an unlikely classical footnote to what is otherwise Greece's most hedonistic island.
The main port is Yialos, where ferries dock. From there, a bus runs to Chora and on to Mylopotas beach — the main resort, with its long stretch of golden sand and its rows of sunbeds, watersports, and bars. Chora itself is a maze of white cubic houses on a hill above the port, worth wandering for its views and its church of Panagia Gremniotissa. The alleged tomb of Homer is at Plakato, on the northern tip of the island. Near the port, the Early Bronze Age site of Skarkos is one of the best-preserved prehistoric settlements in the Cyclades and is remarkably overlooked by most visitors.