Chios Island National Airport to Kardamyla
About 30 km north; taxis run €38–50 and the northern bus service goes from Chios Town a few times a day.
A shipowners' town in the north-east, split between the inland village and the harbour at Marmaro, with grand houses built by captains and a pebble beach at Nagos a few kilometres on.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Kardamyla, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €48). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €5) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €5 | €48 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €10 | €48 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €20 | €48 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €5, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Taxi
Say whether you want upper Kardamyla or Marmaro on the water — they are two settlements a couple of kilometres and a hill apart, and the beach accommodation is at the harbour.
Where to catch it: Forty-five minutes up the east coast on a road that climbs and descends more than the distance suggests.
Best for small groups in a hurryBus / shuttle
Six euros and about an hour and forty minutes. Better served than the southern villages because the north-east has year-round population, but still built around a morning-in, afternoon-out rhythm.
Where to catch it: Into the capital, then the north-eastern route which serves Vrontados, Langada and Kardamyla.
Best for solo & budget travellersPrivate transfer
Fixed price per car. As everywhere on Chios, book the return if you are flying out early — there is no passing trade in the north at dawn.
Where to catch it: The captains' houses that make up much of the accommodation sit on steep lanes in the upper village, where a driver who knows the address saves a climb.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsCar rental
The north is empty and beautiful and has almost no public transport beyond the main road. Nagos, Giosonas and the mountain route over to Volissos all assume you are driving.
Where to catch it: Forty-five minutes; parking easy in both the village and at Marmaro.
Best for travellers who want to exploreKardamyla & Chios in photos
Buying tickets in Chios
Chios airport is 3 km from the capital and the KTEL express bus covers it in about ten minutes for roughly €1.50 — among the cheapest airport transfers in this guide. Pay the driver; carry coins. Note that Chios has two bus stations in town and the distinction matters for the rest of your stay: the local station serves Karfas, Vrontados and the near suburbs, while the intercity KTEL station runs the village services south to Pyrgi and Mesta, north to Kardamyla and west to Volissos. Those village routes run a few times a day on weekdays, fewer at weekends, and follow an islander's rhythm — into the capital in the morning, home in the afternoon. Chios Town's harbour also runs the 90-minute ferry to Cesme in Turkey.
Taxi scams & safety in Chios
Fares here are low and disputes are rare: €7–15 into Chios Town, single figures to Karfas. The genuine constraints are structural rather than dishonest. First, the taxi fleet is small and a single evening flight can empty the rank, which matters because Chios takes few late arrivals and the last express bus may go before the last plane lands. Second, the mastic villages in the south — Pyrgi, Mesta, Olympi — have no vehicle access inside the walls; whatever you arrive in stops at a gate and the rest is on foot through vaulted lanes. If you are staying in one of the restored village houses, agree the arrival time with the owner in advance, because there is no reception desk and finding a specific door in a medieval maze after dark is genuinely difficult.
Getting from JKH to Kardamyla
Kardamyla is thirty kilometres up the north-east coast from the airport, and like several places on Chios it is really two settlements: the old village inland on the hill, and Marmaro, the harbour below it on the water. Forty-five minutes by road on a route that climbs and drops more than the distance suggests.
Say which one you want
A taxi costs €38 to €50 and the driver will ask. Upper Kardamyla has the square, the older houses and the church; Marmaro has the harbour, the beach and most of the rooms let to visitors. They are a couple of kilometres and a hill apart. Getting this wrong on arrival means either a climb or a long walk down with luggage, and it is the single most common mistake on this route.
The northern bus, and how it runs
Express bus into Chios Town, then the north-eastern KTEL service which serves Vrontados, Langada and Kardamyla — around six euros and an hour and forty minutes in total. This route is better served than the southern villages because the north-east has year-round population, but it still follows the islander's rhythm: into town in the morning, back in the afternoon. Weekdays are considerably better than weekends.
Captains' houses and the money that built them
Kardamyla produced a remarkable number of ship-owning families, and the village is full of substantial stone houses built by men who spent their working lives elsewhere. Several are now let to visitors. The scale of them in a village this size is the thing that strikes people — this is not a fishing settlement that grew, it is a place that exported captains and imported their earnings.
Nagos, and the beaches north
Four kilometres beyond Marmaro, Nagos is a pebble cove fed by a spring under plane trees, with a taverna and clear deep water. Giosonas, a little further, is longer and emptier. Both are short drives and neither has a useful bus. This stretch of the north-east coast is where people staying at Kardamyla actually spend their days.
Steep lanes and where a booked car helps
The captains' houses in the upper village sit on lanes that are narrow and steep, and a driver who knows the address saves a genuine climb. Pre-booked transfers run €48 to €62 — more than the rank, and worth it if you are staying up the hill rather than at the harbour. As everywhere on Chios, book the return too: there is no passing trade in the north at dawn, and flights out are often early.
The mountain road west
From Kardamyla a road crosses the island's northern spine towards Volissos — empty, slow and one of the better drives on Chios, through country that was largely depopulated in the twentieth century. It is the sort of route that makes a hire car worth having at €25 to €45 a day, and it is not served by any bus at all.
What the harbour offers in the evening
Marmaro has a handful of tavernas along the front, a beach that is pebble and quiet, and very little else. That is the appeal for the people who return here year after year, and the reason others find it dull by the third night. Chios Town is forty minutes away — close enough for an evening out with a car, too far without one.
Winter, and a village that does not close
Unlike the mastic villages in the south, Kardamyla has a year-round population and a working harbour, so the bakery and at least one taverna stay open through the winter. That makes it one of the few places outside Chios Town where an off-season stay is practical. The trade is that the summer beach infrastructure at Nagos winds down early — by October the coves are yours and the canteens are shut.
To summarise: €38–50 in a taxi with the village or the harbour specified, or six euros and an hour and forty minutes on the weekday buses.
