Samos International Airport ground transport

Samos is a big, green, mountainous island that most visitors underestimate — 43 km long, with two mountain ranges, and settlements scattered around a coastline that takes real time to drive. The airport sits on the flat south-eastern corner, which puts it four kilometres from Pythagorio and its harbour, seventeen from the capital at Vathy on the north-east coast, and a good deal further from the north-coast villages that most holiday accommodation occupies. KTEL Samou runs the island buses and the airport is served rather than centred: the route links the terminal to Vathy calling at Pythagorio, running a handful of times a day from Monday to Saturday and considerably less on Sundays. For Kokkari, Karlovasi or the west you change in Vathy, which turns a half-hour drive into most of a morning. Taxis wait outside the small arrivals hall and are cheaper here than on the bigger islands — around €12 to Pythagorio by day and €15 after dark, €20–30 into Vathy, and €26–33 out to Kokkari. Pre-booked transfers are priced a little above those. One thing worth knowing before planning anything: Pythagorio's harbour runs the crossing to Kusadasi on the Turkish coast in about ninety minutes, so a significant share of arrivals on Samos come by boat rather than by air, and if you are travelling from western Turkey that route usually beats flying via Athens. Car hire is popular because the island rewards it — the mountain villages, the Zoodochos Pigi monastery road and the west-coast beaches are all beyond useful bus range.