Patmos Greece

Patmos Holidays and Patmos Beaches Guides.

A Holiday on Patmos means that, apart from enjoying Patmos Beaches, you can visit the Cave of the Apocalypse and Monastery of Evangelist & Apostle John the Theologian.

Travelling to Patmos.
Flying. There is no airport on the island of Patmos - however there is a heli-pad which is mostly just for emergency use.
Patmos Ferries. Patmos is visited by a variety of ferry companies - large ferries like the Blue Star and G&A passenger and car ferries through to the Flying Dolphin service to the Dodekanisos Express Catamarans all arrive regularly on the island. There are also several local ferry services such as the Patmos Express which go around the immediate neighbouring islands - all in all the island is easy to get too and good for island hopping. You can visit the lovely little Greek island of Lipsi from Patmos as well as pop over and have a few days holiday on Kos if you fancy it for a few days.
Cruise Ships. These visit regularly - whilst we stayed on the island we saw always at least one and sometimes as many as three cruise ships moored in and around the harbour area. The island is on their itinerary principally because of the Cave of the Apocalypse and also of course sat right on top of the Chora is The Monastery of Evangelist and Apostle John the Theologian. These cruise ship visits create a sort of split state on just how busy Patmos gets - they often arrive overnight and in the first part of the morning there are coaches and taxis and so on everywhere as the passengers are shipped up from the port at Skala to Chora. Often with the itinerary lasting only a few hours before the ships go somewhere else the whole thing can quieten down just as quickly and Patmos - especially around the port - reverts to a somewhat more peaceful state. Various day trippers also arrive from time to time from several of the neighbouring Greek islands such as Leros.

Getting Around on Patmos.
Taxis. Beware of what you pay as far as Patmos's taxis are concerned - you really do not want to get into a Patmos taxi here without clear agreement on the fare before you take your journey. One of the taxi drivers biggest earners on Patmos is from conveying cruise ship passengers (who often only have a short time available before their cruise leaves again) up to see the Monastery in Chora and although this journey is not that far (around 4.5kms) they are liable to charge outrageous amounts if they can. We know from our own experience that this type of overcharging will be attempted by the greedy taxi drivers for any other journeys too.
Buses. There is a somewhat infrequent bus service running from Skala to Kambos, Kambos Beach and Grikos plus a slightly better service going up to Chora - the buses all leave from the port right by where the ferries arrive. As a guide we took the bus to Kambos which at the time of our visit left Skala Harbour at 10:30 - the bus fare was 1.40 Euros each (certainly would have gone up by now of course) and although we got off at the square in Kambos Town you could also continue on down to Kambos Beach at this price.

General Costs on Patmos.
Skala - Tavernas - most of the tavernas in Skala are situated in and around the side alleys and streets although a few can also be found a little way along the edge of the quite large harbour area. Immediately around the ferry docking area where the cruise ships also disgorge their passengers and in the Square most of the food outlets are really just cafes serving fast food and drinks. The actual tavernas do have quite a good menu selection and you can get a nice meal with some house wine for around 40 to 50 Euros or so for two of you.

Skala - Supermarkets and Shops. There is a quite large supermarket just up from the main square in Skala and also several small mini-markets dotted around - there are also many shops selling clothes and of course various china and leather goods and trinkets and stuff that holidaymakers are presumed to be desperate to buy - these all mostly aimed at the cruise-ship market. When the day trips and/or cruise boats are in this area is very busy with tourists wandering around of course.

Patmos Beaches.
Skala itself has a narrow sandy beach with most of the beach area in fact taken up by several tavernas which have placed their tables and chairs directly onto the sand leaving not a great deal of room for sun-bathers and so on. However there are numerous beaches on the island but we only had limited time and therefore visited just a few whilst out walking. The easiest Patmos beaches to get too if you use public transport are Kambos Beach (Kampos beach) and the beach at Grikos and then you can go on towards Petra. It's worth noting that many of the beaches on Patmos are lined with Tamarisk Trees which offer some welcome shade from the hot Greek island sunshine.


Patmos - Agriolivad Beach	Diakofit Bay Beach	Grikos Beach	Patmos - Kali Katsou Beach	View of Kambos Beach

Kambos Beach on Patmos	Meloi Beach	Petra Beach	Psili Ammos Beach	Psili Ammos Beach

Skala Beach Patmos	Area around Stravou Beach	No name beach Patmos	No name beach Patmos	No name beach Patmos

Chora and The Cave of the Apocalypse and The Monastery of Evangelist and Apostle John the Theologian. These are the huge tourist attractions on Patmos and why all the cruise ships turn up. The Monastery of St. John really dominates the island in that it is perched right on top of Chora and visible from everywhere - the other thing you can nearly always see are the series of windmills which are built along the ridge on Chora's outskirts. On the other hand the Cave of the Apocalypse is halfway up the Skala to Chora road by the Moni Zoodochou Pigis and quite well hidden amongst trees although it's easy to find as well sign-posted. We have no photos from the actual Cave as photography is forbidden - the picture above on the right shows the Monastery nestled in the hill-side and the picture in the middle is of the entrance to the Cave.

As with the Cave, once you get inside the Monastery of St John you are not allowed to take photographs and although you can see some parts and wander around them it's obvious that a lot of the area is closed off to the public.
Note that you have to be correctly dressed to enter the Monastery - generally if you are male then shorts and t-shirt is ok but females have to cover their shoulders and legs - you can borrow something to wrap round you if necessary.

Patmos's Chora is not necessarily just about visiting the Monastery - it is actually an excellent area to wander around - there are lovely narrow whitewashed streets and alleys, beautiful old buildings and lots of flowers plus around one hundred churches or so (perhaps a slight exaggeration but there are a lot of churches at Chora.)

Please see our Patmos Holiday Walks topic for just a couple of walks you might enjoy on the Island and please do take a look at our Lipsi holidays topic.

External Patmos related Sites well worth looking at:
Patmos by Greeka
Patmos Travel Guide from Greek Island Postcards.