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GREECE

Peleponnese Peninsula
~ Kalamata Marina

Ionian Islands
- Ionian Islands

Cyclades Islands
- Siros harbour
- Mykonos marina
- Naxos harbour

North-East Aegean Islands
- Mytilini harbour, Lesvos
- Molyvos harbour, Lesvos
- Plomeri harbour, Lesvos
- Chios marina

Dodecanese Islands
- Rhodes harbour
- Symi harbour
- Tilos harbour
- Karpathos harbour
- Kasos harbour

Crete
- Sitia harbour
- Agios Nikolaos marina
- Rethymnon marina
- Chania harbour

Chios Marina (unfinished marina), Chios Town, Greece

 

Route to town spring shown in orange
 
Not to be used for navigation

DESCRIPTION

The large harbour in Chios is described in Heikel as being unsuitable for cruising yachts, so we tied up in the unfinished marina a couple of miles north of town.  If you choose this free option you should probably rent a car.  The rental agencies in Chios Town will deliver a car to you and pick it up from the marina at no extra cost if you request.

MOORING

The marina contains a number of finger piers, but during our stay all the cruising yachts side-tied on the inner wall of the breakwater in company with a couple of rusting ferry boats.  Some of the mooring points are pretty rough so have your chafe gear handy.  The marina is open to the south and would get choppy in a strong southerly (which is fairly uncommon in the summer).

ASHORE

The area surrounding the marina is built up and contains several shops, including quite a good supermarket a few hundred yards south of the marina.  To get to town however is quite a walk and we rented a small car for our explorations of Chios, which we were able to park on the breakwater next to our boat.

FACILITIES ASHORE

WIFI:  We were not able to pick up any unsecured wifi signals in the marina.  There are several cheap internet cafes in Chios Town one block back from the harbourfront.  Several of the harbourfront bars and Goodies fast food restaurant provide complimentary wifi to customers.
UTILITIES: The marina has no facilities.  There is no electricity or water in the marina.  For your water needs we heard that a water tanker will deliver to the marina but were not able to find any way of contacting him.  Possibly the harbormaster in Chios Town could have helped us here.  Our solution, since we had transport, was to make a number of trips to the free town spring, where we filled up with lovely pure mountain spring water.  The town spring is up the hill to the west of Chios town (turn west at the second BP station and just follow the road up the hill to the Monastery.  50 yards past the Monastery on the left (South) is the plentiful town spring.  Be prepared to wait your turn with the many townspeople who still use this spring for their daily drinking water.  The hardware store that you pass on the right, shortly before getting to the BP intersection, will sell you water containers at a very reasonable price.
GROCERY STORES:    A good supermarket (Spar I think) on the road into Chios Town a few hundred yards south of the marina just past the hospital.

RESTAURANTS

There is not much in the area immediately surrounding the marina.  Chios Town is of course full of restaurants.

CAR/SCOOTER RENTAL

There are a number of car rental offices on the harbourfront.  We found (as is usual) that the local agencies were cheaper and more obliging with pick up and delivery than the name-brand companies - at the cost of getting an older and more abused car than we would have probably had from Avis or Hertz.  There is no problem parking cars anywhere on the island and the prices (which are negotiable) are around €40 for a one day rental including full insurance and unlimited mileage.  Chios is very mountainous and the attractive Mastic villages are a fair distance away in the south and well worth a visit so a car probably makes more sense than a scooter.