Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Travel agents
The most comprehensive island-wide
travel agents, represented in all three ports and some
resorts, are By Ship (
T
22730 22116,
W
byshiptravel.gr)
and ITSA (
T
22730 23605,
W
itsatravelsamos.gr).
9
GETTING AROUND
By bus
The KTEL service is good between Pythagório and
Vathý, with 11 services on weekdays, 9 on Saturday and 4
on Sunday, and fair on the Vathý-Kokkári-Karlóvassi
route, with 8 weekday services, 5 on Sat and 3 on Sun, but
poor for other destinations.
By car or motorbike
Of the myriad scooter- and car-
rental agencies dotted around the island, three to try are
Aramis/Sixt (
T
22730 23253), Avis/Reliable (
T
22730
80445), both with branches island-wide, and Auto Union
(
T
22730 27444) at Themistoklí Sofoúli 79 in Vathý, which
negotiates good long-term rates and will deliver cars to
the airport.
By kaïki
There are several weekly
kaïki
day-trips
(10am-4pm; from €26) from Órmos Marathokámbou to
the nearby islet of Samiopoúla and inaccessible parts of the
south coast.
Vathý
Lining the steep northeastern shore of a deep bay, beachless
VATHÝ
(often confusingly
referred to as “Sámos”) is a busy provincial town which grew from a minor anchorage
after 1830, when it replaced Hóra as the island's capital. It's an unlikely, rather
ungraceful resort and holds little of interest aside from an excellent museum, some
Neoclassical mansions and the hillside suburb of
Áno Vathý
.
Áno Vathý
The best inland target on foot, a twenty-minute walk south from town and 150m
above sea level, is the atmospheric hill village of
ÁNO VATHÝ
, a nominally protected but
increasingly threatened community of tottering, canal-tile-roofed houses: some
buildings are being replaced by bad-taste blocks of flats, others are being defaced with
aluminium windows and modern tiles. Best of several venerable
churches
is quadruple-
domed
Aï Yannáki
, in the vale separating the village's two hillside neighbourhoods.
Archeological museum
Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm • €3 •
T
22730 27469
The only real must is the excellent
archeological museum
, set behind the small central
park beside the nineteenth-century town hall. The collections are housed in both the
old Paschalion building and a modern wing just opposite, constructed for the star
exhibit: a majestic, 5m-tall
kouros
discovered out at the Heraion sanctuary. The largest
freestanding effigy surviving from ancient Greece, this
kouros
was dedicated to Apollo,
but found next to a devotional mirror to Mut (the Egyptian equivalent of Hera) from a
Nile workshop.
In the Paschalion, more votive offerings of
Egyptian
design - a hippo, a dancer in
Nilotic dress, Horus-as-Falcon, an Osiris figurine - provide evidence of trade and
pilgrimage links between Sámos and the Nile valley going back to the eighth century
BC. he
Mesopotamian
and
Anatolian
origins of other artwork confirm an exotic
trend, most tellingly in a case full of ivory miniatures: Perseus and Medusa in relief; a
kneeling, perfectly formed mini-
kouros
; a pouncing lion; and a bull's-head drinking
horn. The most famous local artefacts are numerous bronze
griffin-heads,
, for which
Sámos was the major centre of production in the seventh century BC; they were
mounted on the edge of cauldrons to ward of evil spirits. There's also an unlabelled
hoard of gold byzants
, some of more than three hundred imperial coins from the fifth
to seventh centuries AD - one of the largest such troves ever discovered.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
VATHÝ
By ferry
Ferries dock at the north end of the seafront.
By bus
Buses stop on the front, just south of the centre.
By taxi
The taxi rank is opposite the fishing harbour.
By car
See above for details of car rental around the island.
The southern seafront is the best area for free parking.
Tourist o
ce
Themistoklí Sofoúli 107 (May-Oct Mon-Fri
