This medium sized mountainous Cycladic island lies at a 30 minutes sailing distance from Mykonos. It is much quieter than it's neighbour. The landscape is dry and rugged with white dots (the villages), deep blue bays and more than a 1000 churches that look like they are made of candy. Here and there you will suddenly bump into a green oasis. Tinos has nice sandy beaches, 1200 dovecots, many windmills and brown mountains with teracces (against erosion). It is called the Lourdes of the Aegean because of an icon in the Panagia Evangelistria church that attracts many pelgrims. The church that is built around this icon dominates the capital.

The roads on Tinos are good and a drive over the island is quite an experience. Tinos is not discovered yet by mass tourism and is relatively quiet. Only on religious events, like for instance on the 15th of august, the island gets very crowded. Also during the weekends Tinos can see quite some visitors from Greece itself, because it is more populair with the Greeks themselves than with the foreign tourists.

The capital Tinos Town is mainly a modern affair that was built around the Panagia Evangelistra church. The old capital lies on the slopes of the Exambourgo mountain and has the remains of an old Venetian castle, a monastery and parts of an ancient Archaic wall.

The island of Tinos has many beaches scattered throughout the island. There are the popular beaches of Agios Fokas and Kionia which are not too far from Tinos Town and where a variety of hotels were built to accommodate the guests. To these resorts there is a regular bus service from Tinos Town. A little further away are more beautiful bays with beaches that are really worth visiting, such as the Bay of Isternia (in the southwest, my favorite) with its tranquil, beautiful beach and a few good and cozy restaurants, and the a green valley in the Bay of Kolymbithra with its cozy beach and taverna located on the rocks. In these places it seems theat time stood still, and you still find the real authentic Greece. Of course there are many more nice beaches on Tinos, including the nice beach of Panormos, situated in the village with the same name. The beach of Stavros on 2 minutes walk from Anna's Rooms is a friendly small beach. On the beach there is a white church and usually it's pretty quiet here. This beach is shallow, so it's ideal for small children.

The beaches of Tinos are not comparable to the beaches you'll find on some other nearby islands. Most of them are much quieter than for instance the beaches you find on Mykonos and some of the popular beaches of Paros, and you will not find parasols and sunbeds on some of them. There are places where you can lie in the shade because there are plenty of trees on almost every beach so you can sit out of the sun when you need to. Often there is also a taverna on the beach or near the beach where you eat or drink something. The calm and the uncultivated is what gives the beaches of Tinos its charm. Most of the beaches are easily accessible by rental car, and still it doesn't get overcrowded becausee most of the visitors to the island the Greeks themselves and they only come to visit the icon in the church in Tinos Town.

Tinos Town has a few beaches within walking distance. The nearest beach is called Agias Fotia and is 500 meter away. Kionia on the west side of Tinos Town is better.

The nice small beach of Stavros is situated just outside of Tinos town. In the antique times there was a harbour here. Far into the sea you can see the remainss of the old harbour, and there is a small church on the beach. Normally it is very quiet here. The beach smoothly goes into the sea.

Mountainous Tinos is the spiritual center of modern Greece, and it is sometimes called the Lourdes of the Aegean. The focus of the religious activitities is an icon housed in the church that dominates the town: the Panagia Evangelistria. The icon is a piece of late Byzantine art, which they say originates from a church destroyed by pirats in the 10th century. It is believed to have healing powers. It came to light in 1822 after a nun had a vision and it was dug up miraculously uninjured. The church was then build on the discovery site. The church has a dresscode, but I didn't see it mentioned anywhere, so I walked in in short pants and a t-shirt in order to burn a candle. There is a main road (used also for the processions) and a souvenir road (nice, you can buy 2 metres long candles for christmas!) leading to the church. It's really very beautiful on the inside, and also the courtyard surrounding it and the views are worth a visit.

Tinos Town is quite big and modern, and is dominated by three streets: the harbour front with all the restaurants, the wide procession street, and an equally long but less wide shopping street with lots of souvenir shops. Around Tinos Town there are a couple of good beaches within easy reach, like Agia Fotias, Stavros and Kionia. You can go there by bus, but if you have a little energy it's also easy to walk to them along the coastline. Spread over the island are small villages, and there are 650 mostly old dovecotes (the specialty of the island). Tinos is very attractive, but it mostly remains a "one town island". The best would be to discover the island from the main town. The landscape is amazing and it's absolutely worth it to rent a car for a couple of days. One of the cheapest and best companies that I know is

There are a couple of car rentals in Tinos Town that you can choose from. I always rent my car at Koulis Rent a Car in Tinos Town (+30) 697 770 6341. If you want you can have your car delivered at the ferry harbour in Tinos Town or at your hotel. You can also pick up your car at their office which is not far away from the ferry harbour.

Tinos can be easily reached from Rafina (near Athens) where there are daily ferries going to the Cycladic islands. The journey takes about two and a half to five hours depening on the boat you take. On the airport of Athens there are regulair busses going to Rafina, and you don't have to drive through Athens itself. Of course you can also take a taxi. The ride takes about half an hour. It's also possible to fly to the island of Mykonos. From there it's only 30 minutes by ferry. For schedules and a possibility to book a ticket - click here.

In the ancient times Tinos was called Ophioussa (ophis = snake) because of the large amount of snakes on the island, and Ydroussa (hydria = places with water) because there was so much water on the island. According to mythology Poseiden chased away the snakes from the island. The people of Tinos than dedicated an important temple to him in Kionia. In mythology Tinos is the home of the windgod Aeolos.

The First settlers of Tinos were probably the Phoenicians, and around 1000 BC the island was inhabited by the Ionians. Two tombs from Mykenian time were found in the village Kyra Xani. In the sixth century BC the island was occupied by Eritria en in 490 BC by the Persians. In the same year they regained their freedom at the battle op Marathon. Tinos became a member of the union of Delos (the island) until 386 BC when the island became autonomous. The new freedom didn't last long. Just like all the other Greek islands Tinos came under the rule of Philip of Macedonia. After the death of his sun, Alexander the Great, Tinos came into the hands of the Egyptian Ptolomies dynasty. In the second century before Christ Tinos was, just like the rest of Greece, occupied by the Roman empire.

In the Byzantine period the people of the island moved from the coast to the inland, because of all the raids by pirates. In 1207 Tinos was conquered by the Venetians. They ruled until 1715. The Turks were uncapable to conquer the island, and it remained independant op the Ottoman empire, when the rest of Greece wasn't. The final handover of Tinos from the Venetians to the Ottomans came with many religious and economic priviliges, and the island Tinos florished. The industry and the harbour activity developped quickly, and Tinos Town grew. The island became the economical capital of the Cyclades and the number of people was between 24.000 and 28.000. Until 1821Tinos was the most populous island. In 1830 Tinos became part of nowadays Greece.

FOR HOTELS, APARTMENTS AND STUDIOS ON TINOS - CLICK HERE