Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
Which port, and how long
Rafina is closer to Athens airport than to the city centre, roughly half an hour from the terminal and rather longer from Syntagma. Sailings run to Tinos in about two hours on high-speed craft and up to four on conventional ferries.
Some Piraeus sailings do serve Tinos, usually on longer Cyclades runs. Check the specific departure rather than assuming, because the two ports are on opposite sides of the city and an hour apart in traffic.
The boat lands at Tinos town (Chora), which is the whole arrival: the church is directly up the hill from the quay.
The pilgrimage, and 15 August
Tinos is the most important Orthodox pilgrimage site in Greece. The church of Panagia Evangelistria holds an icon found in the early nineteenth century and credited with healing, and pilgrims arrive year-round, some covering the road from the quay to the church on their knees up a carpeted strip laid for the purpose.
Around 15 August, the feast of the Dormition, the island receives an enormous influx. Ferries are full, rooms are unobtainable, and the town is packed. This is either the reason to go or the week to avoid entirely, and either way it should be a deliberate choice. See Greek Easter and August.
The other Tinos
Away from the town the island is one of the most rewarding in the Cyclades and almost nobody sees it: forty-odd villages of marble, a landscape of terraced hillsides and enormous granite boulders, and hundreds of dovecotes, ornamental stone towers built under Venetian rule.
Tinos is also the marble-carving island, with a museum and a long sculptural tradition, and its food scene has quietly become one of the best in the Cyclades.
Onward
Mykonos is twenty to forty minutes away, Syros and Andros are short hops on the same lines, and the Rafina route makes an Andros-Tinos-Mykonos chain very easy.
Last checked August 2026. Ferry schedules change every season - see our editorial policy.
Common questions
Which port do Tinos ferries leave from?
Mostly Rafina, on the east coast of Attica, which is nearer the airport than the city centre. Some longer Piraeus sailings also call at Tinos.
How long is the ferry from Athens to Tinos?
About two hours on high-speed craft from Rafina, and up to four on a conventional ferry.
Why is Tinos famous?
It is the biggest Orthodox pilgrimage site in Greece, home to the church of Panagia Evangelistria and its icon, and it draws enormous crowds around 15 August.
Should you visit Tinos on 15 August?
Only deliberately. The Dormition feast fills every ferry and room on the island, and the town is extremely crowded.
What is Tinos like away from the town?
Quiet and beautiful: around forty marble villages, terraced hillsides, granite boulders and hundreds of ornamental Venetian-era dovecotes.