Where to stay in Syros

Syros is not a resort island and it does not have a resort strip, which makes this the shortest where-to-stay decision in the Cyclades. It is the administrative capital of the islands and a working nineteenth-century city, so you stay in a town, and the town is Ermoupoli.

Ermoupoli, which is effectively the answer. The town rises from a working port in tiers of neoclassical houses, with Miaouli Square at its centre: a broad marble plaza with the town hall on one side, palm trees, and cafes that fill with locals rather than tour groups. Staying here means you are in a place that is busy for its own reasons rather than yours, which is the whole appeal of Syros and the thing the famous islands have mostly lost.

Ano Syros, if you want the hill. The older Catholic settlement climbs in stepped lanes to the cathedral of Saint George, and walking up it is the best hour on the island. Sleeping up there means no cars, steps and arches, and the harbour dropping away below your window. It also means those same steps with a bag, so weigh it the way you would any upper town.

What you are not choosing between. There is no beach base worth planning around here. The coast has sandy bays with a taverna behind them and no beach clubs, and they are perfectly good if you are already on the island and a poor reason to pick it. If a beach holiday is the point of the trip, base somewhere else in the Cyclades and give Syros two nights as the first or last leg.

Which is exactly how the island fits a route. Syros is a ferry hub with a small airport and sits centrally enough to connect to most of the Cyclades, so it is a natural first or last stop on a hopping route rather than a destination in itself. Two nights is enough to see the town properly and swim twice, and it works well as the calm end of a trip that starts somewhere louder.

A practical note that follows from it being a real city. Services here do not run on a tourist season the way they do on a small island, which is one of the quieter advantages of basing in a working town. Greek island ferries covers how the routes join up.

We name no hotel on this page. Properties in a city this size change hands, and the site’s venue standard needs two independent platforms and a review floor this listing does not verify. What lasts is the choice between the port town and the hill above it. Our Syros guide has the practicalities, things to do covers the opera house and the two hills, and the beaches are honest about being beside the point.