Symi
Greece
A harbour of neoclassical houses in ochre and blue stacked up both sides of a bay, five hundred steps from the port to the old town, and shrimp you eat whole
Photo by Johnny Africa on Unsplash
Photos by Dimitris Kiriakakis, Kirk Photographer, Kirk Photographer and Kirk Photographer on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Greece
May to June, and September to October (high summer is hot, and the day boats from Rhodes fill the harbour from mid-morning to late afternoon)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 180mm in Dec
Where it is
36.61°N, 27.84°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Arrive by boat and look up
- Climb the Kali Strata early or at dusk
- Eat the shrimp
- Take a boat taxi to a beach with no road
- Stay the night, so you get the island after four
Symi travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Greece
Mid-rangeEuro. Cards are taken almost everywhere now, including the beach bars, but the smallest tavernas and the bakeries still prefer cash and the island bus wants coins. Change nothing at the port booths, whose rate is the worst on the island.
ATMs & cards
Use a bank’s own machine — Piraeus, Alpha, Eurobank, National Bank — rather than the Euronet ones in the tourist streets, which charge a fee and push a bad conversion. Always decline the conversion. On a small island the machine can empty at a weekend in August; draw early.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the machines in the port and the tourist streets
Use these instead
- Piraeus Bank
- Alpha Bank
- Eurobank
- National Bank of Greece
Decline the conversion. On a small island the machine can empty over an August weekend — draw early rather than on the day.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Greece
Very safeVery comfortable. The steps are the hazard: five hundred of them, uneven, and unlit in places at night — a torch matters. There is very little shade in the harbour and the heat between the rock walls is fierce. The day boats leave at four, which is when the island becomes itself.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (4 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the Kali Strata after dark — five hundred uneven steps, unlit in places
- the harbour at midday — a rock bowl with almost no shade
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Greece visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Greece
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Island clinics handle basics; anything serious means a transfer to Athens or Crete, which is quick but not instant.
Summer heat is the most common reason tourists need help — heatstroke and dehydration, not accidents.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodThe shrimp are the island’s dish and are fried and eaten whole. Otherwise the harbour tavernas, which are good and know it. Book in August.
Getting around
Limited- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
FREE NOW the Athens taxi fleet · Uber which dispatches taxis here
- Against a taxi
- The same metered taxis, ordered rather than flagged.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Athens — 7 hours ahead of you
1 hour of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–10:00 your time, 16:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 02:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 02:00–10:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Greece
Why these are Greece's numbers and not Symi's
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 70% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Symi, so these are medians for all of Greece. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Greece, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Greek
- HelloΓεια σας — Yia sasyah sas
- PleaseΠαρακαλώ — Parakalópa-ra-ka-LO
- Thank youΕυχαριστώ — Efharistóef-ha-ri-STO
- Yes / NoΝαι / Όχι — Ne / Óhineh / O-hee
4 more phrases
- Excuse meΣυγγνώμη — Signómisig-NO-mee
- How much is it?Πόσο κάνει; — Póso káni?PO-so KA-nee
- The bill, pleaseΤον λογαριασμό — Ton logariasmóton lo-gar-yaz-MO
- Cheers!Γεια μας — Yia masyah mas
The trap: "ne" means yes, not no. No is "óhi".
Religion
Greek Orthodox
Orthodoxy is written into the constitution and is closely tied to national identity. Do not enter a church in shorts, and do not photograph during a service.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Accept offered food or drink — refusing outright reads as a rejection of the host
- Share plates; ordering individually is not how a Greek table works
- Learn efharistó, it goes a long way
- Put toilet paper in the bin, not the bowl — the plumbing genuinely cannot take it
Don't
- Do not show an open palm towards someone — the moutza is a serious insult
- Do not nod up for yes; a single upward head tilt means no
- Do not rush a meal or ask for the bill early; the table is yours for the evening
- Do not photograph inside monasteries without checking, and dress modestly at them
Where to stay in Symi
No Holistay rentals in Symi yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Symi on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Rhodes, then the ferry RHO
1hfrom the airport, roughly
1h by catamaran from Rhodes town.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
