The ferry takes approximately 1.5 hours to go to Samos. You leave Kusadasi Cruise Port at 9am and arrive Samos at 10.30, you wait a bit at the passport control and ready to explore at 11am. The port for Samos is located in Vathi which is considered as the city center of Samos. There are several hotels you can enjoy. Many of them are not beach hotels. 1.5km distance to the port, there is Gaggou beach. There are some beach resorts there. It may be littfle difficult to walk there, if you have heavy bags. We stayed at a small hotel called Aria Boutique Hotel which was ok. The location was great, but do not have high expectations from the hotel. It was near the bus station so we are able to take the bus to several locations. The hotel costs are much less than Kusadasi.

Samos town has some shops and restaurants. It is very quite during the day. After 9pm, you would see the local people at the main square drinking iced coffee. In Turkey you would see people drinking hot tea and in Samos iced coffee. The restaurants serve almost the same dishes. For non seafood and non fish eaters the choices are not very satisfying after Turkey. There are some beaches in walking distance to the town center. The most welknown one is Gaggou beach. All the beaches are very clean. Gaggou beach there are sunbeds and umbrellas that you can rent for 3 euros.

Next day we took the public bus to Lemonakia Beach. The bus service is not frequent and the buses are full of people and most non airconditioned. (For public bus schedule please click here) We paid 1.5 Euros each for 15 minutes drive to Lemonakia beach. This is one of the best beaches, I have everr been during my travels. Very clean and quite. Once compared to Turkey more civilised. It is a pebble beach. We rented an umbrella and two comfortable sunbeds for 6 Euros. Afterwards we had walk of 10 minutes to Kokkari where we enjoyed a late lunch. With recommendations of our friends in Kusadasi, we dined at Meltemi Restaurant. A family run restaurant. Yannis and Spiros two brothers will serve you. They have also a nice beach in front of the restaurant. Kokkari has a long strip of pebble beach with restaurants and bars. Assuming that this place would be very colourful at nights and full vacationers. Kokkari is more of vacation town. If we would go to Samos for the next time we would stay in Kokkari but would go to beach at Lemonakia.

In our third and last day, we took the bus to Pythagorion. It took us 20 minutes drive with a public bus and costed 1.70 Euros per person. This the birth place of famous mathematician Phythagoras. He lived here at 6th century BC. while Thales of Miletus was living at opposite shores. There are few ruins here but after Ephesus is noncomparable. After Ephesus, this will not satisfy anyone. Several tourist stores. We puchased hand painted magnet from a local artist. By the coast there are two pebble beaches and strip of restaurants and bars. Very quite during the day. Much smaller than Vathi and Kokkari. Must be lively with tourisits at night. Turkish shores are clearly visible from here.

Overall we enjoyed Samos a lot. We recommend travellers staying in Kusadasi to go to Samos  But we do not recommend a day trip at least stay an overnight. The return ferry departing at 5pm. If you are seeking for great beaches, we recommend going to Samos. The historical sites will not satisfy you after Turkey. If we go to Samos again, we would have an overnight stay in Kokkari and enjoy Lemonakia during the day and have a nice dinner at Meltemi Restaurant adn return next day.

For travellers, who would enjoy a holidays in Samos, a day trip Kusadasi is a must. Travellers may enjoy a historical tour of Temple of Artemis, Ancient City of Ephesus, House of Virgin Mary and Basilica of St. John. For private tour inquiries, you can contact us.

Here is a little picture gallery of our Samos adventure: