Getting Around Serifos

Serifos is not a large island — only 10 kilometres across at any given point — and I had a few options for getting around.

One choice was to rent either a car or scooter in Livadi. There is basically one road encircling the entire island, and your biggest decision is whether to go clockwise or counterclockwise.

When I told my home-exchanger I was going to hire a car for a day or two, she offered to loan me hers. I dubbed it the Purple Raison (for obvious reasons) and used it to get to a monastery on another side of the island, as well as some of the beaches.

To be honest, though, I was perfectly happy to return the car and go back to my usual way of exploring: on foot or, occasionally, by boarding a bus.

The bus that runs between Livadi and the Chora goes once an hour in either direction. It was never full and you pay the driver your 2 euros when you board. There’s no way to signal your stop, however; you simply make your way to the front of the bus as it gets close to where you want to be let off.

That Livadi–Chora bus switched to its winter schedule while I was on Serifos — meaning its last run up to the Chora was in the middle of the afternoon. Apparently, the winter schedule is dictated by the school run, not the tourists. My last few days on Serifos, if I happened to still be in Livadi in late afternoon, my only option was to walk up the old donkey path.

One day, I walked from my home in the Chora to Paralia Psili Ammos, and then, when I’d had my fill of the beach, over to Livadi where I caught the bus up to the Chora.

I didn’t get to every corner of the island during my two weeks on Serifos because, as I’m fond of saying, I always like to leave something to do to ensure a return visit. There are some 80 kilometres of hiking trails on Serifos, and I look forward to exploring more of them when I return to Serifos.