How to Get Around Ithaca by Bus (2026 Guide): Routes, Stops, Times & Fares

Ithaca has one bus route, six stops and two scheduled departures a day. That is the whole public transport system on Homer’s island: a single line along the length of it, between the harbour village of Kioni in the north and the capital and main port, Vathy, in the south — and it is run not by an Ithacan company but by KTEL Kefalonia next door. This guide sets out exactly what that line does, when it runs, and what to do about the journeys it does not cover, because on Ithaca that is most of them.

The Ithaca bus network at a glance

Vathy (Ithaca Town) sits at the head of a long, deep bay in the south and is the island’s capital, its main port and where the bus turns round. One main road runs north from there across the narrow waist of the island to the northern villages: Lefki, then Stavros, then Platrithias, and down to the two small harbours of Frikes and Kioni. The bus route is that road and nothing else — six stops, one line, no branches and no changes, and with two trips a day no second chances if you miss it.

Why a Kefalonia company runs the Ithaca bus

Greece’s KTEL bus companies are organised by prefecture rather than by island, and Ithaca is grouped with Kefalonia. There is therefore no Ithaca bus company and no Ithaca bus website: the island’s service is published by KTEL Kefalonia (ΚΤΕΛ Κεφαλονιάς Α.Ε., trading in English as Kefalonian Buses) as a single row inside its local-routes timetable, under the heading ΙΘΑΚΗ: ΚΙΟΝΙ – ΒΑΘΥ. Knowing that saves you a fruitless search. The company answers on +30 26710 22281, and the local station numbers on Ithaca are +30 26740 32104 and +30 26740 33120.

The Ithaca bus route

• Kioni ↔ Vathy: the island’s only bus line, running the length of Ithaca through Frikes, Platrithias, Stavros and Lefki — route details.

Both published departures are listed on the full Ithaca bus timetable.

Two departures, weekdays only

Be clear-eyed about the frequency. In the summer 2026 timetable, valid from 6 July to 6 September, the operator publishes exactly two trips: 08:00 from Kioni and 13:00 from Vathy, Monday to Friday. No Saturday or Sunday service is published for this period. Outside the summer window the same shape of service historically shifts to 07:00 and 14:00 on weekdays. In practice that is one run south in the morning and one back north in the early afternoon: useful if your day happens to fit it, no use at all if it does not.

One further quirk: KTEL publishes times for the two endpoints only. Frikes, Platrithias, Stavros and Lefki lie on the through road and on the route, but no times are printed for them anywhere, so we do not invent any. If you are boarding in a village, be at the roadside early, and ask the driver about the return before you get off.

Tickets and fares

You pay the driver on board, in cash, so carry small notes and coins. Fares are set by distance and we publish no fare figures for Ithaca — ask at the bus rather than trusting a euro amount quoted on a blog. Ithaca tickets are not yet sold online through Greek Island Buses; where an operator does sell through us the price is identical to the counter and you board with a QR code on your phone. What we do hold is the current departure list: see the full Ithaca bus timetable.

What the bus cannot do

With two weekday trips, honesty is more useful than optimism. The bus will not get you to a beach and back in a day, it will not meet a late ferry, and at weekends it does not run at all. Most visitors fall back on taxis, a hire car or scooter, or the small boats that work the coast in summer, and most people staying in Kioni, Frikes or Stavros arrange transfers with their accommodation in advance. Treat the bus as one cheap, scheduled option rather than as the backbone of your week.

Connections to Kefalonia and the ferries

The same operator runs a far denser network on Kefalonia, which is the practical way to combine the two islands: cross by boat, then use Kefalonian buses on the other side. Sami, on Kefalonia’s east coast, is the crossing point for Ithaca and has bus links to Argostoli and along the north coast — see our guide to getting around Kefalonia by bus. On the Ithaca side, plan the boat first and the bus second: the ferry timetable is what really shapes a day here.

Before you travel

Ithaca’s timetable is one row in someone else’s table and it changes with the season: the current period ends on 6 September 2026 and the next one had not been published when we last checked. Always confirm against the current Ithaca bus timetable before building a day around a departure, and see our Ithaca island page for what is worth the trip.