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

Nisyros has one bus line, four stops and three departures a day, run by the Nisyros Municipal Bus (Δήμος Νισύρου — the municipality itself, not a KTEL). It works out and back along the island's single main road, from Mandraki to Pali, Emporios and Nikia, every day except Sunday. That is the entire public network. And if you have come for the volcano, the most useful thing to know up front is that this bus does not take you to it.

The Nisyros bus network at a glance

Mandraki, the port and capital, is the only hub. Every published departure leaves Mandraki, runs along the coast to Pali — spelled Paloi in the Greek text of the municipal notice and Pali in the English — and then climbs to Emporios and Nikia, the upland villages above the caldera, before returning the same way. There is no second line, no town service and no separate beach route. Four stops is genuinely all there is.

The current notice is headed Municipal bus timetables from 29/06/2026 (daily except for Sundays). Treat that Sunday exclusion as the first thing to plan around: on a Sunday there is no bus on Nisyros at all.

Main Nisyros bus routes

• Mandraki ↔ Pali ↔ Emporios ↔ Nikia: the island's only bus line, and the only scheduled link between the port and the two villages on the caldera rim — three departures from Mandraki, Monday to Saturday — route details.

All three departures are listed on the full Nisyros bus timetable.

Getting to the volcano and the Stefanos crater

This is the part most visitors need, so we will be blunt about it. There is no bus stop at the crater. The municipal line serves Mandraki, Pali, Emporios and Nikia; none of them is on the caldera floor, and nothing scheduled runs down to Stefanos, the fumarole-studded crater you can walk into. In practice almost everyone gets there by excursion coach — the day boats from Kos sell the volcano transfer as part of the trip — or by taxi from Mandraki. If you take a taxi, agree the return pick-up before you set off, because there is no scheduled service to collect you.

What the bus does give you is the rim rather than the floor. Emporios and Nikia both sit high above the caldera and are stops in their own right, so the public bus is a real option for seeing the volcano from above, and for seeing two villages that most day-trippers never reach.

Three departures — and no published return time

The municipality prints exactly one time for each of the three runs: the departure from Mandraki. Each run is labelled (return), which confirms the bus comes back along the same chain of villages, but no departure time from Nikia is published anywhere, and neither are arrival times for Pali, Emporios or Nikia. We have not invented them, and you should not trust a blog that has.

The practical consequence: ask the driver when you board what time he turns round, and do not get off at the far end of the line until you have his answer. With three runs a day, a misjudged return is a long wait or an expensive taxi.

Arriving on the day boat from Kos

Most visitors to Nisyros are day-trippers from Kos, and the boats land at Mandraki, where the bus waits. Three departures a day is thin for a visit measured in hours, so check the posted times against your return sailing before you commit to a village at the far end of the road. If the timings do not work — and for a short day trip they often will not — the excursion coach or a taxi is the realistic way to see the crater and still make your boat.

Tickets and fares

You pay the driver when you board, so carry cash and small change rather than relying on a card. The municipality publishes no fare table for the line, so we do not quote a price for Nisyros — ask the driver rather than trusting a euro figure from a travel forum. Nisyros tickets are not 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 departure list: see the full Nisyros bus timetable.

Season and checking before you travel

The timetable described here is the summer service, in force since 29 June 2026. The notice gives a start date only and prints no end date, so we do not publish a "valid until" for Nisyros and no autumn or winter timetable has been published yet. Before you build a day around a specific departure, check the current times on the Nisyros timetable page or ring the municipality on +30 22423 60501 — for a one-line island with three runs a day, that phone call is worth making. For what is worth the ride once you are here, see our Nisyros island page.