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

Symi's public transport is one minibus on one short route, and for most visitors that is all the island asks for. It shuttles between Yialos (also written Gialos), the tiered neoclassical harbour where the boats from Rhodes tie up, Chorio, the old town on the ridge above it, and Pedi, the bay on the far side — three stops and 28 departures a day in season, worked by Symi Bus, the single private minibus operation known on the island as «Λάκης», Lakis.

The Symi bus network at a glance

The terminal is on the south side of Yialos harbour, between the Sebeco ferry pier and Pantelis restaurant. Walk round the waterfront from where the day boats berth and you will find the minibus parked up. The route is a loop in everything but name: up the hill to Chorio, down the other side to Pedi, then back the same way. Journey times are short — about 10 minutes to Chorio and 20 to Pedi.

Buses leave Yialos hourly, on the hour, and start back from Pedi hourly on the half hour, from early morning until late evening. There is one deliberate hole in that pattern: no departure at 15:00 from Yialos and none at 15:30 from Pedi, the driver's siesta. Do not plan the middle of the afternoon around a bus.

The Symi bus route

• Yialos ↔ Chorio ↔ Pedi: the island's only bus line, linking the harbour, the old upper town and the swimming bay at Pedi — route details.

Every departure we hold is listed on the full Symi bus timetable.

The timetable is a board, not a website

Symi is unusual in that nobody publishes a timetable online — not the operator, and not usefully the municipality. The authority is a physical board at the Yialos terminal, changed with the season. What we publish is the hourly pattern that every source on the island agrees on, and it is dependable for planning; what moves is the first and last departure of the day. Sources disagree about the end of the evening in particular, with the last bus quoted anywhere from around 22:00 up to midnight at the height of summer. Ours is the conservative version, so if you are counting on a late ride back from Pedi, read the board on your way past in the morning and trust it over any website, including this one.

For day-trippers from Rhodes

Most people on Symi arrived this morning by boat from Rhodes and will leave again in the afternoon. If that is you, the bus is the best decision of the day: it spares you the long stepped climb between the harbour and Chorio in full sun, and it turns Pedi — a proper swimming bay rather than a working harbour — into an easy half hour rather than an expedition. A good shape for a day trip is an early bus up to Chorio, a wander through the old town, then the walk back down to Yialos when it is cooler. Keep an eye on your sailing time and remember the 15:00 gap, which falls awkwardly close to when most day boats leave.

Tickets and fares

Cash to the driver as you board. The fare is a flat €2.50 one way, the same whether you get off at Chorio or ride on to Pedi, according to the most recent visitor reports we have been able to check; older pages still quote noticeably less, and those figures are years out of date. Symi tickets are not sold online through Greek Island Buses; where an operator does sell through us the price matches the counter and you board with a QR code on your phone. The operator answers on +30 6945 316248.

The Panormitis monastery bus

The great monastery of Panormitis on the south coast is not on this shuttle. A separate bus does run out to it — roughly 40 minutes each way, a couple of services a day and fewer outside high season — but no departure times for it are published anywhere we can verify, which is why you will not find them listed here. Ask at the Yialos terminal board, or phone ahead on +30 22460 71311, before you plan a morning around it.

Season, days and what the bus does not reach

The pattern described here is the in-season service, and it is universally described as running every day. Outside summer expect materially less, on a winter schedule that nobody publishes online either. Note too that the bus covers three places and no more: Symi's remote bays — Agios Georgios, Nanou, Marathounta and the rest — are boat or taxi country, and always have been. Check the current Symi bus timetable before you travel, and see our Symi island page for what is within reach of each stop.