Off-season in Ios, Greece was a different experience, however it is one I would advise everyone to have. After the videos we had seen of Far out Beach Club and Ios as an island, we decided we would take it easy in Mykonos and enter a sort of hibernation to allow our bodies to withstand the inevitable abuse of 5 days on this party fuelled island. The videos show the Far-out pool packed with people, surrounded by what seems like hundreds more all dancing to music that would perforate your eardrums in the best kind of way.
This club isn’t just a club, it is also where we were staying for all 4 nights. So as we walked off the boat, caught a taxi and approached Far-out we prepared to enter our new home of bad decisions and no sleep. We jumped out of the cab and sauntered through the front gates to find a pool drained of water, but with a nice amount of dead leaves, an empty bar and an abandoned club. “what have we done?”.
Now you have to understand that individually, my friends and I are all competent, thorough researchers and planners (mostly). However, when we got together to do just that, we would sit down for 5 minutes talk about what we had to do and then end up spending the rest of time just hanging out saying job well done. In our lack of research we neglected to realise that Ios had just entered off season, and all the bars and clubs were in the process of closing down for the year. Did this turn out to ruin our time in Ios? Quite the opposite.
Ios was transformed from an island where thousands flock to join the party masses, to an intimate, almost private place that felt like our own personal paradise. What would normally be time spent working your way through the mosh pit like alleyways and lining up to enter each club, instead turned into exploring the small, vacant streets in a hunt to find out which club everyone on the island was in at that point in the evening. Once you found this group, that was your new family for the night, and you would criss cross from club to club whenever everyone decided to move on.
By far the best night we had was at the closing night for Shush bar (a silent disco), meaning that there is no music playing out loud, just on the the headphones everyone is given. Now if you are anything like me you are thinking, silent disco? isn’t that what I did at school that one time that was no fun at all? But turns out when you add a bit of alcohol and the fact that you are on a fricken party island in Greece, the prospect becomes a lot more fun. Because it was closing night, we already new that everyone on the island was going to be at this club, so we made our way though the white stone laneways up to it’s front door.
Upon arrival you receive a pair of over ear headphones that can play 3 different genres of music, indicated by the glowing light on the side so that everyone else can know who is listing to the same track. These genres are House, Pop and Hiphop. Having this indicator increases the night tenfold as you end up making eye contact with some random from across the club who is listening to the same song and start jamming out with them.This is only to have another random rapidly pointing to their different coloured headset trying too convert you to one of the other channels. for more on the best places to stay and to party, check out my other article here.
Although the main reason you journey to Ios, it isn’t just the nightlife that made the experience so surreal. Hiring quad bikes and venturing all over the apocalyptically deserted island, we didn’t encounter another person (but we did see plenty of goats). Once again we felt like we had found our own personal utopia upon arriving at some of the small alcove beaches along the way.
Purely by our own incompetence we managed to see a different side of Ios, one that many people will never get to see. And although we didn’t get to experience the jam packed, high season rush, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. To see my Europe trip travel video click here.
Off-season in Ios, Greece? Absolutely.
Don’t stop wandering.