To call Kea's main village of Ioulis 'unspoiled' is not entirely accurate. It is spoiled in a way. Kea was discovered by the artist Fasianos and he paved the way for an army of artists who followed him here. Then one of Greece's many millionaires built a house on the island which of course caused all the other Greek millionaires to want one here as well. This got the attention of anyone in Athens who had money to spend on an island house only two hours away from Greece's capital. In that sense it became like an Hydra for yuppies and middle-class Athenians who flood the island in the summer and warm weekends. Except in Hydra you can't build any more houses and in Kea entire neighborhoods are springing up on barren pieces of property. But in Ioulis where you can only restore and people must leave their cars at the entrance of the town, life is pretty much the way it has always been. So while on other islands you have to be vigilant and prepared to jump out of the way of speeding motorcycles piloted by sunburned tourists, in this main town in the center of the island you are safe and can relax. However you need to be alert so you don't get knocked over by the occasional passing donkey on one of the narrow back streets. Since the village is mostly made up of steps, all building material has to be brought up by donkeys and there is always some construction going on though with everything done by hand you probably won't hear it.

When you arrive in Ioulis the bus or taxi drops you off at the first square outside the gate of the town. Well it is more of a parking lot for the taxis and buses than a square but there is a cafe there and it is a great place to watch the sun set over the Cava d Oro the body of water that separates Kea from Attika and Athens. It is the resting place of the Britannic, the sister-ship of the Titanic which sank on a bright sunny day during WW.I when it hit a mine while serving as a hospital ship. This was the subject of a pretty bad made-for-TV movie that I was not quite able to get through despite my fascination with the subject. But if you can forget that this first platia is a parking lot (easy to do because only the bus and taxis park here and they are always busy) and order a souvlaki, drink or a snack from the Geysi and Apolaysi psistaria (grillhouse), you can take a picture as nice as this one or better. There is also a small clinic here, an excellent butcher, and even a tourist shop. If you think of Ioullis as a walled fortress city, which it is in a way, this is the entrance. If you have a vehicle, unless you are delivering something, you can go no further and even if you are, unless you are a very talented driver there is not much chance of you making it through the narrow passageway.

There is a spot for handicapped parking in the square. Otherwise leaving your car here is risky as is parking on the road between the  community health center and the piatsa.

When you walk through the archway you may not notice the small shops inside the passageway, but you should stop for a moment and walk into the tiny store called Zinovia that specializes in honey products from Kea. The island is said to have the best honey in Greece and the owners have their own hives to supply the shop. Right across the road from it is Tyrakeion.gr which is a small shop selling local milk products like cheese, and especially their delicious home made Gelato, sheep and goat yogurt and rizogalo (rice pudding). As you enter the village you come to the small square known as the Piatsa and there is a small restaurant here which serves good food which is also called The Piatsa. The Piatsa Restaurant, also known as Yannis in the Piatsa, not to be confused with Yannis in the Platia (more on that later). Though small, this is a great place to eat lunch or dinner if you want to eat the traditional island cuisine. Especially good (excellent actually) is their arni lemonato (lamb cooked in lemon) and their moscari kokinisto (beef in tomato sauce). Great spaghetti too in case you have kids who have not embraced Greek cooking yet. Yannis is the owner, a terrific cook, and he makes the best cheese omelets and strapatsa (like scrambled eggs with cheese and tomato) I have ever eaten. In the off-season this is the coziest place on the island to have a nice meal and drink a little tsipuro and a couple liters of wine to pass the day.

Also in the same little square is the small Cafe Filakias, which is owned by Giannis' brother where you can get tiropitas, snacks, coffee, ice-cream, beer and maybe the best cocktails on the island. Though it is not the kind of place you would expect to find cocktails the covid lock-down forced them to improvise and since one of the sons was a talented bartender on Kea, with no bars to work at, he started making them for takeout. So after your trip to the lion on your way out of town you can stop here for a cocktail and maybe an ice-cream for the kids to keep them quiet and allow you to enjoy your drink. It is a fun place to watch and see who comes and goes through the entrance to the village. (Actually since they started doing the cocktails I never see the people from the lower village come up to our part of the village). There is also a Pandapoleio which is a store that sells everything owned by Maria who speaks excellent English as well as several gift shops in the stegadi, the covered passageway that is the entrance to the village.

If you back past the Piatsa instead and walk through the archway and up the main street you will pass the excellent Abourkouna Food and Wine restaurant on your left (which has become one of our favorite restaurants) and the Archaeological Museum on your right, one of the best in the Cyclades. As you continue past the old post office, now the Ioulis House cafe is the Gustosa Trattoria, an Italian restaurant featuring pizzas, pastas, salads, deserts and a beautiful rooftop terrace with a view of the entire village.

Next is a very nice little cafe called the En Lefko where you can sit in a beautiful shaded patio beneath the ancient walls of the city and drink espresso or watch your children play chess in Platia Delapizza with pieces as tall as they are. If you are here for the World Cup or the European Cup or any major sporting event they have a very large TV outside. To see the ancient walls walk through the cafe and out the back door and down the stairs and you will feel like you are in a tree-house in a jungle. You can't miss the massive walls of ancient Ioulida, one of the oldest towns which has been continuously inhabited since ancient times. Right next door is Stella, a really nice little boutique that is worth a visit owned by my friend Yannis and his wife Stella. They also have a shop in the back streets of Korissia.

The former demarchio (town hall) building in the main square is one of the most interesting neo-classic buildings in the Greek islands, designed by the architect Ernestos Tsiller, who also designed the school and some of the most well known 19th century buildings in Greece. It was built by my wife's great grandfather Gregoris Jeromnimon in 1902. He built many of the fountains in and around the village and the large house he built which overlooks the Cavo d Oro is where we stay. He also built all the schools, the three main cathedrals and some of the smaller churches as well. He was mayor for over forty years and died on a couch in the old cafeneon which used to share the building. On the roof of the building are two clay statues, one of Apollo and the other of Hermes and inside the building are some artifacts from ancient Karthea.

The town surrounds the square like a big amphitheater and just like at Epidavros where you can hear a coin drop on the stage from the top row of seats, in Ioulis you can hear anything that goes on in the square, even a violin played through a PA system at four o'clock in the morning. On Sundays the square is full of pick-up trucks because the farmers come in with their produce since they know that the villagers will all be around for church and socializing. On Saturday night the restaurants are full and children use the square to play while their parents eat and drink and enjoy the air of the village which is much cooler than the ports. The main square is where they hold the festivals and the weddings. Antonakis Zoulos, one of the finest violin players in Greece is the main performer at every event. Weddings in Kea can go on for days and nights with endless singing, playing and dancing. The celebration of the Panagia on August 15th is another night of food, wine, music and dancing. Ask in the town hall when the next wedding or panagiri is scheduled because if you are lucky enough to be there you will hear one of the most amazing musicians in Greece. I have been laying in my bed at 5 am while a celebration was still going on in the square below listening in total awe and hearing every note played by the legendary Zoulos. (For more on Antonakis Zoulos including some audio-video clips of him performing click here.)

As you walk through the square there is a taverna on your left called 'Yiannis' also known as the 'Oinozythestiatoriaon Kalofagadon' though of course nobody would waste their time calling it that. Its just Yannis in the Platia, (not to be confused with Yannis in the Piazza.) This is where I also spend a lot of time especially when the grill is fired up or a whole roast pig is turning on the spit. His main waiter is Frangisco, one of my young pals who gets plenty of help from Panayotis Coolpan and Vangelis and also Yiannis, who all speak English. The restaurant is owned by Big Yannis, the former bus driver and one of the finest cooks on the island, the God of the Grill in my opinion. This is the place to be, especially on Saturday night when they roast the pig on a spit. Order a kilo of that for you and your friends and a plate of kontosouvli as a starter and you may never want to leave the island. If you don't come early on Saturday you may not get a table. I used to drink the white wine but I mixed it with soda so I am not too drunk when the food arrives. Now I prefer his red which is local, made by Big Yiannis actually, and better, and I don't even care if it is stronger too. If you come on a weeknight they serve the best paidaikia (lambchops) and if you are lucky they will have provatina which is paidakia but older and if done well, as Yiannis does, the best meat dish you will have ever eaten. You can also have a good steak here too, made with local beef, and the dishes that are cooked in the oven are also excellent, particularly their dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), their stuffed kolokithea (zucchini), gemista (stuffed tomatoes and peppers) and the roast lamb and potatoes. Also well worth eating at any time of day are his pitas... mushroom, spinach and kolokithia. My latest discovery is his katsiki lemonato (goat in lemon sauce) and his dolmades, probably the best on the island. Try the paspala, a local dish sort of like scrambled eggs with tomatoes and pork, similar to the strapatsada served at Yiannis in the Piatsa. Don't leave without desert and a tsipuro.

In my opinion some of the best food on the island was found at Rolando's, the ouzerie-taverna across the street from Yiannis restaurant, and I should know, having eaten there about a hundred times in the last three years. Unfortunately for me, Rolando left Ioulida to open a new restaurant in the port and sold it to his friend Andonis (Cyclades Anton to his Facebook friends) and he has done a fine job and has introduced some new dishes while keeping many of the favorite dishes of Rolando's customers. The new restaurant is called O Paparounas and opened in June of 2017. He has added fried barbounia (red mullet), gavros marinato (fresh marinated anchovies), lakerda pastes(salted bonito) and some veal, pork and beef steaks as well as the famous sausage of Kea and excellent mousaka. We still manage to eat here a couple nights a week and it is a fun place with good food and lots of neighborly conversation when you are lucky enough to find a table on the terrace. I highly recommend their beef with eggplant, a sort of Ottoman dish, similar to what we were eating in Istanbul. Also his tirokafteri, spicy cheese spread made with jalapeno peppers. Also their local grilled sausage is recommended. Sharing this side of the platia with Paparounas is the cocktail bar called BArLCOLNEY or something like that. The young guys who work there are friendly and know how to make a good drink. Their music caters to a younger crowd but the plan is to play music for old people like me until around 11pm and then switch over.

The best thing to happen to Ioulida since the arrival of Rolando has to be the opening of the Bakshe, a sort of epicurian grocery store that has a large selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, all sorts of nuts and herbs and spices, a large selection of wines from all over Greece as well as the local wines bottled by the farmers like Kostis at Red Tractor and Giorgo Paouris who both make excellent reds. Run by a woman named Toni, the shop is a far cry from the old vegetable shop that seemed as if it was run by a woman who did not like vegetables. She also owned the computer shop but had her 90 year old mother working there and she did not know anything about computers or cash registers for that matter and whenever I wanted to buy something she never knew would it cost and would tell me to come back when her daughter was there and I would come back and the daughter was never there and finally they went out of business. So now we have a really good fresh grocery market and I would rather have no computer store than a bad one.

Diagonally across is the supermarket-butcher owned by Mr Tassos and Kyria Anna and their beautiful daughter, Irini who is an actress. The son Giorgos was one of the most colorful characters of the village but he died in a car accident several years ago. His photo is mounted in the butcher section of the shop. This shop really is a Super-market. There are actual real supermarkets on the island that are the size of the supermarkets you may be used to. This supermarket has the same stuff crammed into about one tenth the space and also includes a butcher shop and a cheese shop. It is worth going in just to marvel at their organizational skills. If you are renting a house or living in Ioulida then this shop is essential for daily necessities. They also sell many canned and bottled traditional foods from the island and all the meat is local. Their freezers are full of fish, even octopus and barbouni. By the way the other supermarket in the Piazza, which I mentioned before, is like going back in time. You should visit on the way in or out of town. Maria, the owner speaks English and has kept the place looking very traditional, as an island supermarket should be.

If you take a left at the top of the platia there are 2 very nice shops which feature clothing and art. One is called Stefania and the other is called In-Kea and worth stopping in before dinner, after lunch or on your way to the lion. If you continue on and walk through the archway and up the steps you will see on your left the Panorama Zacharo-Plastion (sugar-shop) which has a balcony that overlooks the whole village and serves excellent deserts and coffee and is the last stop for many of the villagers after a night out in the tavernas. It is also jumping on Sunday after church. It could possibly be the best place to watch the sunset outside of Santorini. Beyond the zacharo-plastion as you continue up the steps you will pass Epiloges, a small gift shop, and Metallon, a silver jewelry workshop. You will emerge from the center of the village and find yourself on the road with the village on your left and an expansive view on your right. This area, believe it or not is where all the nightlife of the island used to be. Most people hang out at the Leon Bar which is a gem of a place and a good reason to come to Ioulida. If you want to try Greek micro-brew beers they have several and the bartenders are known for their excellent cocktails. Next door is a wonderful little family run taverna called To Steki, that is a favorite of the locals and X-pats and worth the walk. At the very edge of the village is Savina Ceramics.

By continuing along the road you will pass the Cathedral of Agios Spyridon and at the end of the village you will find yourself on the old stone road that takes you past the spring of Kounderis. The whole area is very green with olives and fig trees as well as fields on the terraced mountainside. A little past the cemetery and a small whitewashed church is the Lion of Kea, a huge statue carved out of granite from the 6th century BC. This is the journey that most foreign travelers take and well worth the walk which is level and quite easy to make on the old road. Not much is known about the Lion and why he is smiling, but they say in the old days Lions used to roam the hills and valleys which were at one time covered in trees. Beyond the lion is yet another spring, this one called the Spring of Benjamin, with it's troughs for the animals and marble columns. The path continues on to Otzias if you are the type who loves walking. In fact the walking is great in Kea since much of the old road network still exist as do the footpaths which go all over the island. They are numbered on the map and many have signposts that tell you the distance in minutes from the next village.

There are several ancient springs in and around the town and these are now the fountains you see where man and beast both drink from. The water is quite pure and better than any bottled spring water you will find on your dinner table. It is most likely because of these springs that the town was built here in the first place. The biggest is just below the entrance of the town and is called the Spring of Rokomenos. The spring of Kourendis on the road to the lion is considered to be the best tasting of them all. It is not uncommon to come upon a herd of sheep, horses or cows drinking at these fountains on the outskirts of the village though you need no worry about disease since they use the the tubs where the spring water runs off and the humans use the spring itself. These springs and fountains also attract butterflies, dragon flies and an occasional bee or two since one of the main products of Kea is honey. Kea is also known for the quality of it's milk and cheese as well as the excellent quality of it's pork. The animals are kept far from town in the terraced fields and on Sunday after church the farmers who come into town to hang out wth their friends in the cafes can create quite a commotion. The best cafeneon in the village which was in the back part of the town hall has closed, but in the years past you could hear the farmers in the cafe, talking, drinking and singing sometimes even being joined by the village priest. Now they hang out at Yannis, drinking enough to make driving their pickups back down through the village an adventure.

Just above the Rokomeno Health Center, near the Piatsa entrance of the village and the parking lot where everyone leaves their cars, is the old school, which is now the town hall of Kea. The building was built by Andrea's great grandfather in the neo-classic style and is considered to be one of the most elegant examples of this type of school building in Greece. Behind the old school-new town hall is the remains of the old outdoor movie theater which used to open in July and show movies nightly until the end of August but it was so windy and cold up there they had to move the theater down to Livadi. There is a small spring right behind the building and you can follow the path in front of it to Tria Pigadia spring and some of the farms in the area, notably those owned by Mavromakis, the charismatic butcher who keeps his cows, sheep and goats up here and can sometimes be seen herding them down the path towards the slaughterhouse.

Because there are no hotels in the village most tourists come up during the day. But there are plenty of taxis and buses in the summer so a nightime visit for dinner is possible if not preferable. The best thing to do is time it so that you get here about 7pm and walk through the village to the lion and then come back, have a drink or an ouzo and meze and then have dinner at one of the restaurants here. They will arrange for a taxi to pick you up in the piazza when you are ready to leave. If you want to stay in the village Kea Villas at the top of the village are an option though walking home after a big meal at Rolando's may have you wishing you had found something closer. Still you can always take a taxi to the top of the village and if you have a car it is actually a convenient place for getting most anywhere on the island and the view is amazing. You can find more houses and holiday homes in Hora using Booking.com's Ioulida Kea page. Be sure you look at the map to see the location of the property because sometimes houses way out in the country are listed as being in the village.

Ioulis is also the home of the painter Del (or Dellapizza) who may be the heart and soul of the village. He is the one who used to keep the streets clean, white-washes the walls and steps, frees the ancient pathways from years of over-growth and kept all the plants and trees healthy. The reason Ioulida looks so beautiful is because of Dellapizza and one day there will be a statue of him in the platia. He is also a wonderful artist whose work is an amazing look into the personalities and politics of the island. During the summer of 2007 Dellapizza decided to fix up the abandoned lot that had stood for several years after they tore down the building that used to house the butcher and the electric shop. For weeks he worked to create this beautiful and colorful garden and platia which he used to show an exhibit of his paintings on August 15th. It now has an almost life-sized chess-set where you can actually play by lifing up the giant pieces and moving them around the board. It will give you a whole new perspective on the game of chess. Del's studio was a cave carved into the wall by his garden. (They say that because Ioulis sits on top of the ancient city you can get from the top of the village to the very bottom through underground caves and passageways.) Unfortunately with the cutbacks due to the economic crisis Del lost his job and his pension. But he can still be seen around the village on his way to and from various tasks. Be sure to visit the Gallery of DEL by following the signs on the way out of town going towards the ancient Lion of Kea. There is a small church on the right just past the Leon Bar and and if you turn right and walk up and to the right you should find it. All his work is displayed there and he has postcards and prints that he gives away. Please offer him money and when he turns you down insist he takes it. If he still is reluctant just leave it somewhere he will find it after you leave.

For more about Dellapizza see The Art of Dellapizza.

Nightlife

Ioulida used to be the center of the island nightlife with a line of bars going from the church of Agios Spiridon to the edge of town along the road to the Lion. The most successful of the bars was The Leon which was the last to close several years ago. However in 2014 they reopened and once again Ioulida has some nightlife that is not centered around eating. It is a cozy little stone building, very nicely decorated with tables and chairs outside where you can see the lights of Attika twinkling in the distance. The young owners have good taste in music of all time periods and you may even hear The Kinks and other British bands of the sixties echoing through the mountains. They also have air-conditioning and I have been told by more than one person that they make the World's Best Bloody Mary. According to my party age daughter this is now the place to be and in August expect the fun to go on until the sun comes up. For beer lovers they have the island's best selection of micro-brew beers. A few steps further is 49 Steps, a bar that must have cost a million euros to build, that lasted one year and then closed. It has returned as well so patrons can go from one bar to the other, depending on who is playing the music they like. The Cafe En Lefko also has drinks, music, snacks and is good for people watching in the summer, and for watching popular sporting events like the World Cup. In the Piazza where the taxis and buses turn around is a psistaria called H Thea Kea which also has drinks, a terrific view, ouzo snacks, pizza and music. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights Yannis' Piatsa restaurant has live rembetika music. You can get cocktails next door, some say the best on the island, at Filakias Cafe, and listen to the music if there is no room at the restaurant. Or you can sit out back and still hear the music with a view of the village. Also there is the newly opened Barlcony in the platia.

To Spiti at the very top of the village, besides having amazing food and the best view on the island, has live jazz on weekends. However since covid it has not fully reopened. I almost forgot to mention there is a souvlaki shop/psistaria at the bus stop called Guevsi Apolavsi.

See Ioulida Map (opens in a new page)