Andy's Symi Travel Blog

We now have the timetables for sailings in September and October 2020. As expected September is much the same as August with just some minor tweaks in departure times for Blue Star and SAOS Ferries. After the first week in September Blue Star Chios is replaced by the Symi regular Blue Star Patmos.
Now October is frankly pretty sparse. If the Greek government is serious in wanting to extend the tourist season in order to make up for the earlier lost weeks, they will have to come up with some incentives to get the ferry companies to do better than this.
A new operator may appear – SYMI LINKS SHIPPING. They have a fast ferry, just overhauled and renamed Agia Sofia, and we are told it will be launched in mid-October. The trouble is that “launched” as translated from Greek, could mean either “put into the water” or “commence operations” . It certainly doesn’t mean launched in the sense of newbuilt as she was built in Sweden in 1992. It also could just be another daytrip boat – the King Saron’s season appears to end on 15 October, and there are various cross-shareholdings between Symi Links, Sea Dreams, Dodecanese Flying Dolphins and ANES. More will follow as I find out what is happening.

Update: it has been announced that Agia Sofia is a true ferry and will spend each night in Symi, she will also operate year round. All we need now is the timetable and the start date. I suspect that the operator is waiting for official approval, which may take longer than usual as the government minister concerned is self-isolating after coming into contact with a COVID-19 carrier.

September timetables

October timetables

The Rhodes-based newspaper Rodiaki has reported that the Municipality of Rhodes has started a park-and-ride service using parking space at Akandia with a shuttle bus taking people to Symi Square at the north end of the Old Town. This is the area you reach from the Mandraki area by crossing the stone bridge over the dry moat.

The bus will run between 9am and midnight, every 15 minutes. It occurs to me that it could be useful for people needing to get to Akandia for sailings departing late morning and afternoon/early evening. Unfortunately it doesn’t help those who stagger off the Blue Star at 6.20am, having arrived from Symi. It could help arriving passengers of the Stavros, though.
There is also an electric buggy service within the Old Town, using airport special assistance type vehicles.