Island Ermoupoli, Greece
Cats in Syros
The Cycladic island with three thousand street cats and the sanctuary that ended up on Netflix. Two hours from Piraeus, a marble-stepped capital, and a hillside full of cats with a view.
Where to find cats in Syros: Syros, in the middle of the Cyclades, and its capital Ermoupoli, where the ferry from Piraeus lands. When: May, June, September, October. The sanctuary takes visitors by arrangement; the town cats are out at dusk all year. Why here: Three thousand cats on one island, a sanctuary that houses volunteers for free, and a capital built of marble steps that the cats own after dark.
The short version
- Where
- Syros, in the middle of the Cyclades, and its capital Ermoupoli, where the ferry from Piraeus lands
- When
- May, June, September, October. The sanctuary takes visitors by arrangement; the town cats are out at dusk all year
- How long
- A long weekend. Two hours each way on the fast ferry, a day for the town, a morning for the sanctuary
- What it costs
- The ferry is the cost. The town is free. The sanctuary asks for a donation, and earns it
- Why here
- Three thousand cats on one island, a sanctuary that houses volunteers for free, and a capital built of marble steps that the cats own after dark
What to bring
- A ferry bookingPiraeus to Syros, two hours on the fast boat, four on the slow one. Book ahead in summer; they fill.
- An email to the sanctuaryGod’s Little People takes visitors and volunteers by arrangement. Write before you go; do not turn up at the gate.
- Shoes for marble stepsErmoupoli and Ano Syros are staircases. Marble, polished, and steep, and the cats are on every landing.
- Dry food from a supermarket in townThe island cats are fed by a network of locals and the sanctuary. Top up, do not replace.
Why there are cats everywhere
Syros has three thousand street cats and one woman who decided to do something about it.
Joan Bowell arrived on the island, saw the cats, and started God’s Little People Cat Rescue: a no-kill, no-cage sanctuary on a hillside above Delfini bay on the quiet western side, where sick, discarded and unwanted cats are taken in, treated, and kept or rehomed. It has around sixty-five residents at any time. In 2021 it appeared in the Netflix series Cat People, and in 2018 its advertisement for a live-in caretaker, free house with a sea view included, went viral and drew tens of thousands of applications. It still recruits volunteers that way, and still houses them.
The sanctuary is the famous part, but the cats you will actually meet are in the town. Ermoupoli, the island capital, is a nineteenth-century neoclassical port built on two hills, all marble steps and painted facades, and its cats are everywhere the steps are. Vaporia, the shipowners’ quarter on the eastern hill above the sea, has a spot the residents keep specifically for them. Ano Syros, the medieval Catholic village on the other hill, has cats on its stairs and a view over everything.
The island is not a resort. It has a working port, a shipyard, a university and a year-round population, which is why the cats are looked after in winter, when the resort islands’ cats are not. That is the difference between Syros and Mykonos, and it is the reason this page exists.
The walk
Off the ferry into Ermoupoli, up through the marble town to Vaporia and the sea, across to Ano Syros for the view, and, on another day, out to the sanctuary. A day for the town; a morning, by arrangement, for the cats on the hill.
- From PiraeusFast ferry to Ermoupoli120 minTwo hours direct on the high-speed boats, up to four on the conventional ferries that stop along the way. Seajets and Blue Star both run it.
- From Athens airportFly to Syros35 minA small airport and a small plane, a few flights a week. Worth it if the timing works.
- From ErmoupoliBus or taxi to Kini, then the sanctuary by arrangement25 minDelfini is beyond Kini on the west coast. The sanctuary will tell you how to reach it when you write.
The port and Miaouli Square
Off the boat and up into the great marble square with the town hall at the top. Cats under the cafe tables from the first morning coffee. This is the centre of everything.
Ermoupoli. Marble, neoclassical, and full of cats after dark.Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 4.0 The steps of Ermoupoli
Up any staircase from the square. The town is built on steps and the cats sit on the landings in the sun. Go slowly and give them the right of way.
The stairs. Right of way belongs to the cats.Kokiniatsi27, CC BY-SA 4.0 Vaporia
The shipowners’ quarter on the eastern hill, mansions above the sea and steps down to the water at Asteria. The residents keep a corner here for the cats, and the cats keep it in return.
Vaporia. The best-kept cats on the island, in the best-kept quarter.Kokiniatsi27, CC BY-SA 4.0 Ano Syros
The medieval Catholic village on the other hill, a maze of white lanes and stairs up to the cathedral. Cats on the steps, and the whole island below you. Go up in the late afternoon and come down at dusk.
Ano Syros. Steps, cats, and the view you climbed for.Kokiniatsi27, CC BY-SA 4.0 God’s Little People, Delfini
On the quiet western side above Delfini bay, by arrangement only. Sixty-odd cats, a garden, and the people who run it. Write ahead, bring a donation, and expect to be asked to stay and help.
The island standard. The sanctuary takes the ones who are not standard.Kokiniatsi27, CC BY-SA 4.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Three thousand or so across the island, by the sanctuary’s estimate, on an island of about twenty thousand people. Aegean street cats: lean, short-haired, tabby and ginger and white, and unusually well fed for the Cyclades because the island has a winter population to feed them.
Step cats
Any colour, on a marble landing in the sun.
Ermoupoli and Ano Syros. Stationary until dusk, then everywhere.
Vaporia cats
The best-kept on the island.
The shipowners’ quarter looks after its own. There is a designated corner.
Sanctuary cats
Old, ill, three-legged, blind, loved.
The sixty-five at God’s Little People. The ones the island could not look after itself.
Everybody says You can just turn up at the sanctuary.
Actually You cannot. It is a working rescue on a private hillside, not an attraction, and it takes visitors by arrangement so the cats are not overrun. Write first. They are friendly and they will say yes; they just need to know you are coming.
How not to be the annoying one
- Write to the sanctuary before you go. Do not arrive unannounced.
- In town, dry food only, and only where a cat is already fed. The locals have a system and they would rather you joined it than replaced it.
- The marble steps are people’s front steps. Sit on a public one, not a doorstep.
- Do not take a kitten to the ferry. The sanctuary rehomes cats properly, with papers, to several countries. Ask them.
- The winter is when the island cats need help. If you want to give, give to the people who are here in January.
