Tinos and Kea are both islands that Athenians love, but they belong to different corners of the Cyclades. Tinos sits in the north-east of the group, next to Mykonos, with its busy port town and its villages spread over the hills; Kea, also called Tzia, is the closest Cycladic island to Attica, a green, hilly weekend escape reached from Lavrio in about an hour. A direct boat between them is rare, and it is worth knowing exactly how it works before you plan around it.
In Ferryhopper's monthly figures for Tinos to Kea, based on last year's data, Blue Star Ferries sailed once a week in every month. The trip took 3 hr 15 min in May and June and 5 hr 50 min in the other ten months, so the same weekly boat can mean a morning at sea or most of a day, depending on when you travel. The fare stayed at €11 per adult throughout.
That makes the direct ferry a good fit for travellers with flexible dates who like a slow, cheap crossing, and a poor fit for anyone on a tight schedule. The realistic alternative for most people is to return to the mainland from Tinos and cross to Kea from Lavrio, which has daily boats.
Our older route data listed the same weekly Blue Star service from €11 with a shortest trip of 3 hr 15 min, which agrees with Ferryhopper. We have no timetable sample for this route, so we cannot say which weekday the ship sails; the booking page shows it for your week.
