Rio is a coastal settlement located seven kilometers northeast of the center of Patras. Its’ soft structure quiet make it ideal for short or longer term living. Apart from the university with its’ convention centre and the general hospital, which are the most important points of interest in the area, Rio also has a beautiful open-air cinema operating in the summer, restaurants , bakeries, supermarkets, cafés, casino, gym etc. It gets especially popular during summertime.

The location is considered a great gateway for various places of interest in the wider area like Delphi, Nafpaktos, Ancient Olympia, Archaelogical Museum of Patras. The city centre of Patra can cover almost all consumers needs for shopping and a wider selection of restaurants and cafeterias.

Patras (pronunciation: [ˈpatra], Latin: Patrae (pl.)) is Greece’s third largest urban area and the regional capital of Western Greece, in northern Peloponnese, 215 km west of Athens. The city is built at the foothills of Mount Panachaikon, overlooking the Gulf of Patras. The Patras City Area is a conurbation of 160.400 inhabitants, while its wider urban area, in the new Patras municipality, has a population of 213,984 (in 2011). Patras’ core settlement has a history spanning four millennia, in the Roman period it had become a cosmopolitan center of the eastern Mediterranean.

The Rio-Antirio bridge connects Patras’ easternmost suburb of Rio to the town of Antirrio, connecting the Peloponnese peninsula with mainland Greece.

Every year, in February, the city hosts one of Europe’s largest and most colourful carnivals; notable features of the Patras Carnival include its mammoth-sized satirical floats and extravagant balls and parades, enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of visitors in a pleasant Mediterranean climate. Patras is also famous for supporting an indigenous cultural scene active mainly in the performing arts and modern urban literature. It was European Capital of Culture 2006. One can find more information about Patras on Lonely Planet.