Argo-Saronic Islands travel guide
The five islands of the Saronic Gulf could be described as 'commuter' islands – although that doesn’t sound very romantic – lying as they do within a short ferry ride (or an even shorter hydrofoil trip) from Piraeus. But these islands are remarkably attractive in their own right.
A hop away from Athens
The temptation exists to treat the Argo-Saronics as an extension of the mainland or, more specifically, suburbs of Athens. Entrepreneurs have been quick to exploit the islands’ proximity. The one-day cruise from Piraeus calling at Aegina, Hydra and Póros remains a popular atraction for tourists visiting Athens (rivalled only by Delphi as a day-trip destination). When the cruise ships mingle with the ferries, the hydrofoils and the catamarans, there is often a virtual traffic jam on the waters, and foreign visitors temporarily outnumber Greeks.
The distinctive character of the Argo-Saronics
In spite of all this, the Argo-Saronics are definitely Greek islands, not Athens suburbs – brimming with character, rich in history and, behind the crowds and the chichi boutiques, very attractive places. Salamis (Salamína), the largest of these islands, is renowned for the epoch-making naval battle in 480 BC, which decided the outcome of the Persian Wars. Aegina (Egina) is home to the beautiful Doric Temple of Aphaea, which is one of the most important antiquities to be found on any Greek island.
The Argo-Saronic islands in literature and in film
Póros and its channel have been immortalised by American author Henry Miller (1891–1980) in The Colossus of Maroussi, and forested Spétses (thinly disguised as Phraxos) by John Fowles in his celebrated 1966 novel The Magus. Not to be outdone, since the early 1960s Hydra (Ydra) has attracted artists, filmmakers, well-heeled Athenians, trendy French and Italians, movie stars and other international celebrities.
Places to visit in the Argo-Saronic Islands
Aegina
An hour and a half by ferry from Piraeus, or 45 minutes by the hydrofoil, Aegina (or Aigina or Egina) has little trouble attracting visitors. Long a favourite Athenian weekend retreat, it remains more popular with them than among foreign tourists or other Greeks. From 1826 until 1828, Aegina served as the first capital of the modern Greek state. Elegant Aegina Town has numerous 19th-century buildings constructed when the country’s first president, Ioánnis Kapodístrias (1776–1831), lived and worked here. In Livádi suburb, just north, a plaque marks the house where Níkos Kazantzákis lived during the 1940s and 1950s, and wrote his most celebrated book, Zorba the Greek. Aegina’s main produce is pistachio nuts, sold all along the quay.
Aegina’s main attraction is the exceptionally beautiful Temple of Aphaea, on a pine-tufted hilltop commanding a splendid view of the gulf. Built around 490 BC in the Doric order, it is the only surviving Greek temple with a second row of small, superimposed columns in the interior of the sanctuary, and one of the most completely preserved – it’s well worth waiting for any crowds to disperse to enjoy it in solitude.
Póros
Póros is separated from the Peloponnese by a narrow channel, which gives the island its name – póros in Greek means ‘ford’. As you sail down the 350-metre/?yd wide passage from its northwest entrance, Póros Town comes into view, presiding over one of the most protected anchorages in the Aegean, with scores of yachts berthed in a row. From an approaching boat, the sight of the pyramidal, orange-roofed town culminating in a blue-and-white hilltop clock tower is one of the iconic images of the Argo-Saronics. Póros Town, built on several hills, occupies most of the little sub-islet of Sferiá, attached to the bulk of Póros (called Kalávria) by a narrow isthmus cut by a disused canal. Whichever route you choose to climb to the clock tower, you’ll probably lose yourself in narrow lanes overhung with vines and flowers.
Despite mediocre beaches on Kalávria, Póros sees far more package tourism than its neighbours, along with Athenian weekenders and second-home owners. The island has never been fashionable, but has had a naval connection since 1846 when a cadet-training station was established just beyond the isthmus bridge.
Hydra
The island of Hydra (or Ydra, the ancient Ydrea, ‘the well watered’) is today mostly a long, barren rock with a few stands of pine. But the postcard-perfect harbour bracketed by grey-stone mansions and Byzantine-tiled vernacular houses is incomparable, attracting the artistic and the fashionable since the 1950s, and many others ever since. It is one of the few islands declared an Architectural Heritage Reserve, which has helped Hydra retain its original beauty through strict building controls and the banning of most motorised transport – the donkeys you see are working freight-carriers, not just photo opportunities.
The central port-town, also called Hydra (Ydra), is a popular destination, packed out during summer and at weekends most of the year. The harbour, girded by a slender breakwater, forms a perfect crescent, its two ends flanked by 19th-century cannons. Overhead, white-plastered houses climbing the slope are accented by massive grey arhondiká, mansions built by shipping families who made fortunes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of these imposing arhondiká are open for visits, for example the gorgeously restored Lázaros Koundouriótis Museum.
An hour’s walk upwards and inland leads to Agía Evpraxía Convent and the Profítis Ilías Monastery, while Zoúrvas Monastery stands at the extreme eastern tip of Hydra.
Spétses
Spétses (or Spétsai) is the southwesternmost of the Argo-Saronic Gulf islands. In antiquity it was known as Pityoússa (Piney Island), and despite devastating fires in recent years it is still marginally the most wooded of this island group, and with the best beaches. Tourist development here is far more extensive than on Hydra but less than on Póros or Aegina.
Like Hydra, Spétses was one of the main centres of activity during the Greek War of Independence, using its fleet for the Greek cause. It is distinguished for being the first in the archipelago to revolt against Ottoman rule in 1821, and the fortified Dápia harbour still bristles with cannons. Although Spétses’s fleet declined after that war, shipbuilding traditions continue, especially in the east end of town at Baltíza inlet, where a few boatyards continue to build caiques the old way. The local museum contains painted ship-prows of the revolutionary fleet, and the bones of local heroine Laskarína Bouboulína. Passed en route to Baltíza, the Paleó Limáni (Old Harbour) radiates a gentle grace thanks to the 18th-century mansions where wealthy Athenian families spend the summer. Above, the courtyard of Agios Nikólaos church has a particularly outstanding pebble mosaic, a highly developed Spetsiot art.
Out of town in the opposite direction (west) stands the Anargyríos and Korgialénios College. This Greek version of an English public school is where John Fowles taught, memorialising both institution and island in his 1966 novel The Magus.
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Athens, cradle of western civilisation and a lively, accessible modern capital
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