Greece - Korina Miller [284]
The water taxi service ( 22970 91387, 6972229720) costs €40 one way between Aegina and Angistri, regardless of numbers.
Getting Around
Several buses a day run from 6.30am to about 9pm during the summer months from Skala and Mylos to the little village of Limenaria and to Dhragonera Beach. It’s worth hiring a moped (€15) or sturdy mountain bike (€10) to explore the island’s coastline road. Good hire outfits are Kostas Bike Hire ( 22970 91021; Skala) and Takis Rent A Bike & Bicycles ( 22970 91001; Mylos).
You can also follow tracks from Metohi overland through cool pine forest to reach the west-coast beach of Dhragonera. Take a compass with you; the tracks divide often and route finding can be frustrating.
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POROS ΠΟΡΟΣ
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Poros is a popular holiday island, yet it has a refreshing sense of remoteness in its sparsely populated and forested interior. The island is separated from the mountainous Peloponnese by a narrow sea channel, and the picturesque surroundings make the main settlement of Poros Town seem more like a lakeside resort in the Swiss Alps than a Greek island port. The mainland town of Galatas lies on the opposite shore.
Poros is in fact made up of two ‘almost’ islands: tiny Sferia, which is occupied mainly by the town of Poros, and the much larger and mainly forested Kalavria, which has the island’s beaches and its larger seasonal hotels scattered along its southern shore. An isthmus, cut by a narrow canal and spanned by a road bridge, connects the two islands.
Getting There & Away
There are numerous daily ferries from Piraeus to Poros in summer and about four daily in winter. Fast ferries continue south to Hydra, Spetses, Ermioni and Porto Heli. Conventional ferries connect Aegina to Poros and on to Methana on the mainland. For details Island Hopping.
Caïques shuttle constantly between Poros and Galatas (€0.80, five minutes) on the mainland. They leave from the quay opposite Plateia Iroön in Poros Town. Hydrofoils dock about 50m north of here and car ferries to Galatas leave from the dock several hundred metres north again, on the road to Kalavria.
Getting Around
A bus operates May to October every half hour from 7am until midnight on a route that starts near the main ferry dock on Plateia Iroön in Poros Town. It crosses to Kalavria and goes east along the south coast as far as Moni Zoödohou Pigis (€1.50, 10 minutes), then turns around and heads west as far as Neorion Beach (€1.50, 15 minutes).
Some of the caïques operating between Poros and Galatas switch to ferrying tourists to beaches during summer. Operators stand on the harbour front and call out destinations.
There are several places on the road to Kalavria offering bikes for hire, both motorised and pedal-powered. Bikes start at €8 per day, and mopeds and scooters are €15 to €20.
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POROS TOWN
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Poros Town is a pleasant place where whitewashed houses with red-tiled roofs look out across the narrow channel towards the shapely mountains of the Peloponnese. Fast ferries and sizeable conventional ferries glide through the channel to dock on the harbour front, and smaller vessels scurry to and fro between the island and the mainland town of Galatas. Behind the harbour front a rocky bluff rises steeply to a crowning clock tower.
The town is also a useful base from which to explore the ancient sites of the adjacent Peloponnese.
Orientation
The main ferry dock is at the western end of the town’s long harbour front.
Across the road from the main ferry dock is the small triangular-shaped ‘square’ of Plateia Iroön. To either side of the plateia the road is lined with cafes, tavernas and tourist shops. The island bus leaves from next to the kiosk at the eastern end of Plateia Iroön. Steps lead up from the inner corner of the plateia to the attractive