Greece - Korina Miller [289]
A few blocks inland from the harbour front the more chilled Amalour ( 6977461357; Tombazi) does a lively line in cocktails and smoothies to a Latin rhythm. About 100m beyond the western edge of the harbour is the waterside Omilos ( 22980 53800), a chic daytime cafe and night-time dance venue.
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AROUND HYDRA
Hydra’s stony, arid interior, now with some regenerating pine woods, makes a robust but peaceful contrast to the clamour of the quayside.
An unbeatable Hydra experience is the long haul up to Moni Profiti Ilias, but you need to be fit and willing. Starting up Mialou from the harbour, it’s a tough hour or more through relentless zigzags and pine trees. Just follow your nose and the occasional timely sign. You can visit the Moni Agias Efpraxias just before reaching Profiti Ilias itself. The latter is a wonderful complex of central church within a rectangular walled compound. Inside are beautiful icons and serenity; it’s worth the hike.
Other paths lead to Mt Eros (588m), the island’s highest point, and also along the island spine to east and west, but you need advanced route-finding skills or reliable walking directions from knowledgeable locals. A useful map for walkers is the Hydra map in the Anavasi Central Aegean series (www.mount ains.gr).
Hydra’s shortcoming – or blessing – is its lack of appealing beaches to draw the crowds. There are a few strands all the same. Kamini, about a 1.5km walk along the coastal path from the port, has rocks and a very small pebble beach. Vlyhos, a 1.5km walk further on from Kamini, is an attractive village offering a slightly larger pebble beach, two tavernas and a ruined 19th-century stone bridge.
A path leads east from the port to the reasonable pebble beach at Mandraki, 2.5km away. Bisti Bay, 8km away on the southwestern side of the island, has a decent pebble beach.
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SPETSES ΣΠΕΤΣΕΣ
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Spetses is only a few kilometres across the sea from the mainland Peloponnese, but there is a stronger sense of island Greece here than in other Saronic Gulf destinations. The novelist John Fowles used the island as the setting for his powerful book The Magus (1965). His portrayal of lascivious heat and pine-scented seduction probably sent many a northern European hotfooting it to the beautiful south on their first Greek-island idyll.
Long before Fowles’ day, Spetses, like Hydra, grew wealthy from shipbuilding. Island captains busted the British blockade during the Napoleonic Wars and refitted their ships to join the Greek fleet during the War of Independence. In the process they immortalised one local woman, albeit from a Hydriot family, the formidable Laskarina Bouboulina, ship’s commander and fearless fighter (Click here).
The island’s forests of Aleppo pine, a legacy of the far-sighted and wealthy philanthropist Sotirios Anargyrios, have been devastated by fires several times in the past 20 years. Many trees survive, however, and burnt areas are slowly recovering. Anargyrios was born on Spetses in 1848 and emigrated to the USA, returning in 1914 as a very rich man. He bought two-thirds of the then largely barren island and planted the pines that stand today. Anargyrios also financed the Spetses road network and commissioned many of Spetses Town’s grand buildings.
Getting There & Away
At the time of writing only fast ferries linked Spetses with Hydra, Poros and Piraeus, and Ermioni and Porto Heli on the mainland. For details Island Hopping.
Ferry tickets can be bought at Bardakos Tours ( 22980 73141, Dapia Harbour) and at Mimoza Travel ( 22980 75170), a few metres to the left of the ferry quay.
In summer, there are caïques from the harbour to Kosta on the mainland (€4 per person). The larger car ferry, Katerina Star, costs €1 per person.
Getting Around
Spetses has two bus routes that start over the Easter period, then continue, depending on demand, until the end of May. From June to September there are three or four buses daily. The routes are