A chain of car-free islands off the harbour at Piraeus — Aegina, Hydra, Spetses, Poros — the easiest day-trip from Athens, and arguably the best.
The Saronic Gulf is the bay between Attica and the Peloponnese. Four small inhabited islands lie in it, each ferry-linked to the central port of Piraeus: Aegina (the closest, the pistachio island), Poros (the green one, an arm’s length from the Peloponnese), Hydra (the chic one, no cars, donkeys), Spetses (the regatta one, low pine forest, an old aristocracy).
They are the islands Athenians keep for themselves — thirty minutes to ninety from the main harbour, all of them visit-able as a long day, the best stayed in for two or three nights. The architecture is uniformly austere: neoclassical sea-captains’ mansions on Hydra and Spetses, rough white cubes on Aegina, lemon-yellow plaster on Poros. There are no airports, no runways, no high-rises. The boat in is the introduction; the boat out is the goodbye. Piraeus itself has its own life: an Archaeological Museum with the only surviving large-scale Classical bronzes, the working fish market at Mikrolimano.
Hover the map or the list — they're linked. Numbered roughly the way you'd drive them.
A horseshoe of low pine forest at the south end of the chain — sea-captain mansions, horse-drawn carriages, the regatta culture, bicycles around the perimeter road. The aristocratic Saronic.
The artists' island — a single town of stone sea-captain mansions stacked around a small horseshoe harbour, no cars, donkey transport, water taxis to the swimming coves. Best two-night stay in the Saronic.
A small lemon-yellow town 200 metres from the Peloponnese — you can swim across to the mainland for breakfast. The Lemon Forest above the strait; classical Trizina nearby; quiet, civic, family-run.
Tiny island next to Aegina — ten minutes more by ferry, half the population, twice the pine. Aponisos and Skala beaches. The cheapest day-trip from Athens that still feels like a proper island.
The closest of the chain — 35 minutes by hydrofoil from Piraeus. Working fishing harbour, the famous AOC pistachios, the Doric temple of Aphaia (5th C BC), small fish-taverna villages on the east coast.
Five minutes by ferry across the strait — the site of the 480 BC sea battle. A working Athenian dormitory island, not a destination, but the strait itself is one of the most important pieces of geography in European history.
The Mediterranean's busiest passenger port and a city in its own right — Mikrolimano fish market, Pasalimani yacht basin, the Archaeological Museum with the Classical bronzes. Worth a full day before the islands.
The ferry season picks up, the islands wake up. Sea still cool but bright; tavernas reopening; Easter on Hydra is one of the most beautiful weeks of the year.
Twenty-six degrees, sea at twenty-three, all the tavernas open and not yet full. Our pick for a Saronic week. Spetses regatta and Aegina festivals.
Hydra full of Athens-on-holiday, Aegina day-trippers from morning to night, Spetses regatta. Loud, social, very alive. Reserve rooms a month ahead, hydrofoils a week.
Sea still 25°C, Athenians back at work. Most-favoured month by Greek travellers; quieter ferries, easier rooms, the same warmth as August.
Many tavernas close at end of October; the islands settle into off-season. October weekends still warm; November cold but clear. The sea-captain mansions look most themselves in winter.
The whole town is a horseshoe of stacked stone sea-captain mansions around a small harbour, built between 1770 and 1830 with the merchant fortunes of the eight families that ran the fleet. There are no cars on the island; transport is by donkey or by water taxi to the swimming coves of Vlychos, Mandraki and Bisti. The artists’ colony has been working since the 1950s — Leonard Cohen lived here for thirty years.
Aegina is the closest island to Piraeus and Athens’ weekend kitchen garden. Its pistachios are AOC-protected (since 1996) — small, intensely sweet, harvested in late August by hand from groves on the volcanic slopes. The island also has the best-preserved 5th-century-BC temple in the Saronic, the Aphaia, on a hill on the east coast — contemporary with the Parthenon, only marginally less famous.
Five minutes by ferry across from Piraeus is the long flat island of Salamis, separated from the mainland by a narrow strait. It is here, in September 480 BC, that the Athenian admiral Themistocles trapped the much larger Persian fleet of Xerxes and broke it — the sea battle that arguably preserved Greek (and later European) democracy. There is a small monument on the island, and a viewpoint on the mainland from where the strait opens out exactly as Aeschylus describes it in The Persians.
The Saronic eats fish first — every island has at least one taverna where the boat that caught lunch is hauled up at the door. Aegina adds pistachios, Hydra adds capers, Spetses adds tomato-and-cinnamon fish stew. Piraeus has the best fish market in Greece outside Thessaloniki.
Whole white fish baked in a tomato-cinnamon-clove-and-parsley sauce — a 19th-century recipe specific to Spetses, said to have arrived with the Cretan refugee captains in 1830. Try it at Tarsanas or Liotrivi.
The small intensely sweet pistachio of Aegina, AOC since 1996, harvested mid-August. Eaten straight, ground into Easter shortbread (kourabiedes), made into pistachio butter and ice cream all over the island.
The 500-metre semicircle of restaurants on the small Piraeus yacht harbour — Papaioannou, Varoulko, Margaro — grilled fish, fish soup, a kilo of bread, the boats turning at sundown. The Greek seafood reference.
Caper bushes grow wild on the limestone cliffs above Hydra harbour; the buds are pickled by hand in salt brine and sold in small jars at the agora. Crumbled over fava bean puree with a glass of cold ouzo.
Aegean sea urchin (achinos) is in season May–July; eaten raw with lemon at the seaside tavernas of Hydra (Sunset, Caprice) and Spetses. The most direct flavour of the gulf.
Sweet anise-and-mastic ouzo from a small Aegina distillery — served ice-cold with a slice of cucumber and a small plate of marinated anchovies. The pre-lunch ritual at every harbour taverna.
What to expect in each — Saronic Islands & Piraeus has a more idiosyncratic set of stays than most places in Greece.
Bratsera (a 19th-C sponge factory turned hotel) and the Orloff Boutique are the two reference stays — stone walls, courtyard pools, three minutes from the boat.
A 1914 Belle Époque hotel on the Spetses harbour — long verandahs, white linen, the regatta at the door. The grandest stay in the Saronic.
A handful of restored stone country houses inland on Aegina — pistachio groves, vegetable gardens, ten minutes by car to the temple. Best for slow, family stays.
A new generation of small hotels in Piraeus (Phidias, Liber, Ekali) puts you a five-minute walk from the ferry terminals. Best for early-departure days.
Hydrofoils ("Flying Dolphin") leave from Gate E8 of Piraeus port; conventional ferries from E9. Aegina 35–75 min, Poros 60 min, Hydra 90 min, Spetses 130 min. Buy tickets at hellenicseaways.gr or in advance from any agency.
Aegina is the best day-trip island — close, full of life, with a serious sight (the temple). Hydra is the best two-night stay. Poros and Spetses repay an overnight. Salamis is a half-day historical curiosity, not a beach.
No cars on Hydra. Donkey transport for luggage from the boat to your hotel (€10–20). Water taxis from the main harbour to swimming coves €20–40 each way. Walking on cobbled stairs everywhere; bring flat shoes.
June for the season at full power without the August crush. September is the locals' month: warm, quiet, easier to book.
The Saronic chain is best done as a long-weekend extension to an Athens trip, not as a sole-purpose journey. One island per night is the comfortable rhythm; two islands in three nights is excellent.
Tell us a little about the trip you want — pace, who's coming, how you'd like to spend your mornings. We'll build the days.
