Tiny island next to Aegina — ten minutes more by ferry, half the population, twice the pine. Aponissos beach, Skala harbour, almost no cars.
Agistri is the second-smallest Saronic — thirteen square kilometres of pine-covered hills, a population of 1,200, and a single hydrofoil ferry a day from Piraeus. It sits ten minutes by water from the much-busier Aegina, and is, in summer, the quiet alternative.
There are three small settlements. Skala (the main one, on the east coast) is where the ferries dock — a small fishing harbour, a hundred-metre stretch of waterfront tavernas, three hotels. Megalochori (the village inland, fifteen minutes by foot up the hill) is the residential half, with the small church and a single kafenio. Limenaria (on the south coast, twenty minutes by bus) is a fifteen-house hamlet with the small Aponissos peninsula — pine right down to the water, the most-photographed beach. The island has eighty per cent pine cover, no large hotel, three good fish tavernas, and an unpaved coast road that is walkable in two hours. The combination is what makes it: more pine than Aegina, less crowded than Hydra, fifty-five minutes from central Athens. Combine with: a stop on the Aegina day-trip (ten minutes by ferry from Aegina town to Skala).
An Agistri day.
Gate E8/E9; 09:00 departure; 09:55 in Skala via Aegina.
Fifteen-minute uphill path; coffee at the village kafenio; the small church.
Twenty-minute bus south to the pine peninsula; €2 each way; the most-photographed beach.
Fish-grill at the head of the peninsula; pebble, pine, three hours; €30 per head.
Twenty minutes back; an hour for a swim and an ouzo at the harbour.
55-minute return to Piraeus; metro to central Athens by 19:30.
Within ten minutes by ferry.
Ten-minute ferry — the larger neighbour with the temple. Detail on the Aegina page.
Fifty-five-minute hydrofoil — the harbour.
Half-hour boat south — the volcanic peninsula and small spa.
Twenty-minute bus from Skala — the south-coast peninsula and beach.
Fifteen-minute walk from Skala — the residential village.
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.
