A small lemon-yellow town 200 metres from the Peloponnese — you can swim across to the mainland for breakfast.
Poros is two small islands joined by a bridge (Sferia, the rocky north, where the town sits; Kalavria, the larger pine-covered south), separated from the Peloponnese coast by a strait two hundred metres wide — close enough that you can swim across, and the island feels like a town directly opposite a mainland port.
Poros town sits stacked on the conical hill of Sferia — neoclassical houses in lemon-yellow, white and ochre, climbing up to the small clock tower at the top, a long waterfront of cafés and tavernas facing the strait, the constant traffic of working caïques and tourist yachts. The Lemon Forest (Lemonodasos) — 30,000 lemon trees on the slopes of the Peloponnese opposite the town, planted in the 18th century — is the famous picnic spot; you cross the strait by car-ferry (five minutes, €1), walk through the orchard for an hour, eat at the small taverna in the middle, and return. The Temple of Poseidon (4th-century BC, on a hill in the south of Kalavria) is where Demosthenes took poison rather than be captured by Antipater in 322 BC; the foundation outline survives. Combine the town, the Lemon Forest and a sunset at the temple foundations and Poros is the most varied of the small Saronics.
A Poros day.
Gate E8; 09:00 departure; 10:00 in Poros.
Hour's climb up to the clock tower; lemon-yellow houses, the views across the strait.
Five-minute car-ferry to Galatas (€1); hour's walk through the 30,000-tree orchard.
Small taverna in the middle of the orchard; lamb on the spit, country wine, three hours; €30 per head.
Five-minute crossing; an hour at the small museum or a swim from the front.
Hour back to Piraeus; metro home; dinner in Athens.
Across the strait.
Two-hundred-metre crossing — the small mainland village and the start of the Lemon Forest.
Twenty-minute hydrofoil south — the artists' island. Detail on the Hydra page.
Forty-minute hydrofoil south — the pine island.
Forty-five minutes' hydrofoil north — the closest Saronic.
On the mainland opposite — the 30,000-tree orchard.
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.
