Andros

Andros is the greenest island in the Cyclades and one of the easiest to reach from Athens. Most travellers pass it by on the way to Mykonos and Santorini, and that neglect works in its favour. Where its neighbours have only wind, Andros has water: chestnut and plane trees, ravines that end in waterfalls, and streams running past Venetian watermills in the Dipotamata valley.

Its wealth came from shipping. In the nineteenth century, Andriot captains and shipowners made fortunes that reshaped Hora, the capital. Hora is a long, slender town on a peninsula between two beaches, with neoclassical houses, marble streets and the Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art at its centre. One of those shipping families founded the museum, and its summer exhibitions draw visitors from Athens who come specifically to see them.

The island is best seen on foot. The Andros Route, a restored network of around 100 kilometres, links inland villages with coastal monasteries and with beaches no road reaches. Spring and autumn are the seasons for it, when the streams are running, the heat has gone and the trail through the Pythara gorge is at its best.

A few practical points. The cheeses petroti and volaki are still made in small quantities. Fourtalia, an omelette of herbs and potato, is on most village taverna menus. The ferry from Rafina takes two hours, and the last one back is unforgiving. Three nights is the minimum we would recommend.

House Notes

  1. The address

    Onar lies in the Ahla Valley, a remote corner of wild Andros where the river meets the sea. Its stone houses and villas stand apart from each other inside the Natura 2000 reserve, part of the European network of protected nature sites. May, June and September are the quieter months on the property’s calendar.

  2. The Goulandris

    The Basil & Elise Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art in Chora opened in 1979, founded by the Goulandris shipping family of Andros. A New Wing followed in 1986, built in marble and stone to suit the island. Its core was the bequest of the Andros sculptor Michalis Tombros, and the museum was built to house his work.

  3. The Andros Route

    The Andros Route is a 100-kilometre island trail. The Foundation behind it leads maintenance walks every second weekend in spring, autumn and winter. The walks are open to all and are often paired with cultural events along the way.

  4. The kitchen

    Endochora, on the pedestrian street of Chora, cooks Mediterranean food with produce from Andros. The kitchen is known for its lamb shank, its octopus and its courgette meatballs, and the wine list runs through small Greek cellars. Book with the kitchen directly and ask for a table away from the door.

  5. The pantry

    Andriakon Pantopoleion is a grocery at Karavostasi, the harbour at Gavrio (postal code 84501). It sells local cheese, thyme honey, capers, dry pasta and natural Greek wines, with homemade spoon sweets, fruit preserved in syrup, and fair-trade goods alongside. It is a useful stop for supplies on the drive in from the western port.

  6. The dynasties

    The shipping history of Hora sits in one room. The Maritime Museum of Andros was founded in 1972 through a donation from the family of Nikolaos I. Goulandris. It holds uniforms, ships’ logbooks, cargo manifests, captains’ portraits and ship models. It opens in summer only.

  7. Kourtesis

    Kourtesis Wine Estate works terraced vineyards about 100 metres above the sea, where the meltemi, the strong summer north wind, salts the fruit. The grapes are Cycladic: Mavrotragano, Malagouzia, Assyrtiko, Mandilaria and the native Potamisi. The wine is made in a cave winery cut into the rock. Tastings are arranged on request, and the concierge sets the visit before the crossing.

  8. The Hermes

    The Hermes of Andros is a Hellenistic copy of the Hermes by Praxiteles, found at Paleopolis in 1833. It is the centrepiece of the Archaeological Museum on Theofilos Kairis Square in Chora, founded in 1981 and designed by Stamos Papadakis. The museum opens from April to October, every day except Monday.

Anchorage Notes

  1. Gavrio

    Gavrio, in the island’s northwest, is the main port of Andros. The ferries from Rafina come in here, one or two a day in winter and as many as six in high summer, along with the boats from Tinos and Mykonos. A yacht lies among the ferry traffic at the working gateway of the island, and the bus runs from the quay to Batsi, Chora and Korthi.

  2. Batsi

    Batsi, on the west coast, is the island’s most visited fishing village, with hotels and tavernas around the harbour and the beaches that made it the resort of Andros. The Municipal Port Fund of Tinos and Andros administers the harbour. A yacht lies off the town for its sand and its dinner, on the busy side of the island, a short run down the coast from Gavrio.

  3. Chora

    Andros town, or Chora, has its harbour on the east coast, used mainly as a marina for private boats and fishing vessels. At the end of the headland lie two islets: the first, reached by a stone bridge, carries a ruined Venetian castle, and the second a lighthouse. A yacht lies below the marble town, with the castle and its light standing out into the sea before it.

  4. Ormos Korthiou

    Ormos Korthiou is a wide bay in the island’s southeast, its village strung along the front with hotels and tavernas, and the beach of Tis Grias to Pidima, the Old Lady’s Leap, close by. It is the quiet southern call, an hour by road from Gavrio and far from the ferry port’s traffic. A yacht comes to this corner of Andros for the stillness.