Poros

Poros lies a few hundred metres off the Peloponnese mainland. The small water-taxi crossing from the harbour to Galatas takes about 4 minutes, and on a still evening voices carry across the strait. That closeness is the practical reason to choose Poros over Hydra or Spetses. From the island you can have breakfast in the lemon groves opposite, reach the ancient theatre of Epidaurus by mid-morning and be back swimming in a small Aegean cove by lunch.

The Sanctuary of Poseidon, in a saddle of pine and olive near the centre of the island, is the older landmark. In 322 BC the Athenian orator Demosthenes took refuge here. When Macedonian soldiers came for him, he took his own life inside the temple. The ruins are quiet and see few visitors, and they are a half-hour walk from the road. Bring water, because the site has none.

In 1939 Henry Miller spent a few days on Poros. He wrote about the strait and the harbour town in The Colossus of Maroussi with an enthusiasm close to rapture. Read those pages on the ferry from Piraeus. The clock tower on the hill above the harbour is lit in the evening and helps you find your way around the town below. The strait itself is the main feature: a narrow channel of glassy water, with sailing yachts moored end to end through the summer.

Poros is worth two nights within a wider Saronic itinerary, or more if you plan to use the mainland as a base for day trips. The lemon groves at Lemonodasos, just across the water, make a good walk on a hot afternoon. There is a small taverna at the top, and the way down is gentle.

House Notes

  1. Arrival

    A helicopter from Athens to Poros takes around 25 minutes, and AegeanVIP and iFly Air Charters operate the transfer. Hellenic Seaways Flying Dolphins run from Piraeus in around an hour, into the harbour on the strait opposite Galatas on the mainland.

  2. The address

    Sirene Blue Luxury Beach Resort sits on a green cliff above Monastiri Bay, 3.5 kilometres from the port in the Monastiri area. It has 90 rooms, all with sea views, a private beach with a seafront taverna, a Roof Garden Bar Restaurant, a tennis court and two pools.

  3. Russian Bay

    Russian Bay, at Vagionia on the northeastern coast, was the Aegean station of the Russian Naval Fleet from the 18th century to 1900. It was set up when Russia entered the war on Greece’s side against the Turks, and it has been classified as a historical monument since 1989. It is a deep, sheltered cove of pine and the rust of old works.

  4. The Naval Training Center

    The Hellenic Naval Cadets Academy was founded in 1845 aboard the corvette Loudevikos, anchored at Poros. The French naval mission of 1884 moved it ashore, and the Academy itself moved to Piraeus in 1905. Poros still holds the Training Center for the junior volunteer personnel and reservists of the Hellenic Navy.

  5. Askeli

    Askeli, on the south-east side of Kalavria 2 kilometres from the town, is the most developed beach on the island. It is fully organised, with a water-sports school, diving, deck chairs by Hotel New Aegli, Café Panorama and the seafront restaurants. The hourly bus from town stops at the sand.

  6. The kitchen

    Aspros Gatos, the White Cat, has been a family taverna out over the water, 400 metres west of the bridge, since 1909. Lobster with pasta is the house dish, alongside ouzo with grilled octopus, squid and platters of fresh fish. The view runs across the strait to the lit harbour.

  7. The Archaeological Museum

    The Archaeological Museum of Poros, founded in 1960 in Koryzi Square, stands on the plot where the residence of Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis once stood. It holds finds from the temple of Poseidon at Vagionia, sculptures and inscriptions from ancient Troezen, Hellenistic figurines from Methana and bronze vessels from Ermioni.

  8. The sailing school

    Greek Sails has run flotilla and bareboat (crewless) charters from a private quay in Poros for more than 30 years. The Athens Sailing Academy, the oldest ASA-certified school in Europe, works here through the summer on a fleet of Jeanneau yachts. The strait is the classic classroom, and has been for a generation of sailors.

  9. Lemonodasos

    Across the strait at Galatas, the Lemon Forest climbs from the shore: some 25,000 lemon and orange trees on the Peloponnese bank, cut by stone irrigation channels and the dry beds of old watermills. Poros once shipped its lemons to Constantinople and Smyrna, and Kosmas Politis set his 1930 novella Lemonodasos among these terraces. The walk up through them, with olive and pomegranate among the citrus, suits a hot afternoon.

  10. Zoodochos Pigi

    The Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi, 4 kilometres above the town on a pine slope, was founded in 1720 by Iakovos the Second, Archbishop of Athens, after a cure at the island’s only spring. Its prize is a 17th-century carved wooden iconostasis, the screen of icons before the altar, brought from Cappadocia. During the Greek Revolution, Miaoulis and Tompazis took strength from it.

Anchorage Notes

  1. The strait

    Poros is two islands: volcanic Sphaeria, where the town climbs like an amphitheatre to its 1927 clock tower, and green Kalavria to the north. One of the smallest sea straits in Greece, barely 200 metres wide, separates them from Galatas on the Peloponnese shore. A yacht lies along the town quay in the channel itself, 31 miles from Piraeus, with the lemon groves of the mainland close across the water.

  2. Neorio

    Neorio is a pine-fringed bay 1 mile northwest of the town, its trees reaching the water, with Megalo Neorio the larger beach and Mikro the smaller. It has waterfront tavernas and a water-sports school. A yacht lies off the sand here, away from the town’s traffic, a short run or a half-hour’s walk along the coast road.

  3. Love Bay

    Love Bay is a small cove 200 metres beyond Neorio, with green and turquoise water under thick pines and a single beach bar on the sand. Visiting boats put in for the swimming and the shade. A yacht lies off the pines for an hour or an afternoon.

  4. Monastiri

    Monastiri is on the east coast below the monastery of Zoodochos Pigi: a quiet, organised beach (one with sunbeds and services) with clear water, and the Sirene Blue resort stepping down the hill to the sea. A yacht lies off it for the quiet and the view back across the water, while boats run to the town through the day. It is on the far side of the island from the strait.