Greek Hotels Association

Although the opposite coasts of Paros and Naxos are only six miles ipart, it always seems a long way by sea from Paroikia to the harbour of Naxos. (more…)

Paros is flanked by a sister islet, Antiparos, which has a celebrated cave. It has more than that to offer, though, in particular a simple fishing harbour with berths for small yachts, and a sequence of lovely sandy beaches for a mile or more to the south. (more…)

Whether you come upon them from the north, direct from Piraeus, or you approach from the south through the Sikinos-Ios channel, the dark humps of Paros and Naxos are a distinctive sight. Both are dominated by massifs in the south-east, from which the land slopes away evenly to fertile plains. (more…)

Siphnos is equidistant from Seriphos and Kimolos, in this western chain of islands. The only modern harbour is at Kama res, where a deep inlet cuts into the mountains on the west coast, with only just room for a small village beside (more…)

Seriphos
life for fishermen, and for the smallholders who cultivate the fertile little valley which opens out into a delightful sheltered bay. (more…)

The whole aspect of any Greek island, especially those most recently opened to tourism, was changed once they were included in a regular ferry service connecting them with Athens; the next stage was when the improved harbour facilities attracted small boat sailors within a weekend’s sailing distance. (more…)

The western group of the Kyklades is quite distinct from its northern and eastern neighbours. The nearest island to Athens is Kea, which the inhabitants often still call Zia, the name by which it was known during the centuries when it was ruled by Italian family dynas¬ties. (more…)

Mykonos and Delos
Ask anyone about Greek islands they know or have heard of, and the first likely name to come up is Mykonos. If you can shut your eyes to the human element and try to put your visual clock back some years, you can see why. (more…)

For all ferry passengers sailing south through the eastern Kyklades bound, maybe, for Paros, Ios or Santorin, the first port of call after leaving Piraeus will be Syros (more…)

Tinos is separated from Andros only by the narrow Steno Strait. A Ferries from Rafina on the east coast of Attica call here after Andros, but most of the big modern ships come straight here from Piraeus and pass on to Mykonos. (more…)

Although Andros is second only to Naxos in size and historical importance, it is unlikely to be the first of the Kyklades you visit, if only because there is no direct ferry connection with Piraeus and there is no airport. (more…)

The Kyklades
The best impression of the Kyklades as a whole would probably be from an aircraft on its way from Athens to Rhodes, but it is hard to better the view from the top of Mount Kynthos on Delos, ringed as it is by this constellation of inviting yet mysterious grey-brown humps rising out of the blue Aegean. (more…)

From Poros the hydrofoils speed on round Cape Skylli to Hydra, a baffling and sometimes infuriating island fashioned from uncompro¬mising grey rock. (more…)

Spetsai or Spetses? Both are feminine plural endings, the former classical and official, the latter modern demotic Greek. ‘Spetsai’ still appears on maps, but ‘Spetses’ is the local and popular name. (more…)

Though itself only just an island, Poros turns out to be two. Unlike the larger Methana peninsula, Poros has allowed a narrow ribbon of sea to divide it from the mainland, and to this (poros in Greek means ’strait’) it owes its present name. (more…)

The struggle between the two seafaring powers was long and bitter, broken only during the Persian wars when Aegina joined Athens (more…)

In the last week of September 480 BC there occurred one of those momentous battles by which the history of the world is changed. (more…)

Saron was a legendary king of Troezen, the most important of the early cities on the substantial peninsula which divides the Gulf of Argos from the Saronic Gulf. (more…)

Levkas to the north, Ithaka and Kephalonia in the middle, to the south Zakynthos - this crescent of islands shields the entrance to the Gulf of Patras. The Italian name Zante has almost if not univer¬sally given way to the classical Zakynthos, (more…)

If there are those who wonder why a great man like Odysseus should have heen content with little Ithaka as his kingdom, a plausible answer is that he may have ruled over a confederacy which included Kephalonia and Zakynthos. (more…)