Euboea (in modern Greek ‘Evia’) can be reached from several places on the mainland, but before deciding your route it is wise to be sure exactly where you want to go. The largest Aegean island of all, bar Crete, (more…)
Add comment May 4th, 2007
Ios has a good claim to be the most beautiful of all the Kyklades. More fertile than its ‘dry’ neighbours, it has the most attractive harbour of them all. (more…)
Add comment May 3rd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 3rd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 3rd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 3rd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 3rd, 2007
Seriphos
life for fishermen, and for the smallholders who cultivate the fertile little valley which opens out into a delightful sheltered bay. (more…)
Add comment May 3rd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
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…)
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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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
From Poros the hydrofoils speed on round Cape Skylli to Hydra, a baffling and sometimes infuriating island fashioned from uncompro¬mising grey rock. (more…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007
The struggle between the two seafaring powers was long and bitter, broken only during the Persian wars when Aegina joined Athens (more…)
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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…)
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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…)
Add comment May 2nd, 2007