The islands in the Saronic & Argolic Gulf, have an important history and an interesting tradition of many centuries.
The Saronic Gulf Islands are the closest group to Athens. We are sure you will be happy and surprised of the natural beauty,sandy beaches, and the friendly people.
You canl visit, Aegina, Epidaurus, Poros, Hydra, Spetses and Salamis (in a week charter).
Also Yerakas, Leonidion, Monemvasia, Nafplion, Elaphonissos and Kithira (in two weeks charter).
SALAMINA
Salamina is the largest of the Saronic Gulf islands and the closest to Athens. On its western side you will find remote sandy beaches with picturesque fish tavernas.
AEGINA
Aegina Town, on the west coast, is the island’s charming and bustling, main capital and port. Its harbor is lined with colorful caiques and several of the town’s crumbling neoclassic buildings survives from its days as the Greek capital.
North of Aegina Town in Livadi is the house where Nikos Kazantzakis wrote Zorba the Greek. The splendid, well preserved Doric Temple of Aphaia, erected in 480 BC, is the major ancient site of the Saronic Gulf Islands. The east coast town of Agia Marina is the island’s premier tourist resort.
MONI and ANGISTRI ISLETS
The islets lie off the west coast of Aegina, opposite Perdika. Moni, the smaller of the two, is a 10-minute boat ride from Perdika. It is popular for its green waters, secluded coves and hidden caves.
Angistri, located three nautical miles west of Aegina, has 400 permanent residents and its seas are sparkling clean. There are dense groves of pine and lovely coves to explore. Its small harbor is located on the west side, while the eastside provides a haven “away from it all” for a peaceful private swim.
POROS
Poros was once two islands, Kalavria and Sferia. Today they are connected by a slender isthmus, cut by a canal for small boats and rejoined by a road bridge. The narrow passage of water that separates the southern tip from the Peloponnesian town of Galatas is only 360m wide at its narrowest point.
The majority of the population lives on the small volcanic islet of Sferia, where Poros Town is located. It is a pretty settlement of white houses with terracotta-tiled roofs. To the north is Kalavaria, a large well-forested island with a shoreline of 42km.
HYDRA
Hydra is the Saronic Gulf with the most style; it is one of Greece’s most exclusive resorts. The gracious white and pastel stone mansions of Hydra Town are stacked up the rocky hillsides that surround the fine natural harbor.
Hydra has no motorized transport and the town boasts a busy nightlife. The waters of Spillia are deep and delightful as well as Mandraki Beach at Kamini and at Vlyhos. Beaches further off that can be reached with your boat are Molos and Bisti.
SPETSES
Pine covered Spetses is the most further of the group from Piraeus. Spetses Town sprawls along almost half the northeast coast of the island. The prettiest part of town is around the old harbor, which is a delightful place to explore.
It is ringed by old Venetian buildings, and filled with of every shape and size. The shipbuilders of Spetses still do things the traditional way and the shore is dotted with the hulls of emerging caiques. It lies at the entrance to the Argolic Gulf. Spetses’ coastline is speckled with numerous small, pine-shaded beaches.
Beaches that can be reached by boat are Vrellas and Zogheria on the north side of the island and the pine trees grow right up to the water’s edge. The beautiful bays of Agia Paraskevi and Agioi Anargyri are on the southwestern coast. The islet of Kounoupi is to the northeast of Spetses.
GREECE is a unique place to choose for your summer holidays.
Choose a section on the map to navigate
The Greek islands are an ideal place for summer holidays and the best way to explore them is to rent a charter a sailing boat in Greece.
Greece's Island Groups
Greece's roughly 6,000 islands and islets (227 of which are inhabited) are scattered far and wide across the eastern Mediterranean. Most are in the Aegean Sea (south and east of mainland Greece), while a few are in the Ionian Sea (west of the mainland). The islands are divided into distinct clusters:
The Ionian Islands, are Greece's northwest gateway to the Adriatic and the rest of Europe — they've had more foreign invaders and rulers than anywhere else in the country. The main island is Corfu (Kerkyra in Greek), with a bustling, architecturally eclectic main town and a lush, green islandscape dotted with attractions and beaches.
The Saronic Gulf Islands ( Argosaronikos ), conveniently wedged between the Peloponnese and Athens, ooze lots of island charm and give you a chance to get away from it all without actually going very far. Hydra, my favorite, is in this group.
The Sporades Islands, due east of Athens, are dominated by the giant Evia island, which is attached to the mainland by a bridge. Thickly forested and less touristed by international visitors, the Sporades are a popular and handy weekend getaway for Athenians.
The Cycladic Islands (or simply Cyclades ) — a bit farther south, between Athens and Crete — are the prototypical "Greek islands," boasting chalk-white houses with colorful windowsills and doorways; rocky, sun-parched landscapes; delightful beaches; old-fashioned white windmills topped with tufts of grass like unkempt hair; and an almost overwhelming crush of international visitors. Mykonos and Santorini are the two best and most famous of the Cyclades. Near Mykonos is the archaeological site of Delos (one of the most important locales of the ancient world).
The Dodecanese Islands, at the sunny, southeastern end of the Greek lands, are more rustic and less developed than the Cyclades. Their proximity to Turkey and historic ties to Venice give them a hybrid Turkish-Venetian flavor (though the population is mostly ethnic Greek, these islands merged with Greece only after World War II). Rhodes, with an appealing and very real-feeling Old Town, is the biggest of these islands.
The North Aegean Islands, relatively untrampled and remote-feeling, lie roughly between Turkey and Thessaloniki (at the northern end of mainland Greece). The southernmost of these, Samos, is a particularly handy springboard for Turkey, as it's very close to the Turkish port city of Kusadas? (near the remarkable ancient site of Ephesus).
Crete is Greece's biggest island and practically a mini-state of its own (in fact, from 1897 to 1913 it was an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire). While many of Greece's smaller islands merit a day or two of fun in the sun, Crete could occupy even a busy traveler for a week or more. Historically, Crete was home to the Minoans — the earliest advanced European civilization, peaking around 1950 B.C., centuries before "the ancient Greeks" of Athens. While Crete's modern main city, Iraklio, is drab and uninviting, the rest of the island offers an engaging diversity of attractions: Minoan ruins, scenic mountains, enticing beaches, characteristic rustic villages, and dramatic caves and gorges (including the famous Samaria Gorge).
Even if you are having no sailing experience we can offer you a sailing yacht with a captain.
Experienced sailors can enjoy the strong winds in the Aegean Sea, while others might choose the mild winds and safer bays of Argosaronicos Gulf, Sporades islands or the Ionian Sea. In few words, sailing in Greece can offer all the pleasure a sailor might seek in summer holidays.
