Hydra: the island with no cars, walked end to end and swum off the rocks
12 playbooks shared · added to 30 trips
- 8 am1Flyingcat out of Piraeus, Gate E8Piraeus
Gate E8 is a fifteen-minute walk from the metro and is not signposted well — allow for that, because the hydrofoil closes boarding thirty minutes ahead and leaves exactly on time. Book both legs together: the return everyone wants is the late-afternoon one and it sells out first. Fast craft cancel in strong wind where a conventional ferry would sail, so have a plan B in winter.
31 min by train or taxi · 68 km - 9:15 am2Coffee on the harbour while the mules unload the boatHydra
No cars, motorbikes or scooters anywhere on the island since the 1950s, and the ban is genuinely enforced. Sit for twenty minutes and watch the entire day's freight — luggage, crates, a fridge — go up the lanes by mule. It is the thing that makes Hydra different and it happens in the first half hour after each boat.
- 10 am3Up to Kala Pigadia and the lanes above the portHydra
Five minutes of climbing empties the town completely. The captains' mansions on the west slope are the point of Hydra architecturally, and the twin wells at Kala Pigadia are as far up as most day-trippers ever go — which is not far.
- 11:30 am4The coast path west to KaminiHydra
Stone and gravel, no shade, and about fifteen minutes to Kamini then another twenty-five on to Vlychos. It is flat but the surface is loose in places — this is not a sandals walk. Do it before the middle of the afternoon.
16 min walk · 1.2 km - 1:15 pm5Lunch at Kodylenia's above Kamini harbourHydra
On the headland over the little fishing port, with the outside terrace hanging above the water. Fish is sold by the kilo and a whole sea bream will be past sixty euro before the salad arrives — ask the price per kilo and see the fish weighed before you nod, which is normal here and not rude. Hold the table by phone in the morning; they do not take bookings far ahead.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.3 km - 3 pm6Last swim off Vlychos PlakesHydra
There is no sand on Hydra at all — you swim off slabs and ladders, and these are the best of them. Bring something on your feet for the rock, and go in off the flat stone to the left rather than the crowded steps.
3 min walk · 0 m - 4:35 pm7Water taxi back round to the portHydra
Rates are posted on a board at the quay and are per boat, not per head — split four ways it costs less than a cold drink each and saves forty minutes of walking back into the sun with a hydrofoil to catch. Flag one from the jetty, or the taverna will call it.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.0 km - 5:30 pm8Hydrofoil back to PiraeusHydra
Be on the quay twenty minutes early; the boat swings in, loads and is gone in about six minutes and it does not come back. Sit inside on the return — the deck is closed at speed.