Aegina
Saronic Island An Hour From Athens: The Hilltop Temple Of Aphaia, The Byzantine Ghost Town Of Paleochora, Agios Nektarios, And The Pistachio Orchards The Island Is Known For · Aegina, Attica
Aegina is the Saronic island closest in spirit to Athens: about forty minutes by fast boat from Piraeus and an hour by car ferry, which makes it a day trip for thousands of Athenians and a genuine home for thousands more. Its set piece is the Temple of Aphaia, built around 500 to 480 BC on a pine ridge in the north-east and one of the best preserved late archaic temples anywhere, with a long sightline over the gulf. The harbour town keeps a working fish market, a quayside where boats sell fruit and vegetables from their decks, neoclassical houses from the years when Aegina was the first capital of the new Greek state, and the single standing column of the Temple of Apollo on the Kolona headland. Inland there is the ghost town of Paleochora with its scatter of ruined chapels, the pilgrimage church of Agios Nektarios, and the pistachio orchards the island is known for. Honest caveat: the beaches are small, shallow and modest, and midday boats are crowded - come for the temple, the town and the food.
Aegina, Saronic Gulf; Aegina Town harbour, the Temple of Aphaia on the north-east ridge, Perdika and the islet of Moni; fast boats from Piraeus in about 40 minutes, Aegina, Attica, Greece
The Temple of Aphaia and the Kolona site with its museum are state archaeological sites: long summer hours, roughly 08:00 to 19:00 or 20:00, much shorter in winter, often only to about 15:00 or 17:00, with closures on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25 and 26 December, and reduced hours on some other holidays - confirm current hours before you plan the day. Paleochora's hillside of chapels is unfenced and free at any hour; individual chapels are locked or ajar by chance. The Agios Nektarios monastery opens through the day with a break in some seasons and a strict dress code. Fast boats and car ferries from Piraeus run several times a day year round and more often in summer, with a reduced winter timetable; book ahead only for a car, for August weekends and for holidays.