Day Trips

Poros Day Trip: The Green, Quiet Saronic Island

Pine forests, a narrow strait you can practically swim across, and the best beaches of the three Saronic day-trip islands.

Poros is really two small islands joined by a causeway, separated from the Peloponnese mainland town of Galatas by a strait so narrow in places you can see people clearly on the opposite shore. It's the quietest and greenest of the three main Saronic day-trip islands, pine-forested across most of its interior, and the pick if swimming matters as much to your day as sightseeing.

Poros Town

A compact, whitewashed town climbs a small hill on the island's southern tip, topped by a blue-and-white clock tower that's become the island's unofficial symbol. It's smaller and less polished than Hydra's harbor town, with a more workaday, lived-in feel.

Beaches

Poros has the best swimming of the three Saronic islands covered here — sandy and pebble beaches within easy walking or short bus distance of the town, notably calmer and shallower than Hydra's rocky coves, making it a better pick if you're traveling with kids or simply want real beach time rather than a quick dip.

Crossing to the mainland

A small, constant shuttle of tiny boats crosses the narrow strait to Galatas on the Peloponnese mainland in a couple of minutes — an easy, novel add-on if you want to say you've set foot on the mainland Peloponnese without a long drive.

Getting there

High-speed ferries from Piraeus take around an hour. For a side-by-side comparison against Hydra and Aegina, see our full Saronic islands guide.

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