Hydra

No motor vehicles at all

Motor vehicles have been banned on Hydra for more than sixty years, and the ban covers everything with an engine that a private person might own. Private cars, motorbikes and scooters are all out. A handful of municipal service vehicles operate under permission, among them a refuse truck and an ambulance, and nothing else.

Bicycles are restricted too, so you will not see pelotons grinding up the hill lanes either. The rule is old enough that no generation of residents has known the island any other way, and it shapes everything from how luggage arrives to how building materials reach a site. The practical consequence for you is noise and air you can notice.

The loudest thing in Hydra town is the harbour, and the streets belong to feet and hooves. Plan distances accordingly.

Mules, and hand-carts

Freight moves off the boats onto mules and donkeys and up the stepped lanes, and that is not a display laid on for visitors. It is the island's actual logistics. There are several hundred working animals on Hydra, and everything you see arrive must leave the quay the same way, from crates of soft drinks to bags of cement.

Luggage to a hotel goes by mule too, which is worth knowing before you book if you are travelling heavy. Pack what you can carry yourself for a few hundred metres of stone steps, or be ready to pay for the animal that carries it for you. Hand-carts handle the flat parts of the harbour front.

Watch where the mule trains pass and stand aside. They have right of way, and they use it.

What that means for a visit

Everything on Hydra is on foot, and much of it is uphill on stone steps polished by two centuries of use. There is no road transport to fall back on, so a hotel ten minutes above the harbour is ten minutes on your own legs, with your bag, in whatever heat the day has. Water taxis run round the coast to the beaches, and that is how most people reach them, since the paths inland are steps and goats rather than roads.

It also means the island is genuinely difficult for anyone with limited mobility. The harbour front is flat and almost nothing else is. If steps are a problem, choose accommodation on or very near the quay, and treat the coastal walk as your territory rather than the upper lanes.

The harbour

Hydra's harbour is a deep natural anchorage ringed by grey stone mansions, the archontika, built by the shipowning families who made the island rich. By the early nineteenth century Hydra had about 125 ships and 10,000 sailors, one of the largest merchant fleets in the Aegean, and in 1821 it put a large part of that fleet into the war of independence. The whole town is a protected settlement, which is why nothing is rendered or painted white.

The stone is the point, and the rules keep it that way. Practically, the quay is where every boat lands, where the water taxis queue and where the tavernas with the highest prices sit. Walk five minutes up any lane off it and the cost of a coffee drops noticeably.

The walk to Kamini and Vlychos

West along the coast path from the harbour, it is about forty minutes to Kamini and another twenty to Vlychos. These are two small settlements with tavernas and swimming off the rocks, and the path between them and the town is flat, which on Hydra is a rare and valuable quality. It is the best walk on the island and it takes you out of the day-tripper zone within fifteen minutes of leaving the quay.

The path is stone and unrailed in places, so ordinary shoes rather than sandals are the sensible choice, and there is little shade, so go early or late in summer. Both villages do a straightforward lunch. Swim at Vlychos, eat at Kamini, and walk back into town as the light goes.

The climb to the monasteries

Up the stepped lanes and out of the back of the town, the climb to Profitis Ilias monastery takes roughly an hour at a steady pace, and from the top you have the whole island below you and the sea on every side. This is the only real hike on Hydra, because a car-free island of steep stone paths does not offer many long routes. It is hot work in summer, so start in the morning, carry more water than seems reasonable and wear real shoes, since the steps are uneven and unshaded for most of the way.

There is no kiosk en route. The monastery keeps irregular hours and is a working foundation rather than an attraction, so treat it as a destination with a view rather than a scheduled visit.

Swimming

There is no sandy beach in Hydra town, and nobody should pretend otherwise. People swim off the rocks at Spilia, just west of the harbour, and at Hydronetta below the cannons, both of which have ladders or cut steps into the water and somewhere to buy a drink. For proper beaches you take a water taxi to Bisti and Agios Nikolaos further round the coast, which is how most visitors reach them since no road does.

Bring something to sit on, because the rocks are sharp and the pebbles are hot by late morning, and bring your own water at the smaller spots. The water itself is clean and deep close in, so weaker swimmers should pick a spot with easy entry and stay within their depth.

The cruise

The cruise option runs ten to twelve hours, leaving Piraeus in the morning and calling at three islands, with lunch and often live music on board, back in the evening. You get about ninety minutes ashore at each stop, which is enough for the harbour front, a coffee and a quick look up the first lane. As a day on the Saronic Gulf with someone else steering, it is a pleasant and well-organised thing, and it suits people who want variety rather than depth.

As a way of seeing Hydra it gives you the harbour and no more. You will not reach Kamini, Vlychos or any beach, and the hour and a half includes finding your way back to the boat. Weigh that against the price before booking.

The scheduled fast craft

The scheduled fast craft takes about ninety minutes each way from Piraeus, with several sailings a day in season, and it costs a fraction of a cruise. You get five or six hours on the island, which is enough for the coast walk to Kamini and Vlychos, a swim at Spilia or Hydronetta, a long lunch and the harbour in the late afternoon after the cruise boats have gone. That last hour is when Hydra is at its best, so build the day backwards from it.

Book the outward sailing early and the return at dinner time if the timetable allows. Check return times the day before, since seasonal schedules shift. This is the version we would book, and the one that lets the island work on you.

Or stay the night

Hydra empties at about four in the afternoon, when the cruise boats and the last fast craft carry the day-trippers back to Athens, and refills with a different, quieter crowd of people staying over. An overnight is the only way to see the town without day-trippers in it, to swim at Hydronetta in the early evening and to eat dinner on a quay that is no longer a queue. The trade-off is money and luggage.

The island is expensive enough that an overnight is a considered decision rather than an obvious one, and every bag you bring goes up the steps by mule or by your own shoulder. Book rooms well ahead in season, and confirm whether your hotel meets you at the quay or gives directions in steps.

And the strike caveat

Ferry strikes on the Greek routes are called by the seamen's federation separately from any general strike, and they can be announced only a day or two ahead, which is exactly the wrong amount of warning for a fixed day trip. There is no central English calendar of walkouts, so you need to know where the notices appear before you commit money. If your Hydra day is fixed and non-refundable, check the strikes page for the Greek-language listings and the official service announcements, and look again the evening before you sail.

If a strike lands on your day, the realistic options are another day or a full refund, and you will only get the second if you asked for it in advance when booking. Keep the booking terms handy.