Pretty Poros … one of the island’s narrow streets.
At 8am from the deck of Seabourn Encore, Poros is an enticing sight. A place I’ve never heard of, revealing itself in a titillation of bulging blue church domes and whitewashed houses, wobbling yachts and crumpled hills. The water is kingfisher blue, the morning light golden.
Picture perfect … Poros.Credit: iStock
Poros is quiet but for the clink of our breakfast cutlery on the deck of Colonnade restaurant, and the clang of a bell. No traffic, no tour coaches, no budget airlines coming into land. This isn’t an island for big cruise ships either: even from modest Seabourn Encore, we have to tender ashore. Nobody harasses us on the waterfront. If you want donkey rides, booze buses or glamorous beach clubs then you’re in the wrong place.
Poros is one of the most conveniently located of all Greek islands, yet is bypassed by the mass and international markets. A few sun-crisped Scandinavians flop on tethered yachts, but Greeks slump at cafe tables on the waterfront, drinking thick coffees and swirling their worry beads.
I’ve arrived overnight at the start of a Seabourn cruise through Greece and Turkey. From Athens, Poros is 58 kilometres by ship or ferry across the Saronic Gulf, or 180 kilometres if you drive around it. That makes it a favourite among weekending Athenians, but easy access isn’t the only attraction.
Because it hangs only 200 metres off the Peloponnese, the main town and its unsightly services are relegated to the mainland. This is a pretty green island, rugged and crumpled, whispering with pine forest and scalloped at its edges with beaches.
Seabourn Encore’s The Retreat.
You could say this is the perfect place for a cruise-ship visit because you’ll see everything in a day, such as the ruins of a Temple of Poseidon, a trim monastery, and some appealing chapels draped in icons of sad-eyed saints. Equally, you could stay an indolent week and be happy.
Poros is technically two islands of disproportionate size, joined by a short bridge. Athenians come to bike and walk, sail and wallow in shallow sapphire waters. I’m sticking to small island Sphaeria where Poros town is located.