Carriage bells, sea captains, and pine.

Spetses lies just off the tip of the Argolid, about 20 minutes by water taxi from Kosta — the jetty roughly 200 metres from the villa gate — a green, pine-scented island where private cars are largely kept out and horse-drawn carriages and bicycles still set the pace.

It punched far above its weight in the 1821 War of Independence, fitting out a fleet from its own pockets. Its most famous figure, the admiral Laskarina Bouboulina, remains one of the great heroines of the Greek revolution — a ship-owner who took her own vessels to war. Each September the island stages the Armata, a spectacular re-enactment of the 1822 naval victory over the Ottoman fleet.

The Dapia waterfront and the Old Harbour are lined with the mansions of nineteenth-century shipping families, and the grand Poseidonion Hotel still presides over the front. Cobbled lanes, boatyards, and small coves reward an afternoon on foot or by bike.

Elegant but unhurried, Spetses is the easiest island escape from the villa — close enough for lunch and a swim, characterful enough to keep you all day.

← Back to Costa Phos