Ύδρα | Hydra

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Olympiad

Discussion Starter · Mar 20, 2005

Hydra is a beautiful island which is part of the Saronic Islands.
It is a very cosmopolitan island, attracting thousands of visitors by its beauty and numerous charms.

The main village of the island is Hydra Town, which is its capital and main port.
It is a lovely place full of traditional houses which are built one on the top of the other, only separated by narrow alleys.

The most unique feature of Hydra is that it has a very strict no-vehicle policy, with cars and motorbikes being prohibited from the island.
Therefore travel around Hydra is done by either donkey or speedboat.
There are restrictions on building construction, to preserve the 17th and 18th century architecture, therefore any new buildings must be based on the traditional design.

Hydra was home of a very powerful and wealthy commercial fleet in the 18th century, which played an important part in the Greek revolution.
It has now become home to many artists, and tourists, who come to enjoy to enjoy 18th century charm, in a small corner that has stayed pure to the 18th century spirit.

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Arpels

· #2 · Mar 20, 2005

cool another island, beautiful place!!

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Raleigh-NC

· #3 · Mar 21, 2005

Great thread Olympiad!!!!! Hydra is definitely one of the nicest, most underrated Greek islands. One question, though: Where did the no-vehicle policy come from? In the second and third images you can see a few cars. I find it hard to believe that this policy is in ANY way enforced... How do they move around construction materials and heavy appliances? Just curious...

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Olympiad

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 21, 2005

Raleigh-NC said:
Great thread Olympiad!!!!! Hydra is definitely one of the nicest, most underrated Greek islands. One question, though: Where did the no-vehicle policy come from? In the second and third images you can see a few cars. I find it hard to believe that this policy is in ANY way enforced... How do they move around construction materials and heavy appliances? Just curious...

Thanks Raleigh.

The no vehicle is pretty strictly enforced, and I have never seen a car whilst being there. However, there are definately cars showing in two of the photographs. I can only conclude that they are photographs of a different island wrongly identified as Hydra, because from my experiences with the island, there did not seem to be any roads that could be used by cars, and the sea front is heavily pedestrianised. I would have thought that there would be a couple of cars for emergency services, but I did not see any.

To travel inland you needed a mule or a speed taxi boat to ferry you accross the other side.

The strict environmental laws in Hydra, requires that any new constructions must retain the traditional charcter, so perhaps they have retained traditional construction methods to?

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Ozcan

· #5 · Mar 21, 2005

Nice pic. Olympiad

Excuse my ignorance but do tourists know Hydra well ?

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Olympiad

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 21, 2005

Ozcan said:
Nice pic. Olympiad

Excuse my ignorance but do tourists know Hydra well ?

Hydra is a small island, which caters for wealthy tourists seeking a quiet 18th century stye break, and is also very popular amongst artists and poets.

It also gets a lot of day trippers, because it is relatively close to Pireus (about 3.5 hours), who come to see a vehicle-free island that has a lot of history and a distinct look.

Anyone with more information, feel free to correct me/add to this.