SPETSES & PORTO HELI
The Grande Dame: Spetses
With an air of unassuming prestige, professedly spotless natural beauty, rolling hills peppered with vineyards and vegetable gardens, quayside coffee shops and colonial-style charm, Spetses is all about nautical glamour, vibrant culture, as well as old-money and royalty sightings.
A two-hour hydrofoil voyage from the port of Piraeus, and a few kilometers from mainland Peloponnese, the corniche pavements of the island remain clear of vehicles (with the only exception being horse-drawn carriages, wooden caiques, bicycles, and vintage Piaggio Apes that will carry your suitcases to the hotel or provide for the day's groceries). Yes, the 19th-century outpost's alternative street life will have you check back into a time capsule.
If are new to the island's rich naval history or the stories about Laskarina Bouboulina (the world's first female admiral) you're bound for some bewilderment visiting her mansion, commodiously unaltered, and while glow-in-the-dark tanned travelers bask in the sun, elegant and sturdy Aegean low-riders are still built by hand here. Afroessa, the lateen-rigged caique of King Constantine of the Greeks, is often at anchor, especially during the Spetses Classic Yacht Race when 1930s J Class and vintage vessels compete at the Armata.
In October, dozens of vintage cyclists gather on the island to take part in the Tweed Run, the annual cycling event organized by the Poseidonion Grand Hotel, where mustache grooming, tailor-made hats, and classical post-war attire are the norm, while “Concours d’Elegance” – a competition of elegance for vehicles is held at Cine Titania. In spring, the vintage car rally gives locals and visitors the opportunity to walk around and gaze at classical motors that arrive from across the globe on a 25km race around the island.
It takes as little as three hours to navigate around Spetses around winding hillside curves, age-old mansions, and crystal-clear coves. In the bright sunlight, bougainvilleas splash buckets of blue and purple against high, white walls. At noon tavernas such as Patralis on Kounoupitsa beach counterattack with live grey lobster and spaghetti. Not to be outdone in freshness, Tarsanas, on the Old Harbour, barbecues fish caught that morning and serves it with lashings of local gossip supplied by the owners. At twilight, music will sway you in jasmine-scented air, as elegant head for Honolulu, the club, restaurant and bar successor to Figaro, the disco where Jackie Kennedy was courted by Aristotle Onassis.
One cannot dream about Spetses and not wish to spend at least one night at the Poseidonion Grand Hotel, the elegant 1914 colonial beauty (and vintage landmark) whose guestbook bares signatures the likes of Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor just to mention a few of its illustrious tenants. The stunning facade may remind you of the early 20th-century Carlton in Cannes or the Negresco in Nice, and its period-furniture, marble staircases, original English tiles and stately flooring will immerse you in a world of grace that refuses to perish.
The Orloff Mansion an atmospherically restored 19th- century sea captain's house, the Orloff Resort Hotel with its built in metal frame beds and the eponymous Orloff Restaurant blend design with tradition, will make you feel like an old friend visiting.
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