We went on holiday to the Greek Island of Andros which is located in the Cyclades group
in May 2004. There is no airport, you fly into Athens and then take the
120 minute or so ferry ride from Rafina over to Gavrio - cost around 9
Euros. (there is a regular bus service from Athens airport down to the
port costing just a few Euros.)
Many people going on holiday to the Greek Island of Andros stay in Batsi which has plenty
of tourist accommodation on offer although this may well be harder to find in
August as the Greeks come over on holiday from nearby Athens. We found this Greek Island really nice to visit
for our walking holiday with lovely
scenery for sightseeing and touring, loads of wildlife, the usual (if not better than usual)
friendliness from the islanders, and also one of the cheapest Greek Islands we
have been to from the point of daily costs i.e. food/wine. In our view up
to now the ultimate Greek Island for wildlife/scenery/old buildings/churches and
particularly the paths and tracks available for walking (my wife
particularly loves walking along walled paths/moni-paths) had to be Paxos
but the large but quiet Greek Island of Andros has to be a close second.
Buses: The bus service on Andros is cheap and reliable but not that frequent - as an example there are 07:05 and 10:20 services to Andros Town (ticket cost 2.50 Euro which you buy on the bus) which takes about 45 minutes and the last bus back is at 15:00 - there are later buses back on Friday and Sunday evenings however at 19:30. These times were for May which is quite early in the holiday season so probably more buses will be put on in June/July/August.
Taxis: A taxi from Batsi to Andros Town (Chora) was 15 Euros and from Gavrio to Batsi was 5 Euros (always remember to ask and maybe negotiate with the driver before leaving when using a taxi). There is a taxi rank on Batsi front by the square, the drivers can be found sitting in the taverna opposite most of the time during quiet periods.
Car and Scooter Hire: A small car such as a Daewoo costs about 30 Euros a day (for a 5 day hire) including full insurance (this has a 250 Euro payment due on top if any accident/damage is your fault). Batsi only seemed to have one car hire place and we thought their rates were rather expensive - also for a one day only hire they additionally had a per kilometre charge. One of the taverna owners suggested we go over to Gavrio where there are several car hire companies - thus competition - and this proved worthwhile for the 5 Euro taxi trip. We hired from Tassos - and they were quite happy to let us leave the car in Batsi at the end of the hire which was good. There are two quite big scooter hire firms in Batsi(located just by the bridge). There are apparently only 4 or 5 petrols stations on this Greek Island, known ones by us are: one just as you enter Chora on the main road, one at Gaviro on the road towards Batsi and one on the Batsi by-pass road.
Roads and Tracks (driving): A lot of the roads connecting the villages
are tarmac - apart from the main Batsi to Chora road these roads are often
quite narrow, very hilly and full of hairpin bends. The smaller roads are
prone to huge potholes in places - quite often on the invisible side of a
hairpin bend so you have trouble avoiding them. Goats and sheep are
everywhere and seem to take great pleasure in sauntering across the road
just as you are driving past - there again they are the locals and you are
the visitor and what is the hurry anyway?. As per normal the farmers in
their pick-up trucks have the usual small Greek island habit of driving in
the middle of the road and -maybe- only moving over at the last minute
seemingly surprised that anyone else is around. The tracks really vary in
their condition - one of the problems with a car as opposed to a jeep hire
is the small cars have very little ground clearance - certainly some of
the beaches which are accessible by track in the north and south of the
island are not any good by car because of the deep ruts - also bear in
mind how hilly Andros is so that the tracks often drop/climb very very
steeply and can be very sandy or scree/rocky due to rock-fall.
Note the road from between Remata and Arni which
branches off to Vourkoti is shown as a track on maps but is now tarmac.
Tracks and Paths for walking: Walking and hiking is very hard,
the island is seriously hilly with quite often 500 to 800 metre climbs
involved in the walks. The moni path system is extensive although some
have collapsed and also can be very overgrown with thorns and thistles -
having a trekking pole is quite useful. Nevertheless there is a very good
holiday walking opportunity on the island, you just have to sometimes take the
information on the maps with a pinch of salt. There are a couple of
maps available for the island plus several books which you can buy in
Batsi. Road Edition no.101 ISBN 960-8481-10-4 and also Andros
Touring and Hiking Guide (available on the island).
Beaches: There are loads of beaches on the island but quite a few of them are remote and
involve either a very considerable walk or some can be reached by car. The
beaches are either sand or very small stone and quite comfortable to be on
- though the ones we saw did not have much or any shade. The tavernas were
only just being painted and organised when we visited in May and most were
not open. The water was crystal clear and very good for snorkelling but
using jellies or similar on your feet is a good idea because of
sea-urchins in some places. The beaches were also just being cleaned up
from the winter debris of seaweed and flotsam - as mentioned our visit was
in May which is quite early for the Greek Islands holiday season - on the several more remote beaches we went to it
was unusual to see anyone else around - so going nude was not a problem.
The unofficial nudist beach is just on the edge of Batsi by Blue Bay -
this is quite a small beach but very pleasant to be on. Incidentally we
never saw one snake on any of the beaches we visited and we were certainly looking
since we like to photograph them.
Scenery etc: The scenery is outstanding - the island is full of old sometimes
ruined buildings, old water mills and so on; the moni path walls have
been built in an unusual way, i.e. conventional rock stacking but they also use
huge slabs of flat perpendicular rock in between.
The amount of churches dotted around is unbelievable - some of them are very old, possibly
there is one church for each islander? The wildlife (do you count sheep
and goats??) is everywhere - from buzzards, eagles, kestrels to smaller
birds, millions of lizards which scatter off just in front of you as you
walk up a path; snakes are around dozing on the paths and rocks in the sun
but they are quite small (the largest we saw was about 18 inches) and
anyway they clear off quickly when they hear you coming. Then there are
huge bees, butterflies and moths as well as the usual wildlife found near
streams, springs and wet boggy areas. In some villages there are quite
long levada runs - these are always so fascinating to walk along as well
as being great for a quick splash/cool down when the weather is hot. Along
the paths you are often accompanied by what must be totally miles of small
rubber pipes which are used to transport the water intercepted from the
springs high up in the hills back down to the villages and farms.
Batsi: We stayed in Batsi which is a nice quiet little seaside place - many of the tavernas were only just opening or had not even done so (May 2004). Typical meal of starter and main meal plus a litre jug of really nice house wine cost around 22 to 25 Euros for two people. This is a pretty little town and it is well worth having a wander around the small alleys - don't miss the levada's and springs which you can find by walking up an alley which leaves from the corner of the square.
The town has it's own quite long sandy beach plus another smaller beach on the edge of the town - other beaches on the way to Gavrio are quite an easy walk along the road and are also mostly sandy. There are several supermarkets, several local bakers/cake shops, a fruit and vegetable shop and also several gift shops but the town is really very small and not commercialised at all. The only time it seemed to get remotely busy was on the weekends - this is when the folk from Athens come over on the ferries - but presumably in August the town may well be terribly busy.
The first three photos are of Zorkos Bay and the two on the right are of
Chalkoliniona beach
Below are all Ormos Bay
The next series are of the extremely interesting Moni Sotoris ruins.
The five photos above are from inside and around the Moni Aghia Irini and the ones below are of other various Churches - Towers and Dovecots. Andros has some excllent scenery for holiday sightseeing as far as countryside is concerned but this is equalled by the old monasterys and churches etc. - the island is of course renowned for it's superb collection of dovecots - they can be seen all over the island.
Andros has lots of water running in it's streams - even in late Spring
they are all busy spouting out lovely clean mountain stream water. Below are
just a few of them.
As you travel around Andros - it is a large island of course - you go through various valleys - as is seemingly the case on Andros it is all very scenic. The first row of photos below were taken around the Ateni Valley and it's beach and the second set of five were taken around Vitali Valley and beach.
The final photos are of Moni Aghios Nikolas, Aladin
Bridge and Felos Beach
The Greek Island of Andros
- Items on Our Site:
Andros Greece Walks
Batsi Walks
Beach Photos
Andros Greece Photos
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External Links
Andros by Greeka
Andros Greece Travel Guide from Greek Island Postcards