Is Andros Worth Visiting?

Andros breaks from the image most people carry of the Cyclades, trading dry, sun-bleached hills for rivers, waterfalls, and neoclassical mansions built by sea captains, and that difference alone is reason enough to go.

Andros, the second largest and northernmost island in the group, runs on ten year-round rivers that feed valleys thick with walnut and plane trees rarely seen this far into the Aegean. Chora, the capital, was built by wealthy shipowning families rather than farmers, and its streets are lined with neoclassical mansions instead of the whitewashed cubes found on most nearby islands. A statue honoring the Unknown Sailor stands at Riva Square, where the peninsula narrows to a stone bridge leading to the ruins of a 13th century Venetian castle and the Tourlitis lighthouse, built in 1887 and rebuilt after being bombed during World War Two.

Several mountain villages are worth reaching on the drive out of Chora. Apikia is known for the Sariza mineral springs, bottled and sold across Greece, while Menites sits among walnut trees with carved stone fountains running at its entrance, and Stenies holds some of the island's grandest captain's houses. An extensive network of marked trails, considered among the best hiking terrain in Europe, links these villages through terraced hillsides, stone bridges, and old watermills.

Beaches range from organized stretches near Batsi and Chora to remote coves like Achla and Vlychada, reachable mainly on foot or with a rental car over unpaved roads. The island's shipping wealth also funds several museums today, including the Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art, founded by one of Andros's prominent maritime families. There's no airport, so the only way in is by ferry, roughly two hours from the port of Rafina near Athens.

Andros suits travelers who want serious hiking, genuine green landscape, and maritime history without the density of Mykonos or Santorini, and a rental car makes the most of what the island's size and terrain have to offer.