98km (53 nautical miles) SW of Piraeus; 3km (2 nautical miles) from Ermioni
First: One real plus -- with quibbles -- for visitors to Spetses: Cars are not allowed to circulate freely in Spetses town. Here's the quibble: This would make for admirable tranquillity if motorcycles were not increasingly endemic. Now, a closer look at the island:
Despite a recent series of dreadful forest fires, Spetses's pine groves still make it the greenest of the Saronic Gulf islands. Even, in antiquity this island was called Pityoussa (Pine-Tree Island). Over the centuries, many of Spetses's pine trees became the masts and hulls of the island's successive fleets of fishing, commercial, and military vessels. In time, Spetses was almost as deforested as its rocky neighbor Hydra is to this day.
In the early 20th century, the wealthy local philanthropist Sotiris Anargyros bought up more than half the island and replanted barren slopes with pine trees. Anargyros also built himself one of the island's most ostentatious mansions, flanked by palm trees, which you can see just off Spetses's main harbor, the Dapia. Amargyros also built the massive harborfront Hotel Poseidon to jump-start upper-class tourism. Then he built Anargyros College (modeled on England's famous Eton College) to give the island a first-class prep school; John Knowles taught here in the early 1950s and set his cult novel The Magus on Spetses.
Today, Spetses's pine groves and wonderful architecture are its greatest treasures: The island has an unusual number of handsome archontika (mansions) built by wealthy residents, many of them shipping magnates. Many Spetses homes have lush gardens and handsome pebble mosaic courtyards; if you're lucky, you'll catch a glimpse of some when garden gates are ajar. Like Andros, another island beloved of wealthy Athenians, Spetses communicates a sense that there's a world of private privilege that exists undisturbed by the rough-and-tumble of tourism, which -- let's not mince words -- means you and me.
Fortunately for attentive visitors, a number of Spetses's dignified villas have been converted into appealing small hotels where it's possible to escape the world of the package tour, mostly based at Ayia Marina.
