Ferries from Poros

Ninety seconds. That is the scheduled crossing time from this island to the mainland at Galatas, across a channel that narrows to about 200 metres — one of the smallest sea straits in Greece, and almost certainly the shortest ferry journey on this site.

The channel

The Poros Channel is roughly 370 m at its widest and 200 m at its narrowest. The little ferries to Galatas run about every 15 minutes and take about 90 seconds, which makes the town on the far side effectively a suburb.

You can hear conversations across the water. The island is separated from the Peloponnese by less than the length of a runway.

The other route is a proper crossing

Piraeus to Poros is a different proposition: about 55 minutes on the fast craft, with 13 sailings in our timetable and 26 across the island's routes in total. That is the one most visitors from Athens use.

The Saronic hydrofoils continue on to Hydra and Spetses, so Poros works as a stop on a line rather than a terminus.

⚠ Two very different boats leave from the same waterfront

The Galatas shuttles and the Athens hydrofoils use the same stretch of quay in Poros town. The shuttles are small, constant and cheap; the hydrofoils are timetabled, faster and cost several times as much.

Read the signage rather than joining the nearest queue — a mistake here is quick to fix, but it costs you a departure on a route where departures matter.

What the channel does to the island

Because the mainland is ninety seconds away, Poros never developed the isolation that shapes most Greek islands. There is a car ferry, a functioning agricultural hinterland across the water in the lemon groves of Galatas, and a year-round population that treats the strait as a road.

It also means arriving without a booking in August is less risky here than almost anywhere else in the Saronic — the mainland is an option.

Season

Both services run year round. The Athens hydrofoils thin outside summer; the Galatas shuttle does not, because it is the island's road.