Hydra

Hydra is a Saronic island southeast of Athens where motor vehicles are entirely prohibited; all transport is by foot, donkey, water taxi, or bicycle. The main port town is an amphitheatre of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century stone mansions built by wealthy sea captains during the island's prosperous mercantile period. The complete absence of motorised traffic, together with limited development of the island's interior, has preserved a quietness and visual integrity that attracted artists and writers from the 1960s onward.