Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
It is also a working island rather than a resort, with a farming interior and a town that carries on out of season.
The Temple of Aphaia
The reason to come, and one of the best-preserved Doric temples anywhere. It stands in pines on a hill in the north-east, built around 500 BC, with most of its columns still up and a good number of them still carrying their architrave.
It forms a near-equilateral triangle with the Parthenon and the temple at Cape Sounion, which people call the holy triangle. Whether that was intended is unprovable and it makes a good view either way.
Palaiochora
Inland stands the abandoned Byzantine and Venetian town, built up a hillside for safety from pirates and emptied in the nineteenth century. What survives is around thirty churches and chapels, scattered across the slope with almost nothing else between them.
It is unfenced, quiet, and much stranger than the temple.
The town, and the pistachios
Aegina town is a proper port: a curving waterfront of neoclassical houses, fishing boats selling from the quay, and a single surviving column of the Temple of Apollo on the headland at Kolona, with a museum beside it.
The island’s pistachios are a protected designation and genuinely better than the imported kind; they are sold everywhere and are the standard thing to carry home.
Where to swim
Modest. Agia Marina on the east coast is the sandy one and the resort end; Marathonas and Perdika in the south-west are smaller. Perdika is the fish-taverna village and the boat point for Moni, an uninhabited islet a few minutes offshore with clear water.
Getting there and how long
Ferries and fast boats from Piraeus all day. It works as a day trip, but the temple, Palaiochora and a swim make a rushed one.
One night turns it into a proper visit, and the town in the evening is the best part.
Last checked August 2026. Ferry frequency changes by season - see our editorial policy.
Common questions
How long does the ferry to Aegina take?
About forty minutes from Piraeus by fast boat, or a little over an hour on the conventional ferry.
What is the Temple of Aphaia?
A Doric temple of around 500 BC in the north-east of Aegina, among the best preserved in Greece, with most columns still standing.
What is Palaiochora?
The abandoned Byzantine and Venetian hill town inland, emptied in the nineteenth century, where around thirty churches and chapels still stand on an otherwise empty slope.
Is Aegina good for beaches?
They are modest. Agia Marina is the sandy resort beach; Marathonas and Perdika are smaller and quieter.
Are Aegina pistachios really different?
They are a protected designation grown on the island and are the standard thing visitors take home.
Plan by category
The Aegina guides
2 guides, each scoped to a decision you actually have to make.
AttractionsThings to do
See the attractions →
BeachesThe beaches
See the beaches →
Next
Read the Saronic islands, Agistri, or Poros.