The Saronic islands are the closest islands to Athens, sitting in the gulf just south of the city, and their whole value is that proximity. They are the only Greek islands you can genuinely visit on a day trip, and the reason you do not need to fly anywhere to stand on one.
There are four that matter. Aegina is the nearest, reachable in well under an hour, with a well-preserved ancient temple and a reputation for pistachios. Hydra is the striking one: a stone amphitheatre of a harbour town where no cars are allowed at all, so the traffic is donkeys and your own feet. Poros sits close to the Peloponnese coast, and Spetses is the furthest and the most moneyed.
When they are the right answer
If your Greece trip is short, or built around Athens, the Saronics solve a real problem: they give you a proper Greek island day without spending two days getting to one. Hydra in particular is a genuinely good use of a spare day.
If you have a week or more and the islands are the point of the trip, go further. The Cyclades are what most people came to Greece for, and the Athens guide covers how to use the city as a base and when to leave it.
We have not yet written individual guides for these islands. When we do, they will be linked here.
Every island in the group
Each one has its own guide. The line after the name is the reason to pick it.