Hydra: Cafes, Restaurants and Nightlife
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The food in Hydra is mostly excellent, even in the cafes on the waterfront which have a lot of choices but are a little expensive. Then again you know how it is when you are at a place where the main entertainment is people-watching. You pay for the good seats and except for Mykonos, these are the best seats in Greece. For a cheap night out your best bet is to go to one of the restaurants on the back streets and do your eating and drinking there. In the daytime people eat along the shore where the sea breeze keeps them cool and they can take a swim before or after lunch. |
| My friend Ana loves the Kryfo Limani
or Secret Port of Captain Andreas which is suitably named because you will
never find it if you are not looking very diligently. If you walk up the
street from where the donkeys hang out and take the right fork and then
after about two blocks begin asking directions then you may. Lonely Planet
recommends The Terrace for their excellent dishes, retsina and low
prices. Also the Garden Resturant, a psistaria (grilled meats)
in a pretty enclosed garden received high marks in the budget-eating section.
For ouzo and mezedes they suggest Strofilia for their spetsofai
(spicy sausage in tomato sauce).
The most traditional restaurant by far is Leonidas Taverna in Kala Pigadia(photo). Take Miaoulis, the road next to the monastary and keep walking and eventually you will see it your right...maybe. But your best bet is to call and make reservations before you come because it is small and popular. (0298) 53097 |
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Easier to find is the Sunset Restaurant which sits on the ramparts overlooking the rocks where everyone swims just beyond the harbor. The food is excellent and the view is too. Great place for dinner or lunch and an ouzo and meze while you watch the sunsets that Hydra is famous for. Say hello to George, an old friend and North Carolina resident who cooks and helps run the place during the summer. Lots of fish dishes and great kalamarakia. Try the Garides saganaki which is shrimp cooked with cheese in tomato sauce. |
Hydra After Sunset |
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There are a couple good bars, and as you will find throughout Greece, the bars are mostly expensive in comparison to what you will pay in the restaurants and the cafeneons where the locals usually drink. But in Hydra the locals drink in the cafes and bars and you won't find many traditional cafeneons, at least not in the port. The bar drinks are about what you would pay in New York City, the music can be loud and very un-Greek so if you came for the conversation your best bet is to get a drink and move outdoors where there are plenty of tables and chairs for this very purpose.
The best bar in my opinion is the Pirate,
right in the port close to the monastery and just before the gold shops.
Owned by Takis who makes such great drinks that after a couple I could
not help but notice that I did not care how loud the music was or that I
couldn't hear half of what my friends were saying to me. I was content
to half listen and look at the young people around me having a wonderful
time, and wonder to myself if they could actually hear what they were saying
to each other. After one more drink I didn't care and was dancing happily.
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Most of the bars get pretty wild in the summertime. Nightlife-wise
Hydra is similar to Mykonos, a smaller version of the most famous island.
It's just a matter of choosing where you want to party if that is what
you came for. There is no shortage of bars and discos, whose clientele
include super and not so supermodels and varying speices of Euro-trash
mixed in with some very genuine people. If you want to party you will have
fun here, no doubt about it.
If you are not the partying type, after dinner, go to the supermarket and buy a bottle of wine or a couple bottles of beer and walk around the port and up the hill until you get to the small fort that overlooks the mainland. If you want to go for a midnight swim, there are diving platforms down below and the sea is lit by phosphoris. But there are benches by the cannons and nobody cares if you drink there if you are mature about it. Or just head back to the cafes where the people watching continues til late and they will stay open as long as there is someone to serve |
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