Perdika
- Yacht Marinas
- Geo Area: Saronic Islands
Perdika is a fishing village on the southwest coast of Aegina, nine kilometres from the main town, in the Saronic Islands. A few hundred people live here all year.
The village is built on a small cape, with the houses rising up the slope behind the harbour. A raised stone walkway runs along the water, and the fish tavernas along it are the reason most people come — including people who live on Aegina and drive down for the evening.
Directly opposite, less than a kilometre across the channel, lies the wooded islet of Moni. Small boats cross to it from the harbour all day in summer.
History & Culture
Perdika was a fishing village and nothing else until tourism arrived. Its people fished, and the village was a separate community with its own council for most of the twentieth century, until it was joined to the municipality of Aegina in 1997.
Two churches mark the two ends of it. The Church of the Dormition of the Virgin stands above the harbour, in the middle of the village. On the point of the cape stands Agios Sostis, which the Germans destroyed in 1943, during the occupation, and which was rebuilt after the war. Its feast day is 7 September.
On the hill above the harbour there are German gun emplacements from the same period, part of the coastal defences built during the occupation. They are still there, opposite the promenade, on the slope behind the shops.
Nature & Outdoors
Moni lies less than a kilometre offshore and is the main reason to be in Perdika during the day.
The islet is uninhabited — it has no drinking water — and belongs to a monastery on Aegina. From 1960 to 1990 it was managed by the Greek Touring Club, and in 1962 it was declared a wildlife park. The Club introduced animals that still live there freely: deer, peacocks, kri-kri wild goats from Crete, and squirrels. They are completely used to people and will walk right up to you on the beach.
The boat lands you at a sandy cove on the north side, which has sunbeds, umbrellas and a bar. Pine forest starts immediately behind it and covers most of the island, with footpaths climbing through it to the top of the hill and across to the other side.
Nobody is allowed to stay overnight. The last boats back leave in the early evening.
Food & Drink
The fish tavernas are what Perdika is known for, and they are the reason people travel to it rather than pass through it.
They line the raised walkway above the water, one after another, and they have been serving the same things for decades: whatever the boats brought in, grilled or fried, with octopus, small fried fish, and simple salads. Ouzo and tsipouro come with them.
Sunday lunch is the busiest time of the week, when boats arrive from Athens and the tables fill up.
Beaches
Perdika is a rocky cape, not a beach village.
There are two small beaches: one at the entrance to the harbour, and one on the other side of the cape, near the church of Agios Sostis. Both are modest. Along the promenade, stone steps lead down to flat rocks that people use for swimming, and the water there is very clear.
The proper swimming is across the channel on Moni, where the cove is sandy and shaded by pine trees.
Further along the coast, Sarpa is sandy with trees behind it, and Klima, about two kilometres away, is sandy with a canteen in summer. Both need a car or a boat.
Where to Stay
Prices shown per night for a sample 3-night stay. Rates and availability vary by season — select your dates for live pricing.
Practical information
Getting there
Perdika is nine kilometres south of Aegina Town, about fifteen minutes by car. Buses run from the town several times a day and are the cheapest way to arrive, but there are far fewer of them in the evening — check the last one before you sit down to dinner. Aegina Town itself is forty minutes from Piraeus by hydrofoil.
Getting around
The village is small enough to walk from one end to the other in a few minutes, and cars cannot go along the promenade. Boats to Moni leave from the harbour regularly through the day in summer; the crossing takes about ten minutes and you buy your ticket at the boat. For Sarpa, Klima and the rest of the coast you need a car, a scooter or a bicycle.
When to go
May to October. Perdika is busiest at weekends and through August, when Athenians arrive by boat. June and September are the best months: the tavernas are all open, the boats to Moni still run, and it is much easier to find a table. In winter the village is very quiet and most places are closed.
Good to know
The tavernas fill up on summer evenings and at Sunday lunch — come early or book. Boats to Moni stop in the early evening, so check the time of the last one back before you cross. On Moni there is no shade except the pine trees away from the bar, and no fresh water at all. Do not feed the deer and peacocks; they are wild animals and they bite when people try.
