Tourist information - Andhros
Andhros, the second largest and northernmost of the Cyclades, includes several fine features to offer the visitor and is an excellent area for serious walkers. Thinly populated but prosperous, its fertile and well-watered valleys have attracted scores of Athenian holiday villas whose red-tiled roofs and white walls stand out among the many greenery. Some of the more recent of these have robbed a lot of the villages of life and environment, turning them into scattered settlements without having nucleus, and developing a weekender mentality manifest in noisy Friday and Sunday evening traffic problems in the ferry dock. The area doesn't cater to independent travellers; also it can be difficult to find a bed during high season, particularly at weekends. On the positive side, the permanent population is distinctly hospitable; traditionally working on ships, they are only too happy to try out their English on you. Coupled with several of the more idiosyncratic reminders of the Venetian period, such as the peristereónes (pigeon towers) and also the frakhtes (dry-stone walls, here raised to the status of an art form), it is primarily the friendliness that gives Andhros its attraction.
Ferries connect the island with Rafína on the mainland, only an hour from Athens on the bus, and you can loop back into the central Cycladic routes via Mykonos, Tinos or Syros. A bus usually meets arriving ferries and runs to Batsi and on to Hóra not less than six times a day in the high season.
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