Symi or Hydra
 

If you were to choose between Symi or Hydra which would you choose? Are these two islands very different that we should do both?

Have you tried an image search at Google or Alta Vista? The photographs of Symi are nice. Topping for info from those who've been there --

Never been to Hydra but Symi was stunning 20 years ago. Guess a lot more commercialised now. Yr answer though probably lies in the geography - Hydra is close to the mainland therefore easy for day trippers. Symi close to Turkey and unless there is now an airport (which I doubt as it's a hilly sort of place) it obviously takes more effort to get to. Different islands - suspect different sort of visitor. Which are you?

Hi,
Both islands are wonderful. Hydra does not have any cars on it. You walk or take a donkey. It is the white cubic style of Greece. Hydra is fairly wealthy and is nicely kept up. It is near the main land and easy to get to from Athens by ferry. To get to symi you need to get a ferry from Rhodes. Symi is also beautiful. It was an Italian island for many years and therefore the architecture is reminiscent of Laguria. The buidlings are thin and painted different colors. Also there are cypress trees above the harbour. Try this web site www.symivisitor.com I love them both, so it is a hard decision. If you can only go to one, you might decide by which one is easiest to get to. Niether have airports.

Both islands are really lovely!! Hydra is so close to Athens, you can go even for one day. I suggest, go to both of them :-)
(Although i have to tell you that neither of these islands is famous for the beaches.)

have not been to any island except hydra. i really enjoyed it. many nice clean places to stay.
good views from top hill restaurants.
great sunsets from cannon area at edge of port.

nice food.
water taxi to beasti beach.
pebble beaches, so take water sandals.
kayak and canoe rental at this beach, and thatched sun umbrellas, and kiosk for drinks. was a fun day.

my photos from throw-away camera look like postcards.

otherwise it is an arid island.
i was there for one night and two days, but could have enjoyed more and branched out to other beaches, resorts, water front restaurants , etc.

nice monastery and interior patio.
upscale shops and very clean.

i enjoyed the slow ferry more than the high speed one, since on the first you can go on deck at least and walk around and take pictures.
Easy to find in port. first one at 8 am form pireaus i believe. takes a couple hours since it makes 3 stops before hydra.

i, personally would love to have the time to go further east and stay on another island also to be able to compare.

many fodorites seem to like LESVOS a lot for variety, and they say it is one of the prettiest of all.

have fun.

Thanks for all your responses. I think we will go to both since they sound quite different. I'm not sure about the beaches because some people say they are nice and others not. I guess we'll find out. I'm not opposed to pebbles.

Hydra was one of our stops on our honeymoon last month. We really loved it. We had really no idea what to expect (except the pictures we saw online), and we were pleasantly surprised by all there was to do. We stayed two nights at Bratsera hotel, which I highly recommend. It had a great shaded courtyard pool (they serve dinner around it in the evenings), and was a nice retreat from the crowded harbour. The hotel was rustic in a good way (again, a nice contrast from our Mykonos hotel), with a very helpful front desk staff who recommended a good beach, restaurants and bars to try. I really recommend staying overnight if you can. The island really was different once the daytrippers left- they flood in from the ferries around 10:00am and leave late afternoon.

We also went to Bisti beach and really enjoyed it. We didn't mind the pebbles at all- it made it different from all the sandy beaches we saw on Mykonos. Also, I loved that it was wedged between the sea and dense pine trees. It made for beautiful colors between the blue water, the trees, and the mulit-colored pebble beach. They also had a bar hut there on the beach where we got cold coronas and drank them in our lounge chairs. :-) If you do go to Hydra- we loved drinks at Hydroneta bar (great sunset view) and dinner at The Veranda.