What to see in Salamis
There is one reason to come here and it is a stretch of water. The strait between Salamis and the Attic mainland is where the Greek fleet broke the Persians in 480 BC, and the geography that made the battle work has not moved: you cross the battlefield on the ferry, and standing on the eastern shore looking back is the whole experience. Be warned that there is no visitor centre and next to no signage, so it rewards reading beforehand rather than turning up and hoping. Around that, the island offers the old settlement at Ampelakia where the Greek fleet most likely anchored, a small archaeological museum that takes half an hour, and a seventeenth-century monastery in the northwest whose painted interior is the best single sight here. One day covers it comfortably.
Places of interest
Faneromeni Monastery
A seventeenth-century monastery in the northwest of Salamis, with a densely painted post-Byzantine interior. The one thing on the island that is worth a visit on its own merits, quite apart from the battle.
Palaia Salamina (Ampelakia)
The old settlement on the east coast of Salamis, above the bay where much of the Greek fleet is thought to have been drawn up in 480 BC. Modest to look at, historically the most important spot on the island.
The Straits of Salamis
The narrow channel between the island and the mainland at Perama, where the Greek fleet destroyed the Persian navy in 480 BC. There is nothing built here to mark it. The water and the shape of the coast are the monument.