The single Dorca column on cape Kolona nearby is all that remains of the Temple of Aphrodite that formerly stood there. Aegina Town, on the west coast, is the island's charming and bustling, main capital and port. Its harbor is lined with colorful caiques and several of the town's crumbling neoclassic buildings survives from its days as the Greek capital. North of Aegina Town in Livadi is the house where Nikos Kazantzakis wrote Zorba the Greek.

The splendid, well preserved Doric Temple of Aphaia, erected in 480 BC, is the major ancient site of the Saronic Gulf Islands. The east coast town of Agia Marina is the island's premier tourist resort.