Beaches in Ithaca

The most useful thing to know about Ithaca’s beaches is what they are made of. Most are pebble rather than sand, small, and shelving straight into clear, deep water, and only a few are organised with sunbeds and somewhere to rent an umbrella. Bring water shoes for the stones and carry your own shade and water, and the swimming becomes a pleasure rather than a surprise.

They run along a spectrum of effort, and that is the useful way to sort them.

Easiest: the coves near Vathy. Filiatro and Dexa, a short drive from town with room to park. If you want a swim without building a day around it, that is where it is.

In the north, near Kioni and Frikes. Small bays like Sarakiniko and Skinos reward the drive with clearer water and fewer people. This is the middle of the spectrum and where most of a week’s swimming ends up.

And the one you cannot roll up to. Gidaki is the island’s most admired beach, reached on foot over the headland from Vathy or by the little boat that shuttles across in summer. The walk is exactly why it stays empty, and that is the trade rather than a drawback.

The honest paragraph, which the hub writes better than a brochure would. If your idea of a beach day is soft sand, a row of loungers and a bar serving frappe to your towel, Ithaca will disappoint you. What it offers instead is clear water, small crowds and the sense that you found the cove rather than booked it. That suits swimmers and walkers. It does not suit anyone who needs shallow sand and shade laid on.

What “shelving straight into deep water” means for you. It is a description of the shore rather than a rating: the entry is a step off stone into depth rather than a wade. Look at it and decide for yourself, and note that nothing on this page is certified safe or suitable for any particular swimmer.

Reading the water. This is the Ionian rather than the Aegean, and the island’s coves face several ways, so there is usually a sheltered side. Read the sea when you arrive rather than a description written months earlier. What the sea is like in Greece covers the mechanism.

Getting to them. Nowhere on Ithaca is far in kilometres and you can drive between the villages inside an hour, but the roads are slow and dark at night. That makes a beach at the far end of the island a daytime plan rather than an evening one. Our Ithaca guide has the practicalities and things to do covers the walking and the Odysseus question.