Beaches in Limnos

Limnos has a coastline of long sandy beaches that almost nobody is on. On an island this size that is genuinely unusual, and it is the single best reason to come here for the swimming rather than for the castle. The catch is in the same sentence: an island this large spreads its beaches out, and you drive between them.

Where the sand is: the south and east. The long, sandy and numerous ones are along there, and that is the coast to base near if the beach is the point of the trip.

Plati, near the town. The closest of the good ones to Myrina, which makes it the beach you use on the day you arrive and the day you leave without organising anything around it.

Thanos and Nevgatis. The two names people use for the long southern sand, and the pair most visitors end up alternating between.

Keros, which is a different sport entirely. On the east coast, and a serious windsurfing and kitesurfing bay rather than a beach that occasionally gets a breeze. If nobody in your group is on a board, treat a windy forecast as a reason to be on the south coast instead. If somebody is, this is a destination in its own right.

Why the beaches stay empty. Limnos is a working agricultural island, flat, growing wheat and vines and grazing sheep, and it has never been reshaped around visitors the way an island of its size usually is. The empty sand is a consequence of that rather than a marketing claim, and it is also why you should not expect a row of facilities behind it.

The strange coast, if you want more than sand. The island’s volcanic origins show in its dark rock coasts, and on the north coast at Gomati there is an actual wind-blown dune field that people call the desert of Limnos. A day that mixes a swim with a walk in a dune field is not available on many Greek islands.

The car, again. A car is essential here. The island is large and spread out, and the difference between one beach and a coastline is entirely a matter of transport. Which islands need a car covers the question.

Reading the water. This is the north Aegean and the island is low and open, so the wind reaches it, which is exactly why Keros works as a board bay. With coasts facing several ways there is usually a sheltered side. Read the sea when you arrive rather than a description. What the sea is like explains the mechanism.

Four nights is the minimum that covers the castle, the dunes, the northeast sites and a few beaches. Our Limnos guide has the island in full and things to do covers the fortress and the two ancient cities.