Beaches in Samos

Samos gives you a rule rather than a ranking, and it is the most useful thing on this page: the beaches here sort by wind. Learn the pattern and you can pick a coast on the morning rather than book a beach in advance and hope.

The north coast is the scenic side, and the exposed one. Around Kokkari, with Tsamadou and Lemonakia close by, this is the coast people photograph. It also takes the meltemi head-on and turns choppy on windy days. That is not a warning to avoid it; it is a reason to go on a still morning rather than a blowing afternoon.

The south and southwest sit in the lee. Around Pythagorio, Ireon and Marathokambos the water stays calmer when the north is churning. This is where you go when the forecast is against you, and it is why a Samos trip rarely loses a swimming day entirely.

The two protected ones you walk to. Mikro and Megalo Seitani, on the wild northwest coast, sit inside a Natura 2000 protected area and are reached on foot along a coastal path rather than by car. That is exactly why they stay quiet, and it makes them the best half-day on the coast here for anyone willing to walk.

The freshwater alternative. The Potami waterfalls near Karlovasi are a short shaded walk up a stream to pools you can swim in. On a hot day, shade and fresh water is a genuinely different proposition from a beach, and very few islands offer it.

Plan by the names, decide by the day. Beach names on Samos are durable geography, so you can plan around them safely. What is not durable is the water on any given day, so read the sea when you arrive rather than a description written months earlier. What the sea is like explains how the meltemi actually behaves.

Why you want a car for this. Samos is large and green, the two coasts are a drive apart, and the whole point of the wind rule is being able to cross between them. Without transport you are committed to whichever side you booked, which throws away the island’s main advantage. Which islands need a car is the general question.

The wider island. Samos is greener and more mountainous than the Cyclades islands it gets compared to, with a marked network of walking trails linking villages, gorges, chapels and beaches, so a beach day here can have a walk attached to it rather than being the whole day. Things to do in Samos covers the UNESCO sites and the tunnel, our Samos guide has the practicalities, and Athens to Samos covers getting here.