Beaches in Spetses

Spetses is the green Saronic island: pine woods run down to the water around most of the coast. So the beaches here are pine-backed and pebbly rather than sandy, and the shade at the back of them is the thing that makes a summer afternoon workable. Set that expectation and the coast is a pleasure; arrive expecting long sand and it will not be.

The names people use. Agia Marina, Agioi Anargyroi, Zogeria and Xylokeriza. Between them they cover most of what a visitor here actually swims at.

How you get to them, which is the interesting part. A road rings the island and most people ride it on a scooter or a bicycle, because private cars are restricted. But water taxis run to the beaches from the town, and that is often quicker than the road. On most Greek islands a boat to the beach is an excursion; here it is simply the faster way, and it is worth treating as the default rather than the treat.

What the restriction on cars actually gives you. A coast without a stream of traffic on the road behind it, and a town you hear rather than dodge. It is the reason the island feels the way it does, and it is felt on the beaches as much as in the streets.

Pine, and why it changes the day. Shade at the back of a beach is rare in Greece and normal here. You are not driven off the shore at the hottest hour and you do not need to have rented an umbrella to survive the middle of the day.

Pebble, and what to bring. Clear water and pebble go together, and it means footwear and a step-in entry rather than a wade. Neither is a hardship if you knew before you packed.

Reading the water. This is the Saronic Gulf rather than the open Aegean, and the island’s ring of coast faces every direction, so there is usually a sheltered side. Read the sea when you arrive rather than a description written months earlier, and remember that a water taxi lets you change your mind about which side you are on. What the sea is like covers the mechanism.

How it fits a trip. Two nights is the usual, and Spetses is one of the few islands that genuinely works as a weekend from Athens, with fast ferries from Piraeus in about two hours. That makes a beach day here unusually available. Our Spetses guide has the island in full, things to do covers the working boatyard and the mansions, and Hydra is the obvious pairing.