Aliki, on the south-east, is the good one: a double bay on a headland with an ancient marble quarry running into the sea and columns still lying where they were cut.
Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
Why the quarry is the point
Most Greek beaches with ruins have the ruins somewhere behind them. Here the workings run into the sea, and the half-finished columns are still on the ground where they were abandoned.
That is a genuinely unusual thing to swim next to, and it makes Aliki the beach that explains the island rather than just a good place to be in the water.
Thassos has been quarried for white marble since antiquity and still is. Saliara is the same fact expressed as a beach - a cove of brilliant white where the sand is ground marble.
The shape of it
A double bay on a headland: two coves either side of a neck of land, which means there is usually a sheltered side whichever way the wind is running. On an island where almost everything sits on one ring road, that flexibility is worth planning around.
The rest of the coast
Golden Beach and Paradise on the east coast are the long sandy ones.
And inland, the mountain villages - Panagia, Potamia and Theologos - sit with slate roofs and plane trees, and are noticeably cooler than the coast.
Getting around
A single ring road runs around the island, roughly 100 kilometres, and almost everything sits on it. The interior is mountain and pine.
A car is worth having, since the point of Thassos is the ring road.
Practical notes
Getting there: car ferry from Keramoti, near Kavala airport, in about 35 minutes, or from Kavala in longer. There is no airport on the island. Thessaloniki to Thassos covers it, and the short crossing is why it is one of the easiest Greek islands to reach with your own vehicle.
Four or five nights if you want the coast and the interior; it also works as a week for people who want a beach holiday with somewhere to drive.
We print no site hours or facilities. The quarry is open ground beside a beach rather than a ticketed site as far as our sources say, and we make no claim beyond that.
Common questions
Can you see the columns? Our guide says they are still lying where they were cut. That is what is there.
Is it a beach or a site? Both, which is the appeal - the quarry runs into the water.
Which is better, Aliki or Saliara? Different things. Saliara is the brilliant white cove; Aliki is the double bay with the history. Our guide calls Aliki “the good one”.
Next
Our Thassos guide has the practicalities, Saliara covers Marble Beach, and things to do in Thassos covers the quarries and villages.