Beaches of Halkidiki
40° 2′ 16.6956” N 23° 21′ 40.8996” E
17th July 2021
The Haldiki area is proud of its many fine beaches, particularly the ones on the three peninsulas, Kassandra, Sithonia and Athos. If you follow the recommendations of e.g. TripAdvisor, you will find many of the best. However, places with many reviews typically also has many guests visiting. Here is instead a one-family based comparison of all beach from Sani to Siviri – because we tried them all.
Sani beach
Total ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Facilities ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sand/water ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Crowding-freedom ⭐⭐
The Sani area is very luxurious, with five star hotel resorts. The resorts own some parts of the beach, and unless you live there, you are unlikely to be permitted rent beach chairs. However, not all of Sani beach is hotel owned: for example the middle part close to the pirate themed bar, where external visitors also can get a beach chair. Regardless of location, the sand is of the same fine white quality all along, with virtually no rocks or pebbles. Together with Siviri, Sani is the place with most visitors, even when considering the longer length of the beach – it can still feel somewhat crowded. An advantage particular to this beach is that it is the only place where one can rent small sailing dingies.
Simantra Beach
Total ⭐⭐⭐
Facilities ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sand/water ⭐⭐⭐ (some rocks)
Crowding-freedom ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Simantra Beach is a part of the resort of the same name, but their beach chairs only occupy half of the long beach. Besides, they seem welcoming to external visitors. I don’t think they’ve had many visitors during the pandemic. We didn’t use the beach chairs, since our main goal was to rent a paddle-boat with water slide. They cost 15€ per hour, like at Sani beach. An advantage particular to this beach, which is also called Golden Beach, is the small turtle-pond, where dozens of small turtles lives. The kids really love to watch those.
Chelona beach
Total ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Facilities ⭐⭐⭐
Sand/water ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Crowding-freedom ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The smallest beach, halfway between Sani and Siviri. As the only of these five locations, there is no hotel in the area behind the beach. The only facility is a small wooden beach bar named Χελώνα Beach Bar. They serve excellent slush-ice drinks and light lunch. I think this beach is the most charming, probably because it’s the one with the least amount of visitors. Also, I like that it is the only place open to serve water to early morning joggers. That’s because the bartenders sleep behind the bar in sleeping bags at night, and if they are anyway awake in the morning they are happy to chat. I think the people who works there really like the place and are proud of it.
Elani
Total ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Facilities ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sand/water ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Crowding-freedom ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A small beach that is completely filled out with beach chairs from the local resort of the same name. As with Simantra Beach, however, they seem welcoming to external visitors. Probably the pandemic has also limited their number of guests. If you go here, pay attention to the complex beach chair numbering system and pick one that is not labelled as either “hotel” or “reserved”. There are two hotel-owned restaurants by the beach, we ate on the one on the small green hill north of the beach. They didn’t have any other customers, likely because of the big “entry forbidden” sign at their entrance (which we only saw on the way out).
Siviri
Total ⭐⭐⭐
Facilities ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sand/water ⭐⭐⭐
Crowding-freedom ⭐
The long beach by Siviri town. Siviri is a charming vacation town, with many very good restaurants, which we enjoyed many evenings. They were always welcoming, no bookings necessary (unlike Sani) and they had nice service and delicious fish. Some younger members of the family felt we could have spent more money on the local Tivoli attractions (1-euro bouncing cars) and others preferred larger prawns. Charming, nonetheless. Also worth a special mention is the local SCUBA diving center, Seavery, offering proficient and safe service. Our 9 year old crew member tried her first dive here. So all in all the facilities of Siviri are topnotch. The beach itself we didn’t use so much, however. It seems awfully crowded and rarely did we spot a vacant rental beach chair, let alone a place that was not swamped with other beach goers. Also the water seemed a bit murky, which the local dive center biologist attributed to algae bloom due to exceptionally high water temperatures.
Transport
All five beaches can be reached by boat or car, the three middle ones however require some fairly rough driving. Drive carefully, particularly on the steep gravel roads. Additionally all beaches are reachable from their neighbors along coastal walking paths. The paths are strenuous, but spectacular. Don’t bring strollers or wheel chairs if you attempt these routes, but do enjoy the great views from the high cliffs. And if you like to run – it’s also great for that.
Kids are the best crew members
40° 34′ 31.476” N 22° 56′ 52.656” E
27th June 2021
Nellie is the first mate. Julian is a ship’s boy. They have sailed with Ronja every year of their lives and thus have nine and two years of seniority as visitors. They sweep the decks with high spirits, they live with us on the long voyages, and they spread a great atmosphere on board. Our two grandchildren arrive with their father in Aretsou Thessaloniki Marina. That’s the plan, we’ll be together for ten days. Jubii.
After a trip on the sea, the salt must be washed away
The father announces that he will have to work a lot for the first five days, and he leaves for a hotel in Thessaloniki, where he can write and hold online meetings. “Have fun with the kids!”.
Wonderful.
We always get closer to the kids when the parents are not with us, so we immediately set course for the Halkidiki Peninsula, eight hours sailing from Thessaloniki. Here we have chosen a completely superb beach. Clean, white sand. The clearest water and not a rock.
The place is called Sani and turns out to be very expensive with architect-designed hotel clusters and 26 top restaurants, where a Greek salad costs 22 euros compared with 6-7 euros in “normal” Greece, and where hotel guests are driven around the area with silent electric golf cars .
The place is ridiculously preoccupied with putting guests into different groupings, each having access to their selected parts of the delights. It feels a bit tasteless. But the beach and the water are amazing. And if you want to have fun with your grandchildren, then there is nothing like a beach full of play equipment.
We’ll be here a full week. A wonderful week where the children’s father catches up with us along the way and participates in the fun, while he still looks after meetings and deadlines at his job. After a wonderful week we sail back to Thessaloniki, where Ronja will spend the warmest summer months alone.
John Dillermand? Is he saying that about a Greek squid?
The fountain of youth
39° 5′ 13.812” N 23° 44′ 41.82” E
27th June 2021
It was in 1978 or thereabouts, back when we figuratively lived on love and spring water for an entire week on a beach on the island of Skopelos. Back then, the spring water trickled out of a rock crevice and let us fill our pots and mugs. Now we are here – after 43 years and a few days of detective work. A lot has changed, we dare say. The deserted beach has sunbeds, parasols, a shower and a beach bar selling drinks and spring water in imported plastic bottles. The source of our youth? We search every meter of the rock wall and only higher up on the mountain do we find it. It is still trickling, but it is laid in pipes, built into a wall and no longer looks like something that is part of anyone’s adventure. For us, however, it is still the source of youth. The memory of an adventure.
The breath of history
37° 35′ 53.3070” N 23° 4′ 29.717” E
15th october 2020
The city of Epidaurus on the Peloponnese is steeped in history. Since 400 years before the birth of Christ, people have made the pilgrimage to experience music and drama in the famous amphitheater and to be healed in the temple of Askeplio, which was the ancient version of a a health clinic. It’s a huge experience to see it. Both the amphitheater and the archeological excavations of temples and health hotels.
The amphitheater is remarkably well preserved, but also the small museum with the best of the excavated busts, tools and pillars is worth a visit. We are lucky it’s corona time. The world thinks that Greece too has been put down by the corona, so we have most of it to ourselves, and you can without hesitation stand up on the stage of the amphitheater and sing a song for your family, who is sitting on the 55th row and clapping gratefully, because the sound conditions are absolutely unique. While the song may not be spectacular itself, when song by yourself, it is at least remarkably loud, as if you are singing through a megaphone. The ancient Greeks really knew something about architecture and engineering
The port we are in is called Palaia Epidhaurus. Here Greeks sit from morning to evening on the pier and fish for squid, small fishing dinghies sail out early in the morning, and only a few yachtsmen find their way into the harbor.
It is strange to look at restaurants that have been built to accommodate maybe 100 guests at a time and now there are just four guests sitting. The season is coming to an end, and on top of this, the corona has knocked down the number of visitors to a quarter of normal. Only six out of ten hotels in Greece have reopened after the first wave of the corona, and these hotels have an average occupancy rate of just 30 percent.
Happiness is to moor in the middle of nowhere
37° 19′ 39.1500” N 23° 9′ 5.4480” E
5th october
Can you get tired of going to a restaurant? Yes, indeed. Some of our best meals are those that we get mooring in the middle of nature, close to scenic banks, far from the city lights and the traditional but also in the long run trivial Greek cuisine.
Right now we are mooring in a small bay off Porto Kheli. Our closest neighbors are two or three herons that have annexed a small island south of our anchorage. Otherwise there is no life as far as the eye can see. Only nature. Secret beaches and wooded hills. We swim out and see if our anchor has stuck properly. We enjoy the sunset and prepare a simple but tasty meal.
We had actually turned our bow to Porto Kheli, which is also part of the marketing package “The Greek Riviera”. But here they are even further from living up to that status. It is a Riviera under construction. A large marina has been built, but a guard sends us away. “This is private property”. Back is a city quay. It’s not inviting.
So back to nature, the swims and the simple meals. We chose one place. But there are plenty of opportunities in the area.
We would like to moor this way a lot more, but when we have been hoding back a bit, it is because we still do not have full confidence in Ronja’s energy supply after the 14 months of shutdown alone on land. The fridge puts out occasionally. The battery level drops, we feel insecure, whether the anchor winch and starter motor will obey. We must have seen it all through when Ronja is going ashore for the winter in Almira Shipyard, a little north of Corinth.
Nafplio wins by closer acquaintance
37° 34′ 5.448” N 22° 48′ 31.1796” E
3th october
Seen from the sea, the old castle town of Nafplio does not look special at all. The three Venetian fortifications do make their marks on the city, but otherwise what we see is just huge parking lots around a harbor surrounded by wire fences and a harbor that is completely without amenities like electricity and water. A totally boring port.
However, when you move into the streets of the city, you are overwhelmed by the liveliness and the beautiful buildings – Venetian, Turkish, Greek – all built charmingly together with the Venetian fortifications. You sense the greatness of the past and you do understand that here is the leading city of the area, with a past as the capital of Greece for a few years in19th century.
But the port itself is probably the most boring and inhospitable port in all of The Saronic Sea, and after two nights we sail south again. The most exciting thing about the harbor is, that we – as apparently the only boat – are subjected to a thorough police inspection, where the officers are particularly interested, whether we have paid our sailing tax.
We have. And thus we have saved a fine of 500 Euro.
Among the jet set on the Greek Riviera
37° 16′ 6.9600” N 23° 9′ 15.2640” E
1th october 2020
By pure chance, we find a berth in Spetzai’s old, plug-stopped but intensely charming harbor, where the inner harbor is occupied by several layers of local small boats, especially wooden dinghies, a couple of large motorboats and a lot of water taxis that have gone into hibernation during the corona descent and low season.
The outer harbor is occupied by a cargo ship, anchoring for better times, and some huge luxury yachts mooring, while highlighting themselves with floodlights on the mast, hull and the water around, so that all the rest of us can understand that some very special people are living on this ship.
We find a humble place at the northern end of the inner harbor where small primitive shipyards preserve the ancient craftsmanship of boatbuilding. They build the most beautiful boats.
Spetzai (the Greeks call the island Spetses) is part of what is being marketed as the Greek Riviera. They have a long way to go yet, but Spetzai IS beautiful, characterized by rich buildings from a time when Spetzai was strong in the area’s commercial life. The island is officially car-free, but is in turn filled with noisy and stinking motorcycles as well as – considering the island’s car-free status – quite a few cars.
It is a wildly beautiful island. It is lower than the average greek island and massively grown with pine trees. We rent two electric bikes and tramples round all the island’s 26 kilometers of asphalt, we pass beautiful beaches, ex-King Constantine and Anne Marie’s big summer residence and we enjoy the magnificent nature. Fantastic experience.
Please, let us pay our taxes
37° 30′ 16.8372” N 23° 27′ 40.0716” E
28th september 2020
“My job is not to help you. My job is to give you a fine, if you have not paid your taxes.”
The policeman is extremely unpleasant. First, he throws us out of an office with a sign saying Port Police on the door. Obviously, it is not meant for ordinary citizens to walk through that door. Later, he explains to us out in the hallway, that we must solve our problems ourselves. His job is to give us fines.
All we want is to pay our taxes.
Greece has introduced a sailing tax, called eTepai, which for our sailing boat amounts to 33 € for each month it is sailing in Greek waters.
We actually thought, we had paid the tax from home over the internet, where we had filled out forms and transferred money from our bank to the Greek state. But after a few days, the money comes back without any explanation. Now that we’re in Greece again, we’re trying to find another way to pay our taxes.
At first, we go to a branch of the National Bank of Greece. No. That kind of thing they will have nothing to do with. “Try in the city’s other bank, Alpha Bank, they have a machine that can handle those kinds of payments,” one of the bank’s employees tells us.
In the city’s second bank, Alpha Bank, they know nothing about this. We can ‘t transfers our money in their bank.
And then we end up with the port police. “Could you please tell us, where we can pay our sailing taxes?”
Well, they could not.
Then we go into a store that advertises that they make any kind of money transfer worldwide. Well, except ours. “There is no possibility, that you can transfer this money through us,” says the clerk.
Now only the post office is left. We line up with a number of other citizens. And, when it’s our turn, the miracle happens: The post office can handle our money. The money is transferred. We are again law-abiding sailors, who can walk past the harbor police with a straight back, while in our quiet minds we think, that it is so odd, that in this country an authority figure can’t be an executive police authority and at the same time acting accommodating and helpful.
In Greece you are very serious on Covid-19
37° 29′ 50.3988” N 23° 27′ 29.322” E
September 8, 2020
We sail back to Poros, as it turns out that our consumer batteries are still not quite ok. A battery is replaced by our regular mechanic / electrician / specialist. It helps.
We spend a few days enjoying the excellent beaches of Poros and studying the city life of Poros town. It is interesting to see how consistently the Greeks handle the corona situation. In each of the city’s 65 cafés, staff wear facemasks and hand alcohol on the tables. If you walk into a store, you will be asked to put on a facemask, and on the beach you will be warned not to move your sunbed closer to your spouse. “One meters distance. Basta. ” But actually we do understand it. Nearly 20 percent of Greeks work in the tourism industry. A total shutdown will really hurt.
In the harbor we meet a Canadian couple who have been in self-selected corona quarantine on their sailboat for half a year. Food, drink and medicine are brought to the boat. The couple themselves spend time to feed the city’s cats and chase away other sailors, who are trying to berth their boats too close to their self-proclaimed quarantine station. They will continue to Tunisia, Gran Canaria and then across the Atlantic in November. “We’re leaving tomorrow,” they tell us every day throughout the week. When we ourselves leave Poros, they are still there.
We make an arrangement with our friend in Vikos Marineshop, that he will look after Ronja, while we are at home in Denmark for the next 10 days.
Close to falling in
37° 20′ 46.6044” N 23° 14′ 44.016” E
September 4, 2020
Happy that the hassle is over, we sail further south and call at Ermioni in the Peloponnese.
We are still not thrilled with the Greeks’ tradition of berthing “backwards” to the quay. Often the distance between the boat and the quay becomes too great, and when we went ashore in the evening, Kirsten’s jump only reaches half the distance (her dress was probably too tight :-). Fortunately, Per has a good grip on her arm and mitigates a fall into the water. Relieved and only slightly bruised, we continue up into the city.
Ermioni turns out to be a gem. We find a wonderful walk around a peninsula with beautiful views, cicadas and a massive scent of pine trees.
From Ermonia we take a water taxi to the island of Idrhá.
Idrhá is also a gem, but a very touristy and busy gem. We are glad, that we did not sail to the island ourselves, because the harbor is a huge chaos of water taxis, ferries, fisher boats and yachts, all of them trying to find space in the small overburdened harbor.
Idrhá is car-free, and the street scene is – in addition to tourists – characterized by donkeys dragging groceries home from the supermarket. Truly a beautiful and charming town.