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THE SPORADES ISLANDS & THE NORTHEAST AEGEAN ISLANDS
THE SPORADES ISLANDS MAP [ ↑ ]
The Sporades are a collection of Aegean islands that are offshore from the eastern coast of Greece. There are a few dozen inlands in the group, but that number includes quite a few tiny islands, and only four of the islands—Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissos and Skyros—are populated year-round. "Sporades" comes from the Greek word meaning scattered, thus the English word "sporadic." Skiathos is the closest of the islands to the mainland, less than 4 kilometers offshore from the region known as Thessaly, which lies on Greece's eastern coast between Athens and Thessaloniki. Skiathos is the smallest of the populated Sporades, but it is also the most touristed. East of Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos are the next two major islands. Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos are located within a west-to-east span of roughly 55 kilometers. Skyros is the largest of the Sporades, and it is an outlier among the other populated islands, located over 50 kilometers southeast of Alonissos. Skyros is not considered in this guide. Skiathos is the only island of the Sporades with a significant airport, so Skiathos is frequently a gateway for travelers to Skopelos and Alonissos.
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| | Alonissos MAP [ ↑ ]
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NUDE BEACHES
While Skiathos and Skopelos are well known to tourists, Alonissos is not. It is a long, narrow island than spans about 20 kilometers from one extreme to the other, and just about everything on the island is located in a cluster of villages near the south end. Toward the north end of the island, the coastline is more rugged and harder to access, with fewer beaches. Although not a mass tourist market, Alonissos has plenty of tourist amenities for a quiet holiday. While Alonissos lacks the critical mass of visitors necessary to have well-established nude beaches, there is a scattering of locations that get a low level of nudist attendance.
The ferry port in Alonissos is in the village of Patitiri, the island's capital. Although just 2.5 kilometers by car from Patitiri, Vithisma Beach 39.1369N, 23.8479E   is a hidden and rather obscure beach that is lightly attended due to its lack of amenities and difficult access, and the few visitors present at any given time are likely to dispense with swimwear. Mikros Mourtias Beach 39.1435N, 23.8380E is not far away from Vithisma as the crow flies, but to get there you will first have to go to Alonissos town (a.k.a. Chora), a quaint hilltop village with incredible views of the sea that used to be the island's capital. Mikros Mourtias is downhill from Chora, and the words "nude beach" are spray painted on a small, dilapidated outbuilding that is located along the beach. However, despite the sign, Mikros Mourtias does not seem to be a beach where nudity patterns are reliably consistent. Sometimes everyone is naked, sometimes no one is naked, sometimes the crowd is mixed and sometimes the beach is just empty.
The village of Votsi is immediately north of and contiguous with Patitiri. Just north of Votsi, there is a prominent bay that is just over a kilometer long, cutting about 500 meters into the land mass of the island. Four small beaches clustered in the bay near Votsi are collectively known as the Spartines Beaches 39.1543N, 23.8779E & 39.1566N, 23.8789E , and all are wild beaches with no signs pointing the way. In fact, only two of them can be reach on foot. The Spartines Beaches are very lightly attended overall, and nudity is common among those who find their way.
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| | Skiathos MAP [ ↑ ]
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NUDE BEACHES
The small island of Skiathos is the westernmost of the Sporades, just 4 kilometers offshore from the mainland. A very green island, Skiathos is thickly forested and replete with golden sandy beaches. It has been a tourist magnet for over half a century, beginning as a destination for the jet set but gradually evolving into a mass tourism market that is especially popular with British travelers. The island has lots of resorts and an active nightlife scene, and most beaches are covered in sun chairs and umbrellas. Skiathos is a bit smaller than Manhattan, and the airport and ferry port are located in Skiathos town toward the east end of the island. From Skiathos town, it is a drive of about 12 kilometers to Koukounaries, a tourist village toward the west end of the island. There is frequent bus service along the Skiathos town-to-Koukounaries corridor, and virtually all the island's tourist development is within easy walking distance of the nearest bus stop. Many Skiathos visitors opt out of renting a car, relying on the bus instead.
There are a number of sandy beaches at the west end of Skiathos, and those beaches fan out from Koukounaries and nearby Troulos such that some face south, some face west and some face north. All are very scenic beaches with at least one taverna, and all are beaches with sun chairs and umbrellas. The cluster of beaches at the west end of Skiathos includes several that have a nudist presence. Of these, the best known by far is Little Banana Beach 39.1488N, 23.3919E . Banana Beach and Little Banana Beach are neighboring beaches that face west, and while nudity used to be common at Banana Beach decades ago, it has gradually become a textile-only beach. Little Banana Beach, however, is a bona fide nude beach, and it is the kind of nude beach that is quite a rarity in Greece. Nudists occupy the entire beach, not relegated to one end or the other as is the case with most nude beaches. Furthermore, Little Banana is a nude beach that is equipped with its own taverna, and there are sun chairs and umbrellas for rent. The beach is extremely popular and often crowded. Nudity is such an ingrained part of the culture of the beach that being naked, while not a requirement, is somewhat expected. Virtually everyone goes nude. Little Banana has achieved iconic nude beach status, and it is a place to which many nude beach enthusiasts return year after year. It is arguably the premier nude beach of Greece. It is at least among the top few. The other beaches on the west end of Skiathos that draw nude bathers are all minor nudist locations in comparison to Little Banana. Going clockwise along the coastline from Little Banana, there are nudist possibilities at Mandraki Beach 39.1674N, 23.3996E , Elias Beach 39.1671N, 23.4058E and Megalos Aselinos Beach 39.1736N, 23.4262E , all of which are beaches that mostly face north. All three are basically textile beaches with a nudist presence at the far east end well beyond the sun chairs, and Elias generally has the most nude bathers of the three.
Of the beaches of interest to nudists in Skiathos, Little Banana is the most easily accessible by bus. It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the beach from the nearest bus stop, which is next to the closest public parking. Parking is available next to the other three beaches. There are good roads leading to Megalos Aselinos, but Mandraki and Elias are accessed from a rough gravel road that some rental car companies deem off limits. From the nearest bus stop, it takes about 45 minutes to walk to either Mandraki or Elias along easy forest paths, but Megalos Aselinos is about twice as far away from the nearest bus stop.
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| | Skopelos MAP [ ↑ ]
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NUDE BEACHES
Skopelos is the next island east of Skiathos, and it is about twice the size of Skiathos. The ferry port is located toward the east end of the north side of the island in Skopelos town, where a dense cluster of orange-roofed white buildings cascading downhill to the sea gives visitors a charming first impression of the island. Not nearly as endowed with sandy beaches as is Skiathos, Skopelos has not been overtaken by mass tourism the way its smaller neighbor has. Skopelos remains a much quieter island than Skiathos even though it has gained considerable notoriety for the 2008 blockbuster Mamma Mia!. While the musical is set in the fictitious island of Kalokairi, the outdoor scenes were filmed mostly in Skopelos. You can't stay in Villa Donna because that was just a movie set, but you can reenact the scene where Meryl Streep, clasping a red scarf, runs up a seemingly endless set of steps to a chapel perched atop a massive rock, all to the tune of "The Winner Takes It All." The chapel featured in that scene, Agios Ioannis near the village of Glossa (located here), is emblematic of the Greek tendency to build holy places in impossible locations.
About 5 kilometers from Skopelos town, Stafilos Beach on the south coast of the island is the most popular beach in Skopelos. If you walk all the way across Stafilos then cross the whaleback-shaped headland (which is not nearly as hard to do as it sounds), you will reach Velanio Beach 39.0858N, 23.7538E . The first little bit of Velanio tends to be mostly textile, but go beyond a collection of boulders and the beach becomes mostly nudist. Velanio is the second most popular nude beach of the Sporades (albeit a rather distant second to Little Banana Beach in Skiathos). While Velanio is the only beach in Skopelos with a consistent nudist presence, a few nudists are often present at one end of Milia Beach 39.1141N, 23.6517E near the village of Panormos, about 15 kilometers west of Stafilos and Velanio. Milia Beach is otherwise a textile beach, and it is next to Kastani Beach, which has become a tourist hotspot in recent years because several scenes from Mamma Mia! were filmed there, including the "Does You Mother Know" and "Lay All Your Love on Me" musical numbers.
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THE NORTHEAST AEGEAN ISLANDS MAP [ ↑ ]
The Northeast Aegean islands are a rather far-flung group of islands that do not form nearly as cohesive a cluster as do the islands of other groups. There are about a dozen inhabited islands in the group, including a couple that belong to Turkey and not Greece. Five of the islands (all Greek) are considered below. Samos and Ikaria are the first two major islands north of the Dodecanese, and they are latitudinally aligned with one another, with Samos being close to Turkey and Ikaria more isolated at sea. Farther north, Chios is also very close to Turkey, and is it latitudinally aligned with Izmir, a nearby major city in Turkey. Lesbos is farther north, also very close to Turkey, then Thasos is considerably farther north, very close to the mainland Greece. The distance from Samos or Ikaria to Thasos is about 400 kilometers. Although Thasos is an island, it is considerably more accessible from the mainland of Greece than are the other islands of the Northeast Aegean, so it may be useful to think of it as an extension of the mainland region of Macedonia since it is just a bit offshore from the eastern part of Macedonia near Thrace.
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| | Chios MAP [ ↑ ]
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NUDE BEACHES
Chios (a.k.a. Hios) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the eastern Aegean less than 8 kilometers from the coast of Turkey. The island is latitudinally aligned with the Çeşme peninsula of Turkey, which juts westward into the Aegean from Izmir, Turkey's third largest city. The airport and the ferry port of Chios are located about midway along the east coast of the island in Chios town, better known locally as Chora, which is home to roughly half the island's population of about 55,000. Chios may well be the best example of an "undiscovered" Greek island. With gorgeous scenery and Byzantine architecture, Chios has quite a lot to offer tourists, but without the hordes of tourists. A plant resin called mastic is important to the local economy, and the cultivation of mastic occurs in the southern part of Chios amid a collection of villages called the Mastichochoria, or the Mastic Villages. The Mastichochoria, which date to medieval times, are among the most picturesque and unique villages in Greece, and various villages are characterized by fortified walls, labyrinthine streets spanned by stone archways and exterior walls painted and plastered in stunningly intricate designs by a technique called sgraffito. Pyrgi, Olympi and Mesta are the most notable of the Mastichochoria, and, while these villages are far from the only attractions of Chios, they contribute significantly to the singularity of the island.
Chios has no shortage of underpopulated and deserted beaches where nudity is possible, but there is just one beach on the island with enough of a nudist presence to be called a nude beach. That beach is Mavra Volia Beach 38.1821N, 26.0267E in the small seaside settlement of Emporios in the far south of the east coast of Chios. Emporios is about 30 kilometers from Chora, and it is just 7 kilometer from Pyrgi, the Mastic Village with the biggest collection of sgraffito structures. Mavra Volia is a uniquely beautiful beach covered in smooth black pebbles which are believed to have been deposited by an ancient volcano, and nude bathers gather along the narrow southern part of the beach, which is backed by steep cliffs.
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| | Ikaria MAP [ ↑ ]
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NUDE BEACHES
Ikaria is a long and narrow island, with an as-the-crow-flies distance of about 40 kilometers from its southwestern tip to its northeastern tip. That diagonal line very roughly corresponds to a mountain ridge that spans almost the entire island, hewing close to the south coast. Ikaria has some impossibly twisty roads that traverse its rugged terrain, and parts of the coastline are accessible only by rough, unpaved roads. The island has about 8,500 residents, and Ikarians have gained notoriety in recent years after a 2008 book identified Ikaria as one of five places in the world where the locals are exceptionally healthy and long lived. About one third of Ikarians live past 90, perhaps having avoided flying too close to the sun like Icarus, the mythological figure for whom the island is named. Ikaria is a rather isolated island that is off the tourist beat, with a limited number of visitors. On the north coast of Ikaria, Evdilos is the location of the island's secondary ferry port. If you follow the coastal road west out of Evdilos, in about 15 kilometers you will reach Nas Beach 37.6223N, 26.0590E , at the point where the paved road turns to gravel. Nas is a small and picturesque beach that is the only beach in Ikaria with a regular nudist presence. Alas, nude bathers are often a small minority during peak season, when the beach is overrun with textiles. The beach lies at the mouth of a small river, and it is possible to hike upstream through the river gorge to discover and enchanting area of small pools and waterfalls where nude bathing also occurs when it isn't too crowded.
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| | Lesbos MAP [ ↑ ]
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NUDE BEACHES
Located in the far east of the Aegean Sea very close to the coast of Turkey, Lesbos is the third largest Greek island by land area. Although "Lesbos" with a "b" is a direct transliteration of the Greek name, the island is often spelled Lesvos to conform more to its actual pronunciation (like taverna instead of taberna). The name Lesbos sounds like Lez-vose, with the first S pronounced like Z, the B like V, a long O, then the second S like S. Look at a map of Lesbos and the most prominent features are two gulfs that cut deeply into the interior of the island: the Gulf of Gera in the south and the larger Gulf of Kalloni in the west. Lesbos has roughly 300 kilometers of coastline, but nearly a third of the coastline is along the two gulfs, both of which seem like inland lakes since their openings to the sea are so narrow. With about 86,000 residents, Lesbos if the fifth most populated of the Greek islands, and over 40% live in and around Mytilene (also spelled Mytilini) in the far southeast of the island. Mytilene, which is the island's capital and the location of the ferry port and airport, is a cosmopolitan town against a backdrop of large hills, with elegant harborfront architecture that exudes a sense of sophistication. Bustling Mytilene is no sleepy backwater, but the pace slows as you leave the capital to explore the rest of the island, which is covered in hills and gentle mountains. The island has lush green woodlands and bare brown scrublands, and olive groves are seemingly everywhere. Lesbos gets plenty of tourists, but it is not a mass tourism market. While tourism is an important contributor to the local economy, agriculture remains the prime driver, so Lesbos retains an authenticity that has long since passed from many Greek islands. Lacking in large-scale resorts, Lesbos is quite the antithesis of Rhodes, an island comparable in size. Travelers who have discovered Lesbos are often of the opinion that it feels like a well-kept secret.
There is an elephant in the room. It's the name, of course. The Island of Lesbos sounds a little like the name of a Russ Meyer film. The sentence "Both her grandfathers are prominent Lesbians" is perfectly logical, but it just sounds odd. Even when capitalized, the demonym "Lesbian" doesn't necessarily connote a person from Lesbos. To deal with this reality, some Lesbians—that is, people from Lesbos—substitute the capital for the island, referring to the island as Mytilene and themselves as Mytileneans.
From the town of Mytilene, a northward drive of about 60 kilometers brings you to Molyvos (a.k.a. Mithimna) in the northeast of the island. Molyvos is crowned with a fortress-like medieval castle that is particularly enchanting at night when it is lit up, and the houses and other buildings of the village cascade downhill from the castle. The picturesque village is the most popular tourist destination on the island, and there are two beaches near Molyvos with a nudist presence. Psiriara Beach 39.3540N, 26.1736E is a sandy west-facing beach that extends southward from Molyvos, lined with a few small hotels. Nudity is well established at the far south end of the beach beyond the hotels, and bare bathers have spectacular views of Molyvos and its hilltop castle. Several kilometers east of Molyvos, Eftalou Beach 39.3822N, 26.2226E is a north-facing beach that is composed entirely of pebbles, and nude bathers gather along a series of narrow beaches that extend eastward from the main beach access. Eftalou is located in the part of Lesbos that is closest to Turkey, and the mountains of the neighboring county are less than 10 kilometers away, clearly visible to nude bathers on the beach.
In the northwest of Lesbos, the village of Eresos is best known as the birthplace of Sappho, the lyric poet born in the 7th century BCE. Although little is known about her life and only fragments of her work survive, Sappho is quite legendary, indisputably the world's most famous uppercase-"L" Lesbian and possibly the world's most famous lowercase-"l" lesbian. Due to its associations with Sappho, Eresos has become popular with lesbian travelers, although tourism is centered a few kilometers away in Skala Eresou, the beach village counterpart to the slightly inland main village. However, Skala Eresou is not just a lesbian destination any more than Mykonos is just a gay (male) destination. It is also visited by lots of straight couples, families of all stripes and even some gay men. Skala Eresou Beach 39.1374N, 25.9230E is the long and sandy beach that extends northwestward from the village, and nude bathing is quite common beginning just a bit beyond the cluster of beachfront development. Since Skala Eresou is a lesbian mecca, there are far more nude women here than is typical at most nude beaches, which tend to be male dominated. North of Skala Eresou and close to the village of Sigri, Limena Beach 39.1908N, 25.8555E is an isolated beach near the westernmost point of Lesbos. Nude bathing is quite common among the few people who find their way to this rather obscure beach.
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| | Samos MAP [ ↑ ]
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NUDE BEACHES
Spanning an east-west distance of about 45 kilometers, Samos is a mountainous island with lots of heavily forested areas, and it is just 2 kilometers from the coast of Turkey.
Samos has three ferry ports, an airport and a permanent population of about 34,000, yet it is not overrun with tourists.
Toward the east end of the north coast of Samos, the main ferry port is in Samos town, better known locally as Vathy. About 10 kilometers west of Vathy, the next significant location is Kokkari, one of a handful of resort villages on the island. There are two beaches near Kokkari that draw nude bathers. On the western periphery of Kokkari, Tsamadou Beach 37.7855N, 26.8741E is the more significant of the two. Although Tsamadou is composed entirely of pebbles, it is quite a popular beach that is also mostly a textile beach, but nudists occupy the easternmost part of the beach. Sunchairs and umbrellas are available for rent along the entire beach, including in the nude area, and the nudist zone of Tsamadou always has the largest concentration of nudists of any beach on the island. Several kilometers away in the settlement of Avlakia, Tsabou Beach 37.8026N, 26.8569E is another pebble beach, but its nudist zone is an entirely separate niche that is hidden from the main textile beach. With no sunchairs available in the nude area, Tsabou typically draws just a handful of bare bathers.
The other ferry port on the northern coast of Samos is located in Karlovasi toward the western end of the island. West of Karlovasi, Mount Kerkis occupies the westernmost part of the island. Rising to a height of 1,433 meters (4,701 feet), Kerkis is the highest peak in Samos and the second highest in the Northeast Aegean islands. It is possible to make a circuitous drive of over 40 kilometers along roads that almost encircle the mountain, but not quite. Part of the northern coastal base of Mount Kerkis is inaccessible by road, and the Seitani Beaches are along that particularly rugged and scenic segment of the coastline. Both beaches draw nude bathers. A hike of 1.1 kilometers along the coastal path brings you to a very small beach called Micro Seitani Beach 37.7769N, 26.6467E . From there, it is another 1.6 kilometers to a much larger beach called Megalo Seitani Beach 37.7693N, 26.6354E . Although Micro Seitani is the closer beach, it is actually the more remote of the two. That's because Megalo Seitani is accessible by water taxi from Karlovasi, but the boat does not stop at Micro Seitani. While Megalo Seitani gets an influx of textiles when the boat is running, it is large enough for nudists and textiles to share. Nudity seems a bit better established at Micro Seitani, which draws a roughly even mix of nudists and textiles.
On the south coast Samos on the opposite side Mount Kerkis, there are beaches in a coastal area known as Kampos that are far more easily accessible than the Seitani beaches. There are two beaches near Kampos with a nudist presence. Just west of the development of Kampos, Fournaki Beach 37.7051N, 26.6600E is a long but rather hidden beach tucked away below low cliffs. There are access points at either end of the beach, and those areas may be overtaken by textiles during peak season, but the beach is large enough that nudity can always be practiced on its remote middle section. Fournaki has little sand, but a bit to the west the next beach, Psili Ammos Beach 37.7025N, 26.6417E , has plenty of it. Psili Ammos is lined with sunchairs during peak season, and if the beach is crowded, it may be entirely textile. However, when the beach is not packed, nudists are often present at the far west end, and it is not out of the question to find nude bathers occupying the last several sunchairs.
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| | Thasos MAP [ ↑ ]
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NUDE BEACHES
Thasos is the northernmost of any Greek island, and it is just 7 kilometers offshore from eastern Macedonia, about halfway between Thessaloniki and the Turkish border. The island is roughly circular in shape, with a diameter of about 25 kilometers. Thasos is a very green island that is thickly forested, and, although the terrain is quite mountainous, there are roads along the entirety of the coastline. A complete coastal circuit around Thasos is a very curvy drive of nearly 100 kilometers. The island does not have an airport, but there are two ferry ports on the north side of the island, and the primary port of entry is Thasos town, which is known locally as Limenas. Because Thasos is so close to the mainland, it is a feasible day-tripping destination, and the island is busy enough that opportunities for naturism are limited during peak season. On the east side of Thasos, Paradise Beach 40.6485N, 24.7682E near the resort village of Kinira is an exceptionally beautiful beach set against a verdant backdrop, consisting of a main expanse of white sand and an adjacent area that is a long shelf of smooth rock. There is some nudity on the main part of the beach during the off season, but otherwise the sandy beach is textile. However, nudity is always acceptable along the rock shelf, which has its own distinct charms despite a lack of sand. In the southwest of the island near Limenaria, Tripiti Beach 40.6236N, 24.5449E is a popular sandy beach that is overwhelmingly textile, but a few nudists are often present at the extreme east end as well as at the much quieter beach just over the headland to the east.
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