Greek Island Naturist Travels

My wife and I spent five weeks in the Greek Islands recently, specifically Skiathos, Mykonos and Crete. Before we left we researched what naturist beaches were recommended. We have been to Mykonos before but it was our first visit to the other islands. We found that both the literature and the internet were very out of date and basically wrong when various beaches were recommended. We thought that TAN readers might be interested in an up-date!

We visited Skiathos for the first time and found the island to be an absolute gem. It’s a gorgeous harbour town with great shopping and restaurants. What makes it even more attractive is that it is a 30-minute flight from Athens. We were also attracted to the stories of it having one of the best beaches in Greece and supposedly one of the best in the world! Well, obviously the judges have not been to Australia! Yes, Koukanaries is a lovely beach but jammed packed full of rental banana lounges with very little free beach. It was also all-textile!

However, around the headland, over a large hill is supposedly the famous Banana Nude Beach. It is a 10-minute up and down hill walk from the bus stop and better accessed by car (preferably 4WD), however, it has now become totally textile, quite young and with competing disco tavernas. Just fine for young party animals! Thankfully around the point on the RH side was Little Banana. It can be accessed by a short walk over easy rocks or by a steep walk around the back of the beach. We loved it, totally nude, quiet small, but with heaps of character, very friendly people and a lovely taverna for icy cold beers on the beach or a nice meal under the palm fronds. No need to cover up to order at the bar! A large part was rental sun lounges, but there was still plenty of free beach area. If you go there and wonder why everyone is searching the shallows, it is to try and find ‘Skiathos pearls’, tiny periwinkle shells! We will definitely return.

Next stop was Mykonos, our favourite beach was Paraga, about a 15-minute bus from the main town. The latter is normally quite crowded and noise, however Paraga is quiet and has a great hotel (Zephros) over-looking the beach. There are a few tavernas and bars bit it is still quiet. The RH end of the beach is nude and there is a relatively large area of free beach. One always hears of Paradise Beach as being nude, however, that stopped years ago. Now it is all textile and young! Super Paradise is also nude but when we last visited it was totally gay. It is also more difficult to get to (car or fishing boat).

Our final stop was Crete. Basically we were disappointed, the towns were not as nice as the other islands. Basically they lacked the white washed, old character of most of the Geek islands, probably as much was destroyed in WW2. Also all of the north coast is more crowded lacks good beaches and has no nudity. We headed south to a fabulous town called Plakias Bay. It has a terrific beach with huge surrounding mountains, the eastern end of the beach is totally nude. Opposite is the Plakias Beach Hotel, which was good value, very nice and great views. We also ventured further east to Matala (great town) to stay and visit, supposedly, the biggest nude beach in Crete called Kommos (a 10 minute car drive from town). What the internet forgot to mention was that yes it’s a very big beach but since they recently built a church over the beach it is nude no more! The alternative was Red Beach on the other side of town. This was for serious hikers, a very long and hard walkover a mountain and then to find a small, very thin beach with no amenities and a dozed or so nudies! You definitely need a car in Crete - it is big. However, car hire is quite cheap.

Hope all this is of help to traveling naturists!