Kanakia Beach

If you are going to swim on Salamis, this is where you do it. Kanakia sits in the southwest corner of the island, which matters more than any description of the sand: it is the point furthest from the shipyards, the naval base and the enclosed industrial water of the eastern shore. The bay opens onto the Saronic proper, the water is clean, and there are pines coming down behind the sand.

It is a genuinely pleasant beach. It is not a spectacular one, and we would rather say so now.

What you actually get

A broad sandy bay, gently shelving, backed by low pine-covered hills. The sand is coarse and grey-gold rather than white, the entry is easy underfoot, and because the bay faces roughly south and west it holds the afternoon sun for a long time. There is real shade under the pines at the back if you get there early enough to claim a spot.

This is the beach Athenians drive out to, and that tells you what it is: safe, family-friendly, easy water, somewhere to spend a Sunday. Children can paddle a long way out without getting out of their depth. In the shoulder months, particularly late May and September, it can be close to empty on a weekday morning and is then a very good place indeed.

And now the honest part

Weekends are a different beach. Salamis is a half-hour ferry from a metropolitan area of several million people, and on a hot Saturday or Sunday a good number of them decide on Kanakia at the same time. The sand fills, the informal parking along the approach spreads further and further back up the road, and the atmosphere becomes municipal rather than remote. If you have any flexibility at all, come on a weekday.

Getting here is a proper drive. From the Paloukia ferry terminal you cross most of the island on roads that are adequate rather than good, with some narrow and winding sections towards the end. Reckon on a fair chunk of an hour with a slow vehicle. Public transport towards this corner is thin and unreliable for a day trip, so if you have not brought a car or hired a scooter, this beach is difficult to reach.

Facilities are seasonal and modest. There are canteens and a place or two to eat behind the sand in summer, and sunbeds go out in high season, but outside the core months you should assume nothing is open. Bring water. There are no reliable changing facilities.

Wind. The bay is open enough that a strong northerly can make it choppy and blow sand along the beach. On those days the smaller, more sheltered coves along the western shore are a better bet.

It is not why you would fly to Greece. Set Kanakia against the beaches of Naxos or Milos and it loses badly. Set it against the fact that you are twenty minutes’ sailing from an industrial port and it looks remarkable. Judge it on the second comparison.

Making a day of it

The sensible plan pairs Kanakia with something inland. Drive over in the morning, swim, eat behind the sand, then loop north to Faneromeni Monastery in the late afternoon when the light is better in the church and the coach parties, such as they are, have gone. Peristeria further up the west coast is the natural second beach if you want to compare.

If you have come to Salamis for the history rather than the swimming, treat Kanakia as the reward at the end of the battle day: the straits and Palaia Salamina in the morning, the drive west after lunch, a swim, then back for an evening ferry.

Come with the right expectations and Kanakia does exactly what it is meant to do. Come expecting a Cycladic beach and you will feel let down within ten minutes, which is really a fact about Salamis as a whole.