Athens Beach Trip

An Athens beach trip is a trip from Athens, the capital of Greece, to a beach on the coast of Attica. It is one of the Greece tours that join seaside towns, small bays and the Athens Riviera.

What is an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip is a visit to the Athens Riviera. The Riviera is the seaside part of the southern suburbs of Athens. A suburb is a residential district on the edge of a large city. Riviera here means a stretch of coast.

The Athens Riviera extends from Piraeus to Sounio and Lavrio. Piraeus lies at one end of that coast, while Sounio and Lavrio lie at the other end. The Riviera is therefore a stretch of coast, not a single spot. Planning an Athens beach trip means first knowing how far that coast runs.

The main areas of the Athens Riviera include the Bay of Zea, Lagonisi, Anavyssos and Sounio. In a bay, the sea reaches into the land along a curved part of the coast. These four names make a good starting list before an Athens beach trip begins. Each is a named area of the coast.

The Athens Riviera has a hot semi-arid climate. It lies in a transition zone between that climate and the hot-summer Mediterranean climate of downtown Athens. A transition zone is a belt of land where one climate changes into another. Semi-arid means dry, though not as dry as a desert.

Glyfada is packed with nightclubs, upscale restaurants and shops. A nightclub is a place where people enjoy music and dancing late at night. Upscale describes a place that aims for a high standard of quality. Glyfada is therefore a busy place and a name to know for an Athens beach trip.

• Plan: A regeneration of the Riviera was planned by the Greek government since the 1920s.
• Meaning: Regeneration means rebuilding and improving an area of a city or coast.
• Delay: Political instability, meaning an unsettled political situation, did not allow the early plans to go ahead.

The Riviera stretches to the southernmost points of Attica, the region that surrounds the city of Athens. Those points form the southern edge of that region of Greece. This is the wider setting of every Athens beach trip.

What does Vouliagmeni bring to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip gains a prestigious Athenian suburb in Vouliagmeni. Athenian means linked to Athens, and a suburb is a residential district at the edge of a city. The suburb has renowned hotels and beaches, and renowned means widely known.

Anyone planning an Athens beach trip can begin with plain numbers about the place. The municipal unit of Vouliagmeni covers an area of 5.805 square kilometres. Local government runs an area called a municipal unit. In the 2021 census, Vouliagmeni counted 4,332 residents, which is an official head count.

A boulevard lined with palm trees, called Athinas Avenue, splits the suburb in two. A boulevard is a wide street with trees along both sides, and an avenue is a broad road. Athinas Avenue arrives from Athens city centre under the name Vouliagmenis Avenue. The name changes, but the road stays the same.

The area east of the main road is the rocky slope of a foothill of Mount Hymettus. A foothill is a low hill at a mountain’s base. A slope is the rising side of a hill. The map of an Athens beach trip in Vouliagmeni therefore includes hill country as well as coast.

Lavish villas dot the two Kavouri areas. A villa is a large, grand house with its own grounds. On Megalo Kavouri, the Church of Greece, a religious body, owns a big part of the land. These details of land and homes belong to any Athens beach trip in the suburb of Vouliagmeni.

• History: In classical times the area was Aixonides Halai, an Athenian deme, which is a local district.
• Sport: Local sportsmen founded a nautical club here in 1937, a club for boats and sailing.
• Music: Bob Dylan, a songwriter, spent the summer of 1964 staying in Vouliagmeni.

The western half of Vouliagmeni has two marinas. A marina is a harbour where leisure boats are kept. A chapel called St. George of the crab also stands in that western half. These places add to the full picture of an Athens beach trip.

What does Glyfada bring to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip can include Glyfada, a town lying south within the Athens urban area. The urban area is the whole built-up zone around the capital, not only the old city center. Glyfada marks one point on that wider map.

Aixoni, an area in Glyfada, was the site of a project by Dimitris Pikionis for an artist colony. An artist colony is a place where artists live and work together. The Chapel of the Akathist Hymn is the only part of that project that was built. A chapel is a small place of worship.

The Aixoni Quarry Sculpted Theatre is a work by Nella Golanda. The work stands in an old quarry on a slope of Hymettus. A quarry is a pit in the ground where workers cut stone. This art belongs to the story behind an Athens beach trip to Glyfada.

Glyfada holds nightclubs, upscale restaurants and shops that rank among the capital’s best known. Nightclubs are venues for dancing and music. Upscale means of high standard. The town also mixes Greek and American atmosphere and cuisine. Cuisine means the style of cooking in a place. This adds social life to an Athens beach trip.

Glyfada became the heart of the Athens southern suburbs thanks to its waterfront location and commercial center. A suburb is a residential district on the edge of a city. A commercial center is an area built around trade. The waterfront is land beside the sea, which links Glyfada to an Athens beach trip.

• Climate: Glyfada has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, meaning mild winters and hot summers.
• Sport: The Glyfada Indoor Hall was formerly a major indoor sport venue of local Athens teams.
• Business: Offices of major businesses and shopping areas dot Vouliagmenis, Gounari and Gennimata avenues.

Glyfada’s town hall stands at the center of the municipality. Each municipality is a district with its own council to run local affairs. These details show a town with civic life, trade and art. They give any Athens beach trip a fuller picture of the south.

What does Voula bring to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip that looks at Voula deals with a former municipality in East Attica, Greece. Local government is run by a municipality, which is a small unit. East Attica is the part of the wider Athens area that lies to the east.

Voula has a hot semi-arid climate. That climate borders on a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. Semi-arid means dry, though not as dry as a desert. A Mediterranean climate is the type found around the Mediterranean Sea. That dry, hot climate type is the background to any Athens beach trip here.

The Vouliagmeni municipal unit has an area of 5.805 km2. Within a larger municipality, a municipal unit forms a smaller part. An official count of residents, the 2021 census, found 4,332 people in Vouliagmeni. Those two figures give the size and the headcount of this place in plain numbers.

A chapel called St George of the crab stands on the Kavouri peninsulas. Land that water almost surrounds is called a peninsula. Ownership of Megalo Kavouri rests largely with the Church of Greece. A protected pine forest there stays in its care. So Kavouri adds a church-linked side to an Athens beach trip.

Local sportsmen founded the Nautical Club of Vouliagmeni in 1937. Nautical means linked to ships and the sea. A club is a group of members who share an interest. The founding year gives an Athens beach trip here a dated point in the story of local sport.

• Athinas Avenue: A wide street lined with palm trees, called Athinas Avenue, cuts through Vouliagmeni.
• Hymettus foothill: The rocky slope east of Vouliagmeni’s main road is a foothill, a hill below Mount Hymettus.
• Summer visitor: In 1964, Bob Dylan spent the summer in Vouliagmeni.

Voula has a women’s volleyball team called Thetis, founded in 2000. A team adds local sport to a place already described by land, climate and history. Each detail places an Athens beach trip in a real setting with real people.

What does Varkiza bring to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip to Varkiza adds a small town with one of the best beaches in Attica. Varkiza has grown into that town, and its setting and past add a story to the seaside stop. That story is worth reading before the day starts.

Varkiza sits in southern Attica, in the area called Megalo Daktylo. The name means Large Finger. A traveller who plans an Athens beach trip can use that name to find the town. Place names like this one carry meaning, so they deserve a second look before the trip.

The name Varkiza has a story of its own. According to the poet Valaoras, the name comes from the Mitromagazo of Varkiza. That is one poet’s account, so it reads best as a view and not as settled fact. A reader who wants a firm answer needs to check older records.

Two landmarks help to place the town. Varkiza lies southwest of Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport. It also lies northwest of Cape Sounio. Any stretch of land pushing beyond the coast into water counts as a cape. These two directions help an Athens beach trip planner locate the town on a map.

Two facts mark how the district of Varkiza grew. In the 1960s, the highway connecting Varkiza had two lanes added. Housing development began in the central part of the district, where farmland once dominated. For an Athens beach trip, this shows how a farming area became a town over time.

• Mythology: Streets in the Varkiza area carry names taken from Greek mythology.
• Land: Much of the mountainous land around Varkiza is rocky and grassy.
• Treaty: The Treaty of Varkiza, a written agreement, was signed at the Kanelopoulos Mansion at Vari.

Varkiza has one school, banks, a church, a post office and a couple of squares. The town has been hugely modernised since 2001. The services and the change show what an Athens beach trip to Varkiza adds to the day.

What does Lagonisi add to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip can focus on Lagonisi, in East Attica. Lagonisi is a seaside residential area on the Athens Riviera. The word Riviera names a coastal belt with towns and resorts along it. Residential means a place where people live.

The name Lagonisi means “island of the rabbit”. It comes from the rabbit shape of its peninsula. Almost like an island, a peninsula is a thin finger of land pointing out into the sea. The rabbit story gives the town a name that is easy to remember.

Lagonisi lies close to the shore on a peninsula by the Saronic Gulf. A large bay where sea water pushes into the land is called a gulf. The shore is the land along the edge of the sea. That makes Lagonisi a coastal place to know for an Athens beach trip.

Lagonisi’s beaches include Pefko, Agios Nikolas and Galazia Akti. These three names are worth noting when planning an Athens beach trip here. Restaurants, cafeterias and bars are found at the heart of Lagonisi. That part of the town is close to Kalyvion Avenue. A cafeteria is a casual place for coffee and snacks.

Shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis had a villa in Lagonisi. A villa is a large house. A billionaire is a person with a very large fortune. Onassis was a part-time resident, meaning he lived there for part of the time. This detail adds a piece of local history to an Athens beach trip.

• Climate: The climate in Lagonisi is hot and semi-arid, which means fairly dry.
• Seasons: The winters in Lagonisi are mild and the summers are hot.
• Rain: Annual precipitation, which means the rain and snow that falls in a year, is low.

Palaia Fokaia is another seaside town in East Attica. It lies 2 km south of Anavyssos and 9 km west of Lavrio. It sits in the southeastern part of the Attica peninsula. Lagonisi and Palaia Fokaia each give an Athens beach trip its own setting.

What does Saronida add to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip can add Saronida, a seaside resort village in East Attica, Greece. A resort village is a small place made for holidays. It lies on the Saronic Gulf coast. In a gulf, the sea cuts deep into the land and forms a wide bay.

Saronida sits in the southeastern part of the Attica peninsula. A peninsula is land that water surrounds on nearly every side. The village stands at the western foot of the Olympos hill. The foot of a hill is the lower ground that lies right at its base.

Since the 2011 local government reform, Saronida has been part of the municipality of Saronikos. A municipality is a district’s local authority, the body that runs it. A reform is a change to the rules for how that system is set up. This background helps place an Athens beach trip on the map.

The Saronikos municipality was formed in 2011 by merging five former municipalities. Merging means joining separate bodies into one new body. The five older units now form one municipality instead of standing alone as separate bodies. This history gives an Athens beach trip a clear local setting.

The Saronida municipal unit covers an area of 6.670 square kilometres. A smaller local area inside a municipality is called a municipal unit. One square kilometre is the land inside a square measuring one kilometre per side. Size figures like these help set the scene for a planned Athens beach trip.

• Position: Saronida lies 10 km south of the town of Kalyvia Thorikou, which sits to its north.
• Size: The whole Saronikos municipality covers an area of 139.099 square kilometres.
• Seat: Kalyvia Thorikou is the seat of the Saronikos municipality, the town where its local government is based.

Population figures also add useful context to an Athens beach trip. The Palaia Fokaia municipal unit had 3,025 residents at the 2021 census. People living in a place are counted on a set date in an official census.

What does Anavyssos bring to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip gains from Anavyssos, a major coastal resort of Attica, the region around Athens. The resort is famous for water-sports, meaning sports played on or in water. Its area also has a long past, told through an ancient statue.

Since the 2011 local government reform, Anavyssos has been a municipal unit. A smaller district inside a municipality, a local authority, is called a municipal unit. In this case, the larger body is the municipality of Saronikos. The Anavyssos municipal unit covers an area of 14.478 square kilometres.

Anavyssos lies 2 km north of Palaia Fokaia. Besides the main town, Anavyssos includes satellite settlements such as Mavro Lithari, Paralia Anavyssou, Lakka and Alykes. Satellite settlements are smaller communities that sit beside a main town. Knowing these names gives an Athens beach trip a clearer picture of the area.

Anavyssos has a hot semi-arid climate. Semi-arid describes land that is dry and gets very little rain. Winters are mild, summers are hot, and annual rainfall is very low. For an Athens beach trip, climate means the long-term weather pattern of the place, not a daily forecast.

Anavyssos gives an Athens beach trip a link to ancient art. The Kroisos Kouros, a statue showing a young man, dates to about 540 to 515 BC. It strides forward with an archaic smile playing slightly on its face. Archaic here means belonging to a very early period of art.

• Sculptor: The sculptor of the Kroisos Kouros is uncertain, which leaves the maker’s name open.
• Identification: An art dealer held the statue when it was identified in Paris in 1937.
• Debates: The Kroisos Kouros is central to two ongoing debates among archaeologists, who study the past through objects.

Cut by saw into pieces, the statue was shipped to Paris for sale. Reports showed it was illegally unearthed from a burial mound, earth heaped over a grave, in Anavissos. The statue’s story is part of what Anavyssos brings to an Athens beach trip.

What does Schinias add to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip to Schinias adds a stop with Olympic history. The Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre went up to host rowing and canoe sprint events of 2004. That makes the site a sporting landmark as well as a coastal stop.

Schinias is a settlement in the Marathon municipal unit. The term municipal unit names a local-government area; it groups towns and villages under one administration. The beach of Schinias lies southeast of the town of Marathon. For an Athens beach trip, Marathon is the town to look for on the map.

The 2004 Games used venues, which are places that hold sporting events. The Schinias centre is the furthest north of all the venues used for those Games. It covers a total of 1.24 square kilometres of ground. Those figures describe the sports site and add background to any Athens beach trip here.

In August 2003, the centre held its first successful competition, which was the World Rowing Junior Championships. Junior means the event was for young athletes. The European Rowing Championships took place at the centre in September 2008. These two events show the centre in use before and after the Olympic Games.

Building the centre also brought a dispute over the natural setting. Wetlands, which are low areas of land that stay wet, were remodelled to build it. That work caused controversy over environmental destruction at the site. Any Athens beach trip to Schinias comes with that debate as background.

• Seating: The centre has a spectator capacity of 14,000, the number of people who can watch.
• Rowing events: At the 2004 Olympics, 550 competitors took part in 14 rowing events at Schinias.
• Windsurfing: Schinias beach is popular for windsurfing, a sport done on a board with a sail.

The centre is part of Schinias National Park. In plain terms, this means the sports site and the national park share the same ground. For an Athens beach trip, Schinias therefore combines sport, nature and a coastal setting in one local place.

What does Rafina add to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip gains a town with its own setting and history in Rafina. Rafina serves as a suburban port town on the shore of eastern Attica. Suburban means that a place lies on the border of a bigger city. Attica is the region around Athens.

Finding the town on a map takes little effort. East of Mount Pentelicus, Rafina lies along the Aegean coast. The Aegean is the sea along the eastern shore of Greece. Rafina lies 5 km north of a neighbouring place, Artemida. Such places help anyone planning an Athens beach trip to find the town.

Since the 2011 local government reform, Rafina has been the seat of the municipality Rafina-Pikermi. One local government runs an area, and that area is a municipality. The seat means the town in which that government has its base. A municipality can hold smaller parts, and these parts are called municipal units.

After Piraeus, the port of Rafina ranks as the second port for Athens. A port is a harbour where ships dock. A second port is a rank among the harbours that serve one city. An Athens beach trip that names Rafina therefore names a harbour town with a clear role.

Pikermi lies 6 km west of Rafina. Its paleontological site holds more than forty mammal species from the late Miocene. Paleontology is the study of ancient life through fossils. A fossil is the preserved remains of an ancient animal or plant. The Miocene is an age of Earth’s deep past.

• Population: The population of Rafina stands at 14,620 inhabitants, the people who live in the town.
• Area: In area, the municipal unit of Rafina covers 18.979 square kilometres.
• Club: The Triglia Rafina football club was founded in 1932 by refugees, people forced to leave their homes.

Bavarian soldiers of King Otto discovered the Pikermi fossil site in 1839. Their discovery belongs to the story of the area around Rafina. That story adds history to an Athens beach trip, beside the setting and the port.

What does Porto Rafti add to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip can include Porto Rafti, a seaside resort town in East Attica, Greece. A resort town is built for holidays, and seaside means it sits on the coast. East Attica is the eastern part of the Attica area.

Porto Rafti stretches around Rafti Bay in a half-circle, on the Attica peninsula’s east coast. A half-circle is a curve like half of a ring. A peninsula is a finger of land poking out into the sea. That bay is the setting for an Athens beach trip here.

Pine-covered hills surround the town, and the tallest of them, Merenta, rises 613 metres above sea level. Pine-covered means that pine trees grow on the slopes. Heights are measured from sea level, the average level of the sea’s surface. A metre is a little over three feet.

The 2011 census counted 9,686 permanent residents in Porto Rafti. A census is when a country officially counts its residents. Every year, the population peaks at 100,000 during the summer season. Both figures describe the town behind an Athens beach trip, in two seasons.

The coast of this Athens beach trip has a long past. Steiria, Prasiai and Koroni were the names of the ancient villages around the bay. Ancient means from the distant past. Allied troops were evacuated from Porto Rafti after the German invasion at the end of April 1941. Evacuated means taken out of a place.

• Beaches: Porto Rafti has beaches at Agios Spyridonas, Erotospilia and Avlaki, each on the coast of the bay.
• Marina: The town has an organized marina, a harbour for smaller leisure boats, with seaside restaurants and cafes.
• Church: The church of St. Spiridonos stands on the coast, and the Agios Spyridonas beach is named after it.

Tourism and winemaking are the main source of income in Porto Rafti. Winemaking is the craft of growing grapes and then turning them into wine. An Athens beach trip here reaches a town with its own economy, not only a coastline.

What does Nea Makri add to an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip that adds Nea Makri reaches a town in East Attica, Greece. Nea Makri belongs to the Athens metropolitan area. That term means the connected built-up region of towns and suburbs around the Greek capital.

Nea Makri lies on the Petalioi Gulf coast. A large bay of this kind is called a gulf, a curved arm of sea cutting into land. The Petalioi Gulf spans the sea from the Attica east coast to the Euboea south tip. The gulf is the sea setting of an Athens beach trip here.

Nea Makri sits in the easternmost part of the Attica peninsula. A peninsula is land that water surrounds on nearly all sides. The town lies 7 kilometres north of Rafina. Naming Rafina next to Nea Makri gives an Athens beach trip a clear reference point.

The 2011 reform made Nea Makri a municipal unit of the Marathon municipality. Municipality means a local government area, and a municipal unit is a smaller part inside one. The Nea Makri municipal unit covers 36.662 square kilometres. That unit of area is a square shape with one kilometre per side.

The area of Nea Makri was once known as Plesti. Refugees who settled there renamed the area Nea Makri, meaning New Makri. A refugee is a person forced to leave home to live in another place. Plesti is the older name, and an Athens beach trip now follows the name Nea Makri.

• Local places: Zoumberi Beach and the Brexiza Wetland, land that stays wet, are popular locations near Nea Makri.
• Nearby village: Neos Voutzas lies 5 kilometres south of the Nea Makri town centre.
• Past use: The United States Navy ran a radio communications base north of Nea Makri in the 20th century.

Reading about the setting first gives an Athens beach trip a firm base. Nea Makri is a town with its own council area, its own history and its own neighbours. Readers who know that background can place the town on any map.

Which questions arise about an Athens beach trip?

An Athens beach trip involves an airport, a season, an area called East Attica and a sea inlet. Each of these has clear facts behind it, and the four answers below explain them in plain words. All weather figures come from the Porto Rafti station.

Which airport serves an Athens beach trip?

Airports Council International places Athens International Airport in Group 1. Group 1 means airports with over 25 million passengers. The satellite terminal, a separate building for passengers, can handle six million passengers each year. Laurio Avenue reaches the airport from the south.

Which season suits an Athens beach trip?

The average April daily high reaches 20.13 °C at the Porto Rafti station. The average July daily high at the Porto Rafti station is 32.76 °C. Precipitation, meaning water falling from the sky, averages 47.83 millimetres in October at the Porto Rafti station.

Which regional unit holds an Athens beach trip?

East Attica ranks as an official area of the regional unit type. It covers the eastern part of the Athens urban agglomeration, the built-up city area. It includes the rural area to its east. It has 13 municipalities, meaning local council areas. The former prefecture, an older area type, had the same territory.

Which gulf lies near an Athens beach trip?

The South Euboean Gulf, a sea inlet, separates southern Euboea from the mainland of Central Greece. That mainland includes Attica. The gulf is about 40 kilometres long and runs from the Euripus Strait to the Petalioi Gulf. The small island Kavalliani lies at the gulf’s southeastern entrance.