Possidi Beach

Possidi is the most unusual beach on Kassandra, and the reason is geography rather than fashion. From the western coast of the peninsula a long cape of pale sand reaches out into the sea, a natural spit that runs for the best part of a kilometre with water on both sides. Walk out along it and the effect is strange and lovely, a thin band of almost white sand laid across the turquoise, one flank often glassy and calm while the other ruffles in the breeze. At its root sits a small lighthouse from 1864, still in use, a quiet landmark with a little garden beside it.

What makes Possidi special is the space and the silence, and both are earned on foot. The crowd, such as it is, gathers near the base of the cape, and the further you walk towards the tip the fewer people you meet, until at the end you have the sandbar and the surrounding sea more or less to yourself. This is the real luxury here, and it costs nothing but a half hour stroll. The west facing aspect makes it one of the better sunset beaches on the peninsula too, with an open horizon and no clutter to spoil the light.

The honest catch is that the cape gives you wildness, not comfort. There is no shade out on the sandbar, no bar, no sunbeds, and the exposed spit can be breezy, so a still beautiful day can turn brisk on the windward side. Come prepared with water, a hat and your own shade, and treat it as an expedition rather than a lie down. If you want the same stretch of coast with a bar and a bed behind you, the wider beach around Possidi village is the easier base, and for a livelier, fully organised scene the busier beaches up the peninsula towards Kallithea are the trade. Possidi rewards the walker and the sunset watcher above all.