Exo Gialos Beach

Exo Gialos is the beach the people of Fira keep for themselves. It sits on the east coast barely three kilometres from the capital, near Karterados, and yet it feels a long way from the cliff top crowds. The shore is the familiar dark volcanic sand and small pebbles, the water is usually calm and clear, and the whole place runs at the unhurried pace of a working fishing village rather than a resort.

Part of the charm is the harbour. A short stroll from the sand brings you to a small fishing port where old wooden boats rock at their moorings and you can still see fishermen mending nets or landing a catch. Carved into the volcanic rock are the syrmata, the cave like shelters where villagers once stored their boats over winter, and they give the cove a sense of history that the big organised beaches lack.

On the beach itself the offering is modest and that is the appeal. There are a few sunbeds and umbrellas to hire and at least one seafront taverna doing fresh fish and traditional Greek plates, so you can make a comfortable half day of it without much planning. It is calm, quiet and genuinely local, the sort of beach you end up at when you want to swim and eat well without driving to the far south of the island.

Who it suits: visitors staying in or around Fira and Karterados, anyone who likes a calm low key swim with a good lunch, and travellers who enjoy the texture of a real fishing village over a polished resort.

Who should skip it: sun worshippers wanting a long groomed sunbed strip and a bar scene will prefer Perissa or Kamari, and anyone after dramatic scenery should look to the caldera beaches in the southwest.