Jocelyn and I spent our first day in Kythira hitting the beaches — as many as we reasonably could. We started at Kombonada Beach, where we were happy to have a long row of brollies all to ourselves for a while (though we had to pay for ours, the first time we have done so on this visit).

This stretch of beach has a lot of white rocks. If you walk down a long way, you’ll find a private area where a few people hide among the boulders going topless or shedding their clothing altogether. But we pretty much stayed in the brolly area.

We had stopped at Maria’s Sweet shop in Livadi, so I had ekmek on the beach!

Our second beach of the day was at Avlemonas, though J and I agree that calling this one a “beach” is a stretch (but that’s how it’s labeled on our map). This is really a cove where they have built platforms all around for accessing the water. The beach, such as it is, can barely hold two towels.

On the plus side, it’s easy to get into the water here, which makes a nice change from the mostly-pebbly and rocky beaches elsewhere in Kythira. And it’s a calm place for a quick swim!

We had an excellent lunch in Avlemonas at Psomoladea, a restaurant in town. The grilled sheep’s cheese with pesto on tomato and pita was especially yummy.

On our way out of town, we stopped at Palaeopoli Beach, the longest stretch of beach in Kythira. It’s not the most attractive beach — it largely runs along the road — but it’s a good way to get away from the crowds in touristy Avlemonas.

Our last beach of the day was by far and away our favorite: Kaladi! To get to this beach, you walk down 155 well-maintained stairs. And then you’re at a series of three beaches, each quite different from the next. The first is mostly populated by families …

… and here’s Jocelyn entering the second:

We spent most of our time on the second beach.

You get to the third, teeny-tiny beach is through a cave tunnel:

If you’re out swimming, this is what it looks like from the other side:

The beaches here are almost everything that Greek islands should be: they have clear, turquoise blue water; they are sparsely attended (in June, at least); and the views out to sea are incredible. The only drawback in Kythira is that the beaches are really rocky, so much so that we wished we’d brought beach shoes. As Jocelyn says, “don’t underestimate the importance of sand.”