CalmBeach Greece
Beaches in Symi
All 11 beaches in Symi, in one list. They vary widely in how sheltered they sit from the meltemi — open any of them and check live wind and waves before you go.
The beaches
- Nos Sandy - Easy road access
- Gymnistiki Periochi Nos Pebbles - Easy path
-
Pedi
Sand & pebbles - Easy road access
A Meltemi shelter with fish tavernas — Easy access: ~2-4 km from Gialos by car, a bus every ~30 minutes, or on foot. Partly organized (sunbeds, fresh-fish tavernas).
- Agios Vasilios Sand & pebbles - Difficult access (path)
-
Agios Nikolaos
Sand & pebbles - Easy path
A shallow beach below the chapel — Organized (a taverna, a beach bar, tamarisk shade). Access on foot from Pedi (~20 minutes) or by boat/water-taxi.
- Nanou Pebbles - Boat access only
-
Paralia Agiou Georgiou
Pebbles - Boat access only
A pebble cove below a huge cliff — Pebbles with deep, crystal-clear water, beneath a vertical cliff of about 300 m. The huge cliff throws the beach into shade from around 3 pm — cool…
- Paralia tis Sara Pebbles - Easy path
- Symi Gyala Pebbles - Easy road access
- Marathounta Passable dirt road
- Paralia Panormiti Moderate access
Pick by what you are looking for
-
Snorkeling
Rockier seabed and clearer water, where there is something to look at underwater.
-
Organized
Sunbeds, umbrellas and somewhere to eat or drink nearby.
- All beach guides →
Good to know
Which beaches in Symi are more sheltered from the wind?
It comes down to which way the coast faces. When the meltemi blows, coves facing the other way have less open water in front of them for a wave to build across, so they are usually more comfortable. It is not a guarantee — the same beach changes character when the wind turns. Check live wind and waves before you go.
How is this list ordered?
By how well known each beach is, not by a score of ours. Which beach is good on a given day changes hour by hour and cannot be printed on a static page — so this page carries the list and the things that do not change, and the live map carries the conditions.
When is the sea calmest here?
Across 11 of the beaches on this page, the open water in front of them is typically 0.58 m in June, 0.62 m in July and 0.55 m in August when the meltemi is at its strongest, and 0.57 m in September. August is the calmest month of the season. We calculate these figures ourselves from European Copernicus wave-model data at 4.2 km resolution. They describe the sea offshore, not the shelter of an individual cove — a bay protected by a headland will usually be calmer than this.
How warm is the water, month by month?
Off 11 of the beaches on this page the sea is typically 19.8 °C in May, 22.1 °C in June, 24.3 °C in July, 26.5 °C in August and 25.6 °C in September — ideal at the height of summer, mild in June. In October it is still 23.8 °C — warmer than June. August is the warmest month. Satellite measurements, 1995–2024, from a sea cell about 5 km offshore; shallow bays usually run warmer than this.
Weather and sea conditions change. CalmBeach uses the app view for live beach recommendations.