CalmBeach Greece
Sandy
Sandy beaches in Naxos
18 sandy beaches in Naxos: with sand underfoot rather than pebbles. Check live wind & waves for each beach on CalmBeach before you go.
- 18beaches
- 7organized
- 2with photos
Looking for sand rather than pebbles in Naxos? These 18 beaches are recorded as sandy, so they are easier on bare feet and better for children playing. Check wind and waves in CalmBeach before you go.
The beaches
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Agios ProkopiosGolden sand and the Red Lake — About 1.5 km of soft golden sand with turquoise shallows — one of Naxos’s most popular and organised beaches. Behind it lies a wetland with salt pans…
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Hawaii
The name that stuck — It is not organised and has no shade; below the dunes stand the abandoned concrete shells of a hotel that was never finished, now covered in graffiti.
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Plaka
The wild dunes of Naxos — The longest (~4 km) of the chain of beaches south of the town, with soft white-gold sand and natural dunes dotted with sea cedars and tamarisks;…
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Alyko
The cedar forest among the dunes — An area of white sand and wind-shaped dunes on the southwest coast, famous for its "cedar forest" — botanically a juniper grove (Juniperus…
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Paralia Psili Ammos
Fine sand on the east coast — Psili Ammos is one of the few long sand beaches on eastern Naxos, the side most visitors never reach.
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Pyrgaki
Where the beach road stops — Pyrgaki is the last organised beach on the west coast, past Alyko — beyond it the road turns inland.
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Agiassos
The end of the western sand — Agiassos is the wide sandy bay at the southern end of the west coast, where Naxos’s run of big beaches stops.
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Mikri Vigla
The granite cape for windsurf & kite — A cape of golden granite divides two beaches. The name means "small watchtower", after a lookout that once guarded the coast against pirates.
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Paralia Kalantos
On the other side of the mountain — Kalantos is the wide sandy bay of southern Naxos; you get there through Filoti and the mountainous interior, a drive that keeps most people away.
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Agios Georgios
The town beach of Naxos — It is fully organised and among the busiest; its shallow, breezy southern end is a well-known windsurf-instruction spot.
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Glyfada
Beside the Alyko cedar forest — Glyfada belongs to the string of small sandy coves around the Alyko peninsula, where the largest cedar forest in the Cyclades comes down to the dunes.
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Kastraki
The quiet continuation of the west coast — Kastraki is a long ribbon of fine sand between Mikri Vigla and Alyko — the same sea as Agios Prokopios, with far fewer people.
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Kedros
Where the cedars reach the sand — Kedros takes its name from the forest around it: the Alyko peninsula holds the largest coastal cedar wood in the Cyclades, planted to hold the dunes…
Photo credits
- Agios Prokopios: Carlo Pelagalli, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Vintzi: Snowflakeblues, CC BY-SA 4.0
Good to know
Which beaches in Naxos are sandy?
The beaches listed here are recorded as sand rather than pebbles or rock. Shorelines shift with storms and seasons, so the mix can change from year to year.
Does sand mean shallow water?
Not always. Sand describes the shore, not the depth — some sandy beaches drop away quickly. Open a beach to see its recorded depth, and check live wind and waves before you swim.
When is the sea calmest here?
Across 18 of the beaches on this page, the open water in front of them is typically 0.71 m in June, 0.82 m in July and 0.81 m in August when the meltemi is at its strongest, and 0.74 m in September. June 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 18 of the beaches on this page the sea is typically 18.8 °C in May, 21.7 °C in June, 23.3 °C in July, 24.0 °C in August and 23.6 °C in September — mild at the height of summer, mild in June. By October it is 21.6 °C. August is the warmest month. Satellite measurements, 1995–2024, from a sea cell about 5 km offshore; shallow bays usually run warmer than this.
Wind and waves change every day. See live conditions for any of these beaches before you drive out.
Open the live map →