CalmBeach Greece
Meltemi options
Beaches in Naxos usually better when the meltemi blows
13 sheltered beaches in Naxos, oriented away from the meltemi. Check live wind & waves on CalmBeach before you go.
- 13beaches
- 5organized
- 1with photos
The meltemi blows from N/NE, and the split shows up clearly in the data. Of the 44 beaches we have modelled, 16 take no open water toward N/NE; they cluster on the southwest coast, facing an arc of SE–W. The most reliable of them are listed below. The other 16 sit wide open to it.
The reason is the shape of the coast itself: these beaches have land behind them on the side the wind comes from. They are not necessarily enclosed bays — they simply sit in the wind shadow of the shore opposite.
The trade-off, plainly: the same southwest coast is open to the opposite wind. On days the wind swings from the southwest, the shelter reverses and the far side is the better call. So this list narrows the choice — it does not replace the forecast; check live wind and waves on the beach page 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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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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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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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…
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Rina
By boat only — Rina has no road: you reach it only by boat, on the south-east coast of Naxos. That is why it never appears in our suggestions when it blows hard.
Photo credits
- Agios Prokopios: Carlo Pelagalli, CC BY-SA 3.0
Good to know
Which beaches in Naxos may be better when the meltemi blows?
The bays listed here are shielded from the meltemi in the exposure model, so they may be more comfortable when it blows. Local conditions still vary, so confirm wind and waves before you go.
Does this guarantee low waves?
No. Shelter shows which coasts are shielded from a wind direction, not guaranteed calm or low waves. On strong-wind days follow local flags and check live wind and waves in the app.
When is the sea calmest here?
Across 13 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 13 of the beaches on this page the sea is typically 18.8 °C in May, 21.7 °C in June, 23.4 °C in July, 24.1 °C in August and 23.6 °C in September — ideal 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.
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