Beaches

There are about twelve beaches on Tilos, depending on how you count. I've just been able to visit a few. If you want to visit all in a few days you need a fast speed boat, but I prefer to spend my holidays without any stress in a slow pace.

Roughly the beaches can be divided in the following areas: Livadia and around, south coast south of Livadia, Megalo Horio area (north/north west of) and around Eristos. I will only describe the beaches I personally been visiting.

Livadia and around

In Livadia bay is one of the two relative long beaches on Tilos. Livadia beach is rather unattractive for two reasons: it's situated in the middle of the liveliest village and secondly the surface consists of stones. Well, maybe package tourists don't mind, because they can hire a sun bed and they want to have the beach close to their room. Personally I don't care about a beach like this, but the walks along the bay, especially in evening time on my way to some nice tavern, is enjoyable.

The beach is developed with some hotels and pensions, clubs and taverns nearby.

Start to walk north out of Livadia on the track that starts in the northern part of the village, right after the port. After about 45 minutes you will be above Ammochosti beach, also known as Red beach. This beach is about 100 metres wide with a surface consisting mostly of gravels with a red touch. The beach is naturally divided into two sections by some rocks and the rocks are reddish. You can get some limited shadow beneath some rocks depending on the time of the day. The beach is tranquil, at least out of season, and you can set the tone and take off your cloths if you fancy an all over tan.

After Ammochosti you will reach Lethra beach, if you continue the path further north. It's another 25 minutes of walking. This beach is about 500 metres long and consists mostly of stones. There are a few trees that offer shadow. This beach is popular among naturists.

If you walk along Livadia bay and continue the path that continues where the road ends, you will eventually reach the Despoti Nero area and its spring. Here are thee beaches.

If you follow the shore backwards (North-west) passing some rocks, you will reach a tiny beach very close to a small islet. The islet is more or less connected with land by the beach. This beach consists of gravels. It's hard to find protection from the sun, but there is a hole in a rock nearby the beach. You can do small excursions on the small islet. This is not a typical beach, but it's a nice spot for up to two persons, if you want to lie down and relax in the sun.

If you on the other hand continue to walk south-east by the shore from the spring, you will immediately get to a gravel beach with some sea garbage.

Another 15 minutes walk by the shore takes you to the last beach in this area. The beach is stony and full of garbage, as it's very much exposed to the north.

All these beaches are fairly visited and I considered them to be C.O. beaches.

Megalo Horio area (north/north west of)

Plaka beach is nicely situated in the northwest corner of Tilos. You get there by passing Megalo Horio, and Aghios Andonis, and about two km after the latter settlement you reach the beach. This is a nice beach with mostly sand and some gravel. It's around 200 metres long and you can find limited shadow by some tamarisks. The northern part of the beach is a dedicated Nudism area (sign post is present). The beach seems to be tranquil out of season (mid June). This is maybe the most pretty beach on Tilos.

Eristios and around

Eristos beach is around 1.5 km long and it’s a nice wide and sandy beach with some gravel. It's easy to find shadow beneath tamarisks. The far south-east end is a designated nudist zone. In this part is harder to find shadow, but you can get some shadow below some rocks from around 1 PM. In a limited part of the beach there are sun beds and umbrellas. There is both lodging and taverns in the neighbourhood. This is probably the most visited beach on Tilos, even if it’s very calm in mid June.