Antisamos beach — Attraction in Sami Municipality

Antisamos Beach is often promoted as one of the top ten beaches in the world. While it is undoubtedly beautiful, I personally wouldn’t place it among the world’s absolute best. It’s certainly worth a visit, but it didn’t leave a lasting impression strong enough to make me want to return.

The beach features white pebbles, which give the water a striking turquoise-blue color, especially near the shore. However, just a few meters after entering the water, it drops off into deep sea quite abruptly, so most people stay and swim within the first 10 meters of the shoreline.

Along the beach, there are several restaurants that advertise “free sunbeds and free parking.” This, however, comes with fine print — the sunbeds are only “free” if you spend a minimum of €30–€45, depending on the establishment. It’s important to ask for the exact conditions upfront to avoid surprises.

There is also a section of the beach with paid sunbeds that cost €15–€20 per set, without any consumption required. And finally, there’s a public area where you can bring your own umbrella and towel, but keep in mind that the pebbles here are quite large and rough, which makes it less comfortable for lying down without proper padding.

For those who enjoy watersports, the far end of the beach offers a variety of guided water sports activities, which adds some excitement to the overall experience.

All in all, Antisamos Beach is lovely to see and worth visiting once, especially for the vivid water color and mountain backdrop. But with the crowds, pricing conditions, and lack of comfort in the public section, it doesn’t quite live up to the global hype in my view. At the end Of this review I must underline my nightmare of this beach- wasps, there are thousands of them and they are...

Beautiful beach with great infrastructure and vibes! We really enjoyed our time at Antisamos Beach. It’s well-organized, with free sun beds (you just need to order a minimum of €30 in food and drinks per pair — a very fair deal, considering you often pay separately for sunbeds and overpriced food elsewhere anyway). There’s free and spacious parking, which is super convenient.

The food was very good and not too expensive — we had an octopus salad (generous amount of octopus!), chicken gyros with fries, pita and yogurt sauce, iced decaf latte, and a lemon granita. Everything was fresh, tasty, and reasonably priced. Service is fast and polite, and the whole place is very clean.

There are some bees around, especially if you’re eating sweet things — but unless you’re right in their path, it’s not a problem. Just be a little careful with food.

There’s also a freshwater shower, a beach bar, and even a DJ playing relaxed lounge music — gives it a nice chill vibe without being too loud.

We visited on a Saturday in mid-July, around noon, and easily found three pairs of sunbeds together, which was perfect for our group.

You’ll hear cicadas in the background, see a few yachts anchored nearby, and enjoy crystal-clear blue water that’s refreshing but not cold — perfect for a swim. It’s also a good spot for snorkeling.

The views are stunning too.

Highly recommend this beach if you’re...

The most developed / commercialized beach in this part of the island. A 10 minute wiggly drive from Sami, with plenty of facilities on offer, massive free parking, three tavernas offering free sunbeds and umbrellas for a minimum spend (€40 per umbrella for the closest bar) and a busy watersports firm with waterslide pedalos and a speedboat-pulled inflatable ride. Three stars from me, because this is my personal idea of hell, but if you’re after a massive beach with seven or eight rows of loungers, loud beach club sounds, a bar full of tanned swimwear-clad people up for a good time, cocktails and surprisingly good (if expensive) food, this is your spot. Amazingly despite the popularity of the beach, visited by yachts and dayboats as well as tourists by road, there are loads of fish swimming in the clear blue waters. Swimming is good, with a gently shelving beach and moderate waves.

As of August 2025 there are places further along the beach that aren’t yet colonized by bars, where you can set up your own umbrellas on the pebbles for free.

This was the waspiest beach we visited by a country mile - the instant our chicken gyros arrived, we were besieged. We bought them off with a little pile of chicken a few feet away, which they demolished every crumb of, but it kept around 25(!) wasps quiet for long enough...