Beaches of Legrena near Athens

Legrena is located about 2h of bus/car ride from the centre of Athens on the way the cape Sounion, where Aegeus was waiting for his son Theseus after the battle with Minotaur…

Well, you probably know the myth and why the sea is actually called Aegean. Now the cape features ruins of the Temple of Poseidon, another father of Theseus (yes, he had two fathers!), so it is a popular tourist spot, especially during sunset.

And if you want to combine sightseeing with beach fun, you should stop over at Legrena. There are several beaches of different size, with different ground, open and secluded.naturist 0007 Legrena, Attica, Greece

Closer to the bus stop (Athens-Sounio bus) lies a long sandy beach. When we were there in August, it was almost empty, maybe because Athenians left to the islands and tourists do not know about it… It was easy to find a spot with no one else in the nearest 30 meters, but unfortunately it was not easy to find a spot to enter the sea for swimming. Well, it was fine for wading but too shallow for swimming.

naturist 0006 Legrena, Attica, Greece

But further offshore the bottom is full of urchins, so it’s quite risky to walk.
Since it was also windy we couldn’t play frisbee or beach bats. However, we had a jump rope by chance, so skipping was practically the only way to stay active 😉

naturist 0008 Legrena, Attica, Greece

On another day, we were at a smaller sandy beach farther from the station but without urchins at the sea bottom. As we were alone there, we felt free to stay clothes-free. We played beach bats and ring frisbee, which turned out to be a blast, as it is more resistant to the wind blow than a regular disc frisbee and is also super-fast. Too bad I don’t have a video of that. Later there appeared one more naked man at the end of the beach, one clothed family, and one man kept walking forth and back. He pointed at us and said (in Greek) we were crazy to play around naked, although to be honest he himself seemed rather crazy, and why did he return several times if he didn’t like the site of us playing frisbee naked?

On another occasion in mid-October, on a very hot day, I visited the “official” nudist beach of Legrena.

view 0000 Legrena, Attica, Greece

Actually, again even the non-nudist part was almost empty, with one naked man and another clothed in the shade. This beach is pebbly,

naturist 0000 Legrena, Attica, Greece

and some of the rocks are light-pink!

rocks 0000 Legrena, Attica, Greece

As the beach was faced directly to the sun and surrounded by rocks, it got really hot; naturist 0001 Legrena, Attica, Greece

I couldn’t sit anymore and went swimming. I saw several more coves with one or few naked men in each.

At one of the coves there was a partly submerged tunnel with some bright pinkish rocks.

rocks 0003 Legrena, Attica, Greece

Later I walked to the “official” nudist part of the beach. This time the pathway was full beautiful light-green rocks.

rocks 0001 Legrena, Attica, Greece

The entrance to the naturist part is announced by a notification (in Greek) on a huge rock.naturist 0004 Legrena, Attica, Greece

Another announcement is placed in the middle of the beach.

naturist 0002 Legrena, Attica, Greece

And if you still don’t get the point or cannot read greek, there are some smaller international notifications, like this rock with an “FKK” sign.

naturist 0003 Legrena, Attica, Greece

Again, there were some rocks of peculiar shapes and colors, like this dark-green ‘mini-vulcano’.

naturist 0005 Legrena, Attica, Greece

This place must be certainly interesting for a geologist, I bet there are some naturists among them as well.

rocks 0002 Legrena, Attica, Greece

flat rock beach in Athens (Limanakia)

ελληνικά

Nudist beach at Limanakia is a popular place to enjoy the heat of summer in Athens instead of suffering from it in the city. It has a lot of convenient open flat rocks, as well as hidden corners to get some more intimate atmosphere even when it is pretty crowded. view 0003 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

The crowd is quite diverse and international, a lot of gays, sometimes textile though. The water is warm from April to October, and feels nice even when it rains. naturist 0002 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

The underwater life is pretty interesting by the way. You’ll see lots of different fishes,

fish 0002 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

schools of young fish fish 0003 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

and some parrotfish of rainbow colors.

fish 0001 Limanakia, Athens, Greecefish 0000 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

Another beautiful encounter, which we saw only once there, was this jelly fish. jellyfish 0000 Limanakia, Athens, Greecejellyfish 0001 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

Thus, Limanakia proved to be great for snorkeling and swimming.

naturist 0000 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

However, while getting out of the water beware of sea urchins,sea urchin 0000 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

although not all rocks are covered with sea urchins – some have only pretty moss animals and algae.

moss animals 0001 Limanakia, Athens, Greecemoss animals 0000 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

In any case, goggles are highly recommended both for enjoying underwater scenery and safety!

naturist 0001 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

This place is obviously great to take some good photos,

naturist 0009 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

just make sure to have good equipment;-)

naturist 0010 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

Well, this pigeon thought it was all about him and tried to get in the shot all thetime!

naturist 0011 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

But the crab turned out to be more photogenic and cooperative.

crab 0000 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

Late october, with more rain, brings some blossom to the rocks of Limanakia.

flowers 0000 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

But not only flowers can be pink there, the rocks themselves may turn pink too!

view 0001 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

This is what happened one evening with unusually bright pink clouds at sunset, which reflected their color on the rocks and the sea.

view 0002 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

In the cove which is closer to the city, view 0000 Limanakia, Athens, Greece you can also do cliff-diving. Does it look high enough?

naturist 0003 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

Well, look from above!

naturist 0004 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

By coincidence, on the day when we finally dared to jump from those cliffs, there was a contest of 12 top cliff-divers at the neighboring lake Vouliagmeni. Well, we couldn’t compete with them in terms of height of our dives, but at least we dived in a more natural way – from the cliffs, not from a platform (I don’t know why they call it cliff-diving then), and without swimsuits 😉

So, ready?!

naturist 0005 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

Wait, there is a swimmer below.

naturist 0006 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

Steady!

naturist 0007 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

Go!

naturist 0008 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

And here is a video.

I think you’re convinced now to visit this place, if you’re in Athens. To get to Limanakia from the center of Athens use express bus E22 (from Panepistimiou (Πανεπιστιμίου) or Syntagma (Σύνταγμα)) or from Glyfada by buses 115 or 116 to B’ Limanakia (B’ Λιμανάκια). On my frequent visits to Athens, this was often the first place I wanted to go, granted that I also saw it from the airplane on approach to the airport; too bad I couldn’t just jump down with a parachute!

view 0004 Limanakia, Athens, Greece

on a coral reef beach at the Red Sea (Egypt)

عَرَبيْ

Coral Beach Resort in Hurghada, Egypt, is an ideal place where naturists can enjoy one of the richest marine ecosystems – coral reefs of the Red Sea – without having to wear swimsuits. It is the right place to feel unity with the nature: fishes there are not only immensely diverse but are also quite tame! And since life in the coral reef is concentrated in 2-5 upper meters of the sea, it is easy to observe it without much of equipment: snorkeling is perfect.  Just dip into the water, and you will see a world utterly different from the surrounding desert, and quite like nowhere else!

naturist 0003 Rotana Resort Coral Beach, Hurghada, Egypt

I wish I had my underwater camera that time…

It is also a unique place in the entire North Africa and Near East region, besides Israel, where nudists are officially tolerated, including the Egyptian staff of the hotel. However, the web site of the hotel does not include information about the beach, probably to avoid problems with authorities who might not like it. The nudist part of the beach is about several hundreds meters long,

naturist 0000 Rotana Resort Coral Beach, Hurghada, Egypt

but only the first 50 or so are equipped (this area is exactly shown on the map).naturist 0001 Rotana Resort Coral Beach, Hurghada, Egypt

There are wind- and sun-protecting shields and huts at your disposal.

view 0001 Rotana Resort, Hurghada, Egypt

You could of course hang out naked in your bungalow too, but it’s not why you would go there, right?

The best thing about this resort, is that you can swim as you like all along the vast coral reefs.

naturist 0004 Rotana Resort Coral Beach, Hurghada, Egypt

I think we are pretty clear on this website that swimsuits are a nuisance 😉 Given the warmth of the Red Sea waters, you won’t need a wetsuit for snorkeling either!

naturist 0005 Rotana Resort Coral Beach, Hurghada, Egypt

Besides hours of swimming (the water is so warm that you can really stay for a few hours in the sea), other water activities are available at the resort as well.

osprey 0000 Rotana Resort, Hurghada, Egypt

I saw several ospreys there; it was quite a show when they went on fishing spree!

But even without all this, just looking at those crystal clear waters can be mesmarizing. naturist 0002 Rotana Resort Coral Beach, Hurghada, Egypt

You can also observe the sunrise over the sea

view 0000 Rotana Resort, Hurghada, Egypt

and sunset over the desert.

view 0002 Rotana Resort, Hurghada, Egypt

There won’t be a shortage of sun in Hurghada, you needn’t worry about the weather to get your all-over tan!)

naturist 0006 Rotana Resort Coral Beach, Hurghada, Egypt