Beyond Green Travel With Costas Christ Searching For Greece in the Greek Isles

Text and photographs by Costas Christ

Finding a beach that is not covered with umbrellas and lounge chairs is no small task in the Greek Isles.

I found one on Patmos, where a friend of a friend led me as if I was being taken to a secret hideout. It was small and rocky, the water clear and blue–just what you would imagine Greece’s islands to be like.

"Imagine" is the key word here. It was among the few beaches I came upon that was not conquered by row upon row of plastic chairs and umbrellas during my sojourn around the Aegean this month.

Maybe it is just me who thought this was not a good thing.  A French woman and her husband, who arrived on a cruise ship and accidentally stumbled upon the same "secret" Patmos beach in their rental car, left in search of a better place. She told me she was uncomfortable on a beach without a lot of chairs and umbrellas. "It just does not feel like a real beach to me," she explained.

It would be funny, if it were not so serious.

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