Simos Beach Elafonissos
Elafonisos small paradise in the Aegean, is located in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese. Inhabited since the Neolithic period, it became an island only after an earthquake in 375 BC.
Considered the most exotic island in the Mediterranean, it offers visitors an extraordinary landscape with beaches that have nothing to envy to the Caribbean of clear and fine sand with a turquoise sea and changing colors.
Simos beach is certainly the most famous and could also be enough as a reason to venture up to Elafonissos. We find it in the southeast part of the island about four kilometers from the only inhabited village. Reaching it is not difficult given the small size of Elafonissos (19 square kilometers).
Landing in the small harbor, the indications that appear in front of you, will take you immediately to the pearl of the Peloponnese, the Simos beach where, legend has it, it was an important refuge for pirates, thanks to its strategic position and its long coasts sandy. Crossing the island, you enter the only road that runs through it, passing through a sometimes rocky, barren and arid landscape shaken by the sun, sometimes instead green and flowery in contrast with the blue. Olive trees, animals, birds, land and sea turtles, flora and fauna make this island a place to be protected, in fact it is entirely under the protection of the body for the protection of Natura 2000. biodiversity.
You will arrive at a crossroads where a road will take you to Sarakiniko (the long beach), a popular destination for wind and water sports lovers while the other to Simos, follow the signs for the latter. Once in the area, you will find Asimos a refreshment point that offers music on summer evenings just a few steps from the beach and a large car park where a path with an inscription more than ever apt "This way to Paradise" will accompany you, crossing a landscape desert, in a breathtaking scenery. Continuing on the road that leads to Simos instead, you will find the facilities of Cervi and Simos Paradiso, the first a modern restaurant location, the second a typical and welcoming economic tavern.
Both offer the possibility of renting a deckchair and umbrella, I advise you to always ask first the prices because they vary according to location and season (you will find them open from June to September) and delivery directly to the beach. You will also find a mini market and a self bar service in the only campsite on the island, at the end of the great twin Sarakiniko.
Both beaches offer the possibility to choose between free and equipped, in the south side called the small Simos, in the summer very popular as it is very suitable for families and lovers of comfort, the north part instead called Sarakiniko or more simply the big Simos, larger twin, and more peaceful mainly free.
This majestic wonder, in addition to being made up of white and pink velvet sand and a sea of a thousand shades of blue, has a unique peculiarity: the beach is divided in two by a promontory creating a long strip that separates the western part from that to the south east, creating two white crescents that touch each other giving themselves a peninsula that plunges into the sea and what a sea!
Climbing on foot on the isthmus that divides the coasts, between the scent of wild rosemary and the beauty of the white Mediterranean lilies that fade evanescent at the rising of each moon, you can admire a heavenly and surreal panorama, two mirrors of crystalline water that they touch each other, divided only by a tongue of white sand and voila ladies and gentlemen here are the most beautiful twin beaches of the Mediterranean. You will be catapulted into a landscape surrounded by ancient centuries-old junipers drawn by the wind on one side and the immensity of the shades of Blue on the other. Miles of beach make her a paradise for lovers of meditation, relaxation, silence and life in close contact with nature, in fact, in the 70s it was a popular destination for hippies away from large resorts, discos, from crowded beaches and the uniformity of the globalized world, which would not hurt us even today.
On warm summer nights, Simos beach becomes the ideal scenario to be able to observe the Milky Way, thanks to a clean sky not soiled by artificial lights where darkness accompanies the sound of the sea in a slow waltz immersed in unspoiled nature.
The most crowded period is obviously August, but if you want to discover it in its wildest soul, I recommend for those who had the possibility the months of May, June, July, September or October, the beauty of the place lives up to the term: Paradise.
Difficult to explain in words the extraordinary nature of this beach and the whole island surrounded by other wonders, Mother Nature has not wasted here and this is also why we invite you if you decide to spend your holidays in Greece in Elafonissos to have the maximum respect for this little corner still present.
We will never stop thanking Francesca from Vecchio Frantoio https://www.elafonissos.org/ https://www.facebook.com/ilvecchiofrantoioelafonisos/ who made us discover this wonder and who every time makes us discover new corners of Elafonissos. Look for her if you are on the island, her knowledge and advice will be invaluable.