Med flotilla with a nice sandy beach?

[Neil]

Year before last we did the Saronic Gulf, which was nice, but the major complaint was the lack of a nice sandy beach - pebbles and sea urchins being the order of the day. Her Indoors would like nice fine white sand (she's from Brazil)

 

[duncan99210]

Can't think of anywhere in the Med that'd offer such things on a flotilla holiday. Best get yourself off to the other side of the pond......

 

[vyv_cox]

There is a thread running at the moment about a flotilla in the northern Aegean. We were there a couple of years ago - loads of sandy beaches up there. Also the Sporades, Koukanaries (cannot guarantee the spelling) is supposed to be the best beach in the Med. it's about a mile long, all wide sand, but in August invisible due to hordes of people and a disco every 100 yards. Beautiful and quiet out of season, though. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koukounaries

 

[Neil]

Well, any real sand would do!

 

[Sans Bateau]

South of France will give you sandy beaches.

 

[Champagne Murphy]

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=p...QX36YG4Cw&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=589
http://www.sunsail.co.uk/flotilla-sailing/destinations/mediterranean/turkey/kas
Job done. Patara, where St Nicholas came from, absolutely fantastic. About 16km long if my memory serves, loads of history including a ruined amphitheatre, sunken city at Kokova etc

 

[westernman]

South of France will give you sandy beaches.

Yep - particularly Languedoc Roussillon. Pretty much the whole coastline there is sandy beach. Plenty of places there which are pretty empty even in the middle of August.

It also happens to be an area (may be the area) with a high number of marinas per mile of coast - however no sheltered anchorages at all.

 

[charles_reed]

Most beaches around the Med are pebbly and few have the golden sands, surf and gradually shallowing that Copacabana offers.
In France the coast from Port Vendres to Cap d'Agde has plenty of sand (and is no place to get caught in an onshore), but that's certainly not golden. The rest of Mediterranean France is either dunes and lagoons or shingle and motor cars.
Mainland Italy is IMHO bereft of beaches worth the name, though Sardinia has some quite good ones, especially around the Maddalenas.
Greece, a few islands have some pathetic beaches but by far the best, and they are golden, are round the Peloponnesus.

Personally I hate beaches, noisy, get on the boat and sand gets in food and invates privy parts of one anatomy.

 

[KellysEye]

If you charter next year in Antigua go up to Barbuda and there is a 10 mile soft sandy beach on the west coast. There is a big hotel on the SW point and a small one in the middle. We've been there when we had the beach to ourselves. If you do go motor up past the small hotel and anchor when you see a reef on port side, it's the quietest place if other boats are there.

The only sandy beaches I've seen in Greece were in the Peloppenese and Sporades.

 

[macd]

though Sardinia has some quite good ones, especially around the Maddalenas.

Yes, from what I recall, Sardinia generally has many good beaches (although I wasn't taken by the overpriced swankiness of the otherwise lovely Maddalena area). Southern Corsica, too, has some glorious anchorages with good beaches and Bonifacio is a must-see spot. All best avoided in July/Aug if poss, but then aren't most charter areas in the Med?
Of course the food's rubbish...not.

 

[jimbaerselman]

. Her Indoors would like nice fine white sand (she's from Brazil)

Khalkidiki, with Neilson. Fine sand beaches on the western two peininsulas (Sinthonia and Kassandra). These are only busy in the peak season (mid-July to Late August) when the citizens of Thessaloniki come out to play. Map to see the location at [url]http://jimbsail.info/mediterranean/greece/n-aegean[/URL]. The North Sporades also have sandy beaches (same maps) though its difficult to see those of Skiathos in much of the season, since they're tightly covered with brollies and sunbeds and bodies and noise. Better a little east, Alonissos, fewer tourists.

If you go bareboat, then the west and south Peloponnese offer mile after mile of empty sand with nearby anchorages, even in high season.

 

[Neil]

Seems to be a consensus developing for northern Greece. Of course, the fly in the ointment is the lack of a direct scheduled or charter flight from Dublin. Still, something must be done; although Her Indoors swims about 15k per week (pool), the pebbles and urchins put her off from swimming from the shore, and off the back of the boat, there be strange dark shapes, in the deep...........

 

[interloper]

My cousins in Greece actually dislike sandy beaches. They much prefer pebbles because pebbles don't make their feet and towels dirty. Regarding the urchins, one of the most fun things to do is to carry a long stone, screwdriver, or hammer to break open the urchins and then watch the small fish swarm in to eat the remains. If you enjoy snorkeling, broad sandy beaches are the wrong place to go. The most interesting sea life can be found around rock formations.