The organized beaches at Glyfada, Voula, Kavouri and Vouliagmeni are a good bet if you are prepared to spend a small fortune on turnstile fees, on tips to the girl who opens the changing cabins, and at the snack bars if they have not already run out of stale cheese pies and warm Cokes.
If you should find an available beach umbrella, it is advisable to station various members of your family in such a way that they occupy every inch of shade. Otherwise you may find that other bathers will start edging in from all sides and before you know it, you will be out in the blazing sun feeling like a refugee from the Turkish-occupied sector of Cyprus.
In the water, beware of such hazards as children on paddle canoes and portly couples on water-bicycles. You may survive a bump from a canoe or a swipe on the head with a paddle but a collision with the steel float of a water-bicycle could prove fatal — and they are rarely insured.
Steer clear of bathers standing waist-deep in the water with an expression of extreme concentration on their faces. You can’t be a hundred percent sure of what they are doing but it is wise not to give them the benefit of the doubt.
If there are any water-skiers in the area, pack up and go home. There is absolutely no way of avoiding this menace unless you do your swimming two inches from the bottom like a Dover sole.
Finally, if you swim any distance away from the shore make sure there are at least five, preferably chubby, persons in deeper water than you are and more likely to be attractive to a predatory selachian.
Some people do not care for the organized beaches and prefer to look elsewhere for deserted spots on the coast. This is an excellent alternative because you don’t pay for anything except a tow-truck to get your car out of the sand. Also, you can be sure of at least five minutes of privacy before the first family drives up in a motorcycle and sidecar and settles down right next to you on a mile-long beach.
If you have equipped yourself with goggles, flippers and a snorkel, you can spend hours of fascinating exploration in the crystal-clear water, trying to make out the brand-names on empty beer cans glinting like jewels on the bottom. Plastic cups, old sandals and broken toilet seats are less interesting features of the undersea world but if you go to the same place often enough, you will grow fond of them in time and come to look on them as old friends.
If you see a fish or any other marine animal more than two inches long be sure to report it to the Oceanographic Institute in Piraeus. You will be making history of a sort and you may even get your picture in the papers.
Do not be overly perturbed if you get any tar on your feet. It comes off easily after an hour’s scrubbing with turpentine and if it gets on your towel you can always cut it up in squares to wipe your hands on after changing a tire or topping up the engine oil in your car.
One last hint to Sunday bathers. If you do not relish the thought of spending a challenging three hours in a bumper-to-bumper contest with Sunday drivers to get to the beach, and a repeat performance on the return journey, start out at six a.m. and be sure to return by nine a.m. at the latest. You will then have had the main highways all to yourself both ways, enjoyed your swim in blissful solitude and have the rest of the day free to devote to gardening, your stamp collection or to a game of Parcheesi with your teen-age offspring.
