Europe’s beaches have a timing problem. The ones that appear on every best beach list are genuinely beautiful and genuinely overrun from June to August. Finding an empty beach in Europe requires either accepting that empty means cold and grey, or knowing where the exceptions are.
These beaches are the exceptions: genuinely beautiful, genuinely warm in season, and genuinely less crowded than their reputation would suggest.
Playa de Gulpiyuri, Spain
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Playa de Gulpiyuri in Asturias on the northern coast of Spain is technically a beach but it is accessed through a field, surrounded entirely by land, and connected to the sea only by an underground tunnel through which the tide pushes salt water. The result is a small beach of fine sand and clear water in the middle of a green meadow, with no coastal access, that appears inexplicably in the middle of agricultural land. It is one of the strangest natural phenomena in Europe.
The beach is very small and becomes crowded on summer weekends. Visit on a weekday morning and you may have it to yourself long enough to convince yourself you have found something genuinely unknown.
Stafnes Beach, Iceland
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Iceland is not known for beaches but it has them, and they are unlike any beach in warmer Europe. Stafnes on the Reykjanes Peninsula has black volcanic sand, surf from the North Atlantic, and on clear days a view across to the Snæfellsjokull glacier. The temperature makes swimming inadvisable except for the genuinely hardy. The photography, with the black sand and the white foam and the occasionally theatrical sky, is extraordinary.
Sarakiniko Beach, Milos, Greece
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Sarakiniko on the island of Milos is a lunar landscape of white volcanic rock eroded into smooth curves and bowls by centuries of wind. The contrast of the white rock with the deep blue Aegean is the most dramatic coastal colour combination in Greece. The rock formations create natural pools at sea level and the coves between the larger formations are swimable in calm conditions.
Milos is less visited than Santorini and Mykonos despite having better beaches and a more interesting landscape. The ferry from Athens takes around five hours and the island has enough to occupy four or five days comfortably.
Praia do Camilo, Portugal
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Praia do Camilo near Lagos in the Algarve is reached by a wooden staircase that descends through the ochre limestone cliffs to a small cove below. The rock formations at either end of the beach create arches and sea caves accessible on calm days by swimming. The water is clear, the sand is fine, and the surrounding cliff architecture is extraordinary.
The Algarve coast is not undiscovered, but Praia do Camilo is significantly less crowded than the main beaches around Lagos and Albufeira. The stairs that discourage some visitors are a minor effort for the reward.
