Transit beach PORTO VROMI "Maries" on the island of Zakynthos
Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" is located in the northwest of the island of Zakynthos in Greece. This side of the island is highly mountainous with very steep slopes towards the sea, which often makes land access to the many small but magnificent beaches in this area impossible. For this reason, access to such beaches is only possible by sea. But some hard-to-reach beaches can still be reached by rented car or ATV, having traveled a considerable distance along mountain serpentines, one of which we went to - Porto Vromi Bay.
In this bay there are two small beaches with the same names, both of them are called Porto Vromi Beach. They are located just 250 meters from each other in a straight line. But there is no direct communication on foot between them, since they are separated by a mountain slope extending into the sea. Therefore, you can get from one beach to another only by water by boat, or by car along mountain serpentines, driving 16 kilometers for this.
In order not to confuse these two beaches of the same name and to understand which beach we are talking about, it is customary to add one word at the end of each name: Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" or Porto Vromi Beach "Anafonitria". Additional words are the names of the nearest villages to a particular beach.
• If you drive through the village of Maries, the road will lead to the beach, photographs and videos of which are posted in this article. The distance from this village to this beach is 7 kilometers.
• If you take another road through the village of Anafonitria, you will find yourself on the neighboring beach. The road from the village to the beach is approximately 6 kilometers.
Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" - a small seashore with white pebbles. Its length is approximately 25 meters, but there is more than enough space to relax!
Along the shore, on a rocky slope, there are several small quaint huts, handmade from planks. I don’t even know what to call them correctly, probably “hermit’s house”. I don’t know whether anyone lives in them or not, or if it’s just someone’s idea to add some distinctive zest to the natural ensemble of the bay (like the calling card of a given place), but they succeeded 100%. They fit so successfully and harmoniously into the surrounding nature that you couldn’t imagine anything better.
The water is fantastically clean, but a little cold even near the shore. But after entering the water, you immediately get used to the temperature and it’s not cold at all, no matter how long you stay in it.
There are, literally, almost no one vacationing on the beach. But there are temporary arrivals of transit tourists who come here not to relax, but only to transfer here to a ship going to Smugglers Bay to the most famous Navagio beach, which can only be reached by sea. And the shortest sea route to it runs from Porto Vromi Bay.
These transit tourists are not interested in Porto Vromi Beach, since they have a different goal, and therefore almost all of them crowd on the stone pier waiting for a pleasure boat to Navagio, which does not have to wait long, they constantly come up, pick up tourists and leave for the voyage. And that is why the beach itself is not teeming with people; it remains quite free at any time.
But if you don’t want to see transit people at all, then do what we did and come to Porto Vromi in the late afternoon, when the excursion boats no longer depart. At such a time there is almost no one on the beach, as was the case in our case, when there was only one family besides us, and somewhere off to the side (at their workplaces) there were cafe workers and ticket takers for water excursions, and that’s all. Idyll! But the time of arrival needs to be calculated, because if you arrive too late, the water in the bay will be in the shadow of the mountains, which will hide the fabulous color of the sea.
The amazing singing of the Cicadas can be heard all over the beach, and in the bay as a whole. There are so many of them there, and they are so loud that the singing can be heard throughout the entire area. Oh, how wonderfully they sing, just Audio Relax!
The canopy with pillars and the frame of the benches are made of iron, and all of it is covered with some kind of shitty oil paint. In addition, tables with benches are not with separate seating, but common - in a row. To be honest, this appearance and this design are not to our taste. And in general, it’s strange how the Greeks themselves did this, creating such bad taste... it’s not like them.
But this is the only thing we didn’t like about this beach. Everything else is nature, for which we came to this bay - it’s so beautiful, you can’t take your eyes off it!
If you need a motor boat (speedboat), then Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" has boat rentals. But, as we understand, the boat can only be taken with its captain. Renting without a captain (this is when there is only you and your family and no one else in the boat) and driving the boat yourself, as you can do on the island of Zakynthos in other rental places, will not work here. Alas, here only with the captain. Therefore, we did not take the boat. We prefer to go on boats without other people.
But they don’t give you a boat without a captain, probably, as we think, for one reason - because of the proximity of this beach to Navagio beach. If they had given it without a captain, then everyone like us would have immediately gone there, but anyone who has been to Navagio knows that even without us there is a crowd of large and medium-sized cruise pleasure boats. That's why it's probably not possible.
There is parking right next to the beach. It's free. There is plenty of space on it. As you can see in our video, when we parked there were only a few cars there, and probably almost all of them belonged to the beach workers (from the cafe and the boat ticket office).
There are no showers with fresh water on the beach, but this is not critical. And who is running the water supply there for, for a few people on the beach, or what? Of course not, because transit tourists returning from a boat trip from Smuggler's Bay will start using it to wash off the salt. And since such pleasures as a fresh shower, as a rule, are organized at the expense of the owners of cafes and other beach establishments, the mini-business of this mini-beach, remote from civilization, would simply go bankrupt on the water (on washing third-party tourists).
There are no hotels or anything near the restaurant, only mountains... mountains and mountains, and a serpentine road that almost no one drives on. And from its windows there is such a bewitching view of the bay (see photo below).
Visitors to this restaurant can only be rare random tourists passing through it to Porto Vromi Beach "Maries", like us. And this is precisely its charm. A chic restaurant on the mountain with a very pleasant atmosphere, where it may happen that out of all the visitors you may be the only one, and there will be no one else in it, as in our case.
And on the street around the restaurant live ringing Cicadas, singing their magnificent serenades with all their might. It's just some kind of fairy tale!
The restaurant is run by a family. The food is very tasty and the prices are reasonable. The owner himself delivers the dishes. The staff is very friendly. And the owner of the restaurant, having heard that we spoke Russian, tried to talk to us in Russian, which pleasantly surprised us.
In general, everything is great! Many thanks to the staff for such a wonderful restaurant!
• green mountain landscape with beautiful scenery
• clean, clear water with a beautiful color
• almost no people (at the right time of visit)
• a lot of singing Cicadas, pleasant sound background
• there is a rental of motor boats (but only with their captain)
Flaws:
• lame design of the beach cafe-stall, but this is not critical
Coordinates of Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" on the interactive map • Get directions
We recommend!
In this bay there are two small beaches with the same names, both of them are called Porto Vromi Beach. They are located just 250 meters from each other in a straight line. But there is no direct communication on foot between them, since they are separated by a mountain slope extending into the sea. Therefore, you can get from one beach to another only by water by boat, or by car along mountain serpentines, driving 16 kilometers for this.
In order not to confuse these two beaches of the same name and to understand which beach we are talking about, it is customary to add one word at the end of each name: Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" or Porto Vromi Beach "Anafonitria". Additional words are the names of the nearest villages to a particular beach.• If you drive through the village of Maries, the road will lead to the beach, photographs and videos of which are posted in this article. The distance from this village to this beach is 7 kilometers.
• If you take another road through the village of Anafonitria, you will find yourself on the neighboring beach. The road from the village to the beach is approximately 6 kilometers.
Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" - a small seashore with white pebbles. Its length is approximately 25 meters, but there is more than enough space to relax!
Along the shore, on a rocky slope, there are several small quaint huts, handmade from planks. I don’t even know what to call them correctly, probably “hermit’s house”. I don’t know whether anyone lives in them or not, or if it’s just someone’s idea to add some distinctive zest to the natural ensemble of the bay (like the calling card of a given place), but they succeeded 100%. They fit so successfully and harmoniously into the surrounding nature that you couldn’t imagine anything better.
 |  |
The water is fantastically clean, but a little cold even near the shore. But after entering the water, you immediately get used to the temperature and it’s not cold at all, no matter how long you stay in it.
 |  |  |
These transit tourists are not interested in Porto Vromi Beach, since they have a different goal, and therefore almost all of them crowd on the stone pier waiting for a pleasure boat to Navagio, which does not have to wait long, they constantly come up, pick up tourists and leave for the voyage. And that is why the beach itself is not teeming with people; it remains quite free at any time.
But if you don’t want to see transit people at all, then do what we did and come to Porto Vromi in the late afternoon, when the excursion boats no longer depart. At such a time there is almost no one on the beach, as was the case in our case, when there was only one family besides us, and somewhere off to the side (at their workplaces) there were cafe workers and ticket takers for water excursions, and that’s all. Idyll! But the time of arrival needs to be calculated, because if you arrive too late, the water in the bay will be in the shadow of the mountains, which will hide the fabulous color of the sea.
 |  |
Beach infrastructure
On Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" there is a small semblance of a cafe, or rather just a stall with quick snacks such as sandwiches, ice cream and something to drink. But in principle this is enough. This cafe-stall has a canopy, under which there are many tables with benches, and all this is done in the style of “severe primitivism”.
The canopy with pillars and the frame of the benches are made of iron, and all of it is covered with some kind of shitty oil paint. In addition, tables with benches are not with separate seating, but common - in a row. To be honest, this appearance and this design are not to our taste. And in general, it’s strange how the Greeks themselves did this, creating such bad taste... it’s not like them.But this is the only thing we didn’t like about this beach. Everything else is nature, for which we came to this bay - it’s so beautiful, you can’t take your eyes off it!
If you need a motor boat (speedboat), then Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" has boat rentals. But, as we understand, the boat can only be taken with its captain. Renting without a captain (this is when there is only you and your family and no one else in the boat) and driving the boat yourself, as you can do on the island of Zakynthos in other rental places, will not work here. Alas, here only with the captain. Therefore, we did not take the boat. We prefer to go on boats without other people.
But they don’t give you a boat without a captain, probably, as we think, for one reason - because of the proximity of this beach to Navagio beach. If they had given it without a captain, then everyone like us would have immediately gone there, but anyone who has been to Navagio knows that even without us there is a crowd of large and medium-sized cruise pleasure boats. That's why it's probably not possible.
There is parking right next to the beach. It's free. There is plenty of space on it. As you can see in our video, when we parked there were only a few cars there, and probably almost all of them belonged to the beach workers (from the cafe and the boat ticket office).There are no showers with fresh water on the beach, but this is not critical. And who is running the water supply there for, for a few people on the beach, or what? Of course not, because transit tourists returning from a boat trip from Smuggler's Bay will start using it to wash off the salt. And since such pleasures as a fresh shower, as a rule, are organized at the expense of the owners of cafes and other beach establishments, the mini-business of this mini-beach, remote from civilization, would simply go bankrupt on the water (on washing third-party tourists).
VIDEO: Our trip to PORTO VROMI BEACH "Maries"
Where to eat delicious food nearby
Aeras Restaurant
The closest restaurant to Porto Vromi Beach "Maries", and indeed the only built facility in the area, is Aeras Restaurant. It is located 3 kilometers from the beach on a mountainside with panoramic views of Porto Vromi bay and its surroundings.
There are no hotels or anything near the restaurant, only mountains... mountains and mountains, and a serpentine road that almost no one drives on. And from its windows there is such a bewitching view of the bay (see photo below).
 |  |
And on the street around the restaurant live ringing Cicadas, singing their magnificent serenades with all their might. It's just some kind of fairy tale!
The restaurant is run by a family. The food is very tasty and the prices are reasonable. The owner himself delivers the dishes. The staff is very friendly. And the owner of the restaurant, having heard that we spoke Russian, tried to talk to us in Russian, which pleasantly surprised us.
In general, everything is great! Many thanks to the staff for such a wonderful restaurant!
Advantages and disadvantages of the beach
Advantages:• green mountain landscape with beautiful scenery
• clean, clear water with a beautiful color
• almost no people (at the right time of visit)
• a lot of singing Cicadas, pleasant sound background
• there is a rental of motor boats (but only with their captain)
Flaws:
• lame design of the beach cafe-stall, but this is not critical
Coordinates of Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" on the interactive map • Get directions
Summary
Porto Vromi Beach "Maries" is a transit hub from where pleasure boats depart to Navagio Beach. Because of this, during peak hours there can be a lot of extra people hanging out here waiting for the ship. If you don’t like it when there are a lot of people, then come here in the late afternoon, as we did. At such a time, cruise excursions are already ending and therefore all transit tourists immediately disappear.We recommend!
