Red beach, otherwise known as Kokkini Paralia is one of the most famous beaches in
Santorini. It's located down in the south west corner, it's about 12km from the islands capital
Fira and that would take about 20 minutes in the car.
The beach is made up of red and black pebbles and surrounded by dramatic red cliffs. This is a unique and beautiful beach that is on most peoples must see list. For this reason it gets a lot of visitors, both on foot and from boat trips that stop here.
There's two ways to get access to the beach, either from the south east which is now quite dangerous with the path to the beach roped off and a sign saying not to pass as there is danger of falling rocks causing injury or death so visiting isn't advised. If you do decide to venture past this section, you have to climb down a difficult, steep trail down through the rock face to get to the beach.
Alternatively you can come at it from the north western end via Kaminia taverna, access to the beach is much easier but the road down to the taverna is a lot more difficult, particularly on 2 wheels as it's an uneven track.
It's recommend that if you want to visit red beach then your best bet is to book yourself on to one of the boats that goes round the island and stops at the beach and stay away from the rocks.
There's a taverna at either end of the beach, Kaminia to the west is the easiest to get to from the beach but both can provide snacks, meals and refreshments throughout the day.
There's no water sports or other entertainment at Red beach, the scenery is the entertainment here. It's also actually not the best beach for most peoples tastes as the pebbles and rocks make it uncomfortable and the seaweed can make the water seem dirty.
There's usually a few sun loungers available at the western end but not on the main section to the east as it's deemed to dangerous with the potential of falling rocks.
There's parking for around 100 cars at the southern end by the taverna there and you can usually find a space. There's also parking at the other end by Kaminia taverna but there's far fewer spaces.
Also in the area is
White Beach as well as the archaeological site of
Ancient Akrotiri.