I wanted to share my experiences regarding snorkeling in Almyrida town because there seems not to be good report on it yet. We visited Almyrida in October 2017 and the sea water temperature was 24 C. I had my 1.5 mm Elios freediving wetsuit (nylon lining inside) which was warm enough for 1-2 h of snorkeling. During our 2 weeks, we experienced 5 days which were a bit too windy to snorkel (wind speed over ~6 meters/second from North results big waves which hit the shallow shore making entrance a bit difficult) and also about 7 days where the sea was super calm and there was practically no waves at all.
Map at the bottom of this post.
The cliff (a) is relatively nice. The depth is around 1-3 m near the cliffs and there are nice rock formations and lots of juvenile groupers, crabs and other typical fish for this region. The above water scenery is also lovely with high cliffs next to you. The cliff material actually has fossils in it so if you are lucky you can find fossils as well. If you swim more north (b) there is a sharp rock which I named “shark tooth” rock. There the sea opens a bit, as the cliff ends and there is subsequently more colorful algae and also more fish. There are also other large boulders and water is slightly deeper,max 4 meters or so. The island (g) has deeper water behind it, so for more serious free diving and snorkeling, that’s the place to go. I did not go there myself. However, if you go, you must be careful with boat traffic and a dive buddy and a paddle boat are probably a good idea. If you swim from point a towards point f, you will probably see some sunken stuff, such as sun beds etc. garbage. The small rock formation (f) is so close to the shallow sand beach so the visibility is affected especially in windy days. However, this is nice place to get yourself adjusted to local conditions or to go snorkeling with kids.
The eastern side was my favorite. I entered the water from sharp rocky shore just behind the wave breaker (c). However, the weather needs to be super calm to do this and you may want to swim from the main beach instead to avoid getting yourself injured due to sharp rocks. There the water depth is also about 2-4 meters and there are lovely rock formations, small caves (d) some weird rubbish (e) and lots of fish. I saw many octopus and juvenile groupers there.
There seems to be a wreck in between the shark tooth rock and the eastern breaker (c). I found it out from bathymetric map, but did not go looking for it myself. Maybe a dive buddy and a paddleboat would again be a good idea for this kind of exploration. The bathymetric map can be found from here: Nautical maps of Greece and Greek Islands by Navionics
Have fun!
Map at the bottom of this post.
The cliff (a) is relatively nice. The depth is around 1-3 m near the cliffs and there are nice rock formations and lots of juvenile groupers, crabs and other typical fish for this region. The above water scenery is also lovely with high cliffs next to you. The cliff material actually has fossils in it so if you are lucky you can find fossils as well. If you swim more north (b) there is a sharp rock which I named “shark tooth” rock. There the sea opens a bit, as the cliff ends and there is subsequently more colorful algae and also more fish. There are also other large boulders and water is slightly deeper,max 4 meters or so. The island (g) has deeper water behind it, so for more serious free diving and snorkeling, that’s the place to go. I did not go there myself. However, if you go, you must be careful with boat traffic and a dive buddy and a paddle boat are probably a good idea. If you swim from point a towards point f, you will probably see some sunken stuff, such as sun beds etc. garbage. The small rock formation (f) is so close to the shallow sand beach so the visibility is affected especially in windy days. However, this is nice place to get yourself adjusted to local conditions or to go snorkeling with kids.
The eastern side was my favorite. I entered the water from sharp rocky shore just behind the wave breaker (c). However, the weather needs to be super calm to do this and you may want to swim from the main beach instead to avoid getting yourself injured due to sharp rocks. There the water depth is also about 2-4 meters and there are lovely rock formations, small caves (d) some weird rubbish (e) and lots of fish. I saw many octopus and juvenile groupers there.
There seems to be a wreck in between the shark tooth rock and the eastern breaker (c). I found it out from bathymetric map, but did not go looking for it myself. Maybe a dive buddy and a paddleboat would again be a good idea for this kind of exploration. The bathymetric map can be found from here: Nautical maps of Greece and Greek Islands by Navionics
Have fun!
