Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Zante Diary - 4
Zante Diary 4 - The Beach
If memory of 2001 serves correct, the beach here in Tsilivi was one of its main selling points. Not too crowded and with plenty of sun beds and beach bars to keep you amused for a whole couple of weeks. We were looking forward to getting down there and renewing old aquaintances.
So it's sad to report that the beach is not a patch on how it used to be. Previously it was a 2 minute walk from our hotel, but following the road down we find the Boomerang beach bar has extended out across the beach - you can't get on to it that way anymore. Well, unless you want to take a leap of faith of their terrace that is.
So we turn back and head for a ten minute walk to "new" road that leads to the beach. When we get there, the first thing you notice is how crowded together the sun beds are. This is because several of the beach bars have been allowed to extended out, cramming all the beds into a smaller area. Seriously I spent my first day on the there with some wrinkly old bird's tits inches from my face - and I'm not Wayne Rooney I can tell you!
An effect of this is that a stroll along the beach means walking knee deep in the sea in places to get past all the bar extensions. No biggy, but inconvenient, say, if you had small children and a pushchair with you (although possibly extremely amusing!)
Another effect is that where no beach bar or hotel is along a stretch of the beach, this is where all the pebbles and seaweed and general detritus accumulate (and Germans...) making the walk rather unpleasant. This whole situation has lead to there being only one really nice stretch of beach with sun beds on it, and as you can imagine, that's where everybody wants to sit. Such a shame, but I suppose that's progress for you, but it might well make us think twice before choosing this otherwise excellent resort again.
Slight update - we turned the other way onto the beach today, and found it was a bit quieter - except for some inexplicably shouting Russians - so this improved the feelings somewhat, but it's still not what is was!
There is one final thing that means the beach seems even more crowded that it should be. It's the fact that the beach faces north-ish, so the sun is behind you all day if your sun lounger is facing the sea. This leads to everyone spending the day turning their beds to face the sun, and the gaps between them on the beach disappear. Nightmare, particularly as it gets later, because then your head is pointing down the beach towards the sea, and after ten minutes you have a bloody headache. I call the "back to front beach syndrome" but I can't see it catching on...
Anyway, we've still managed to get sun beds and spend pretty much 10.30 to 17.00 on the beach each day (with a couple of hours for lunch of course) so it can't be that bad. Let's see how it pans out over the next few days...
If memory of 2001 serves correct, the beach here in Tsilivi was one of its main selling points. Not too crowded and with plenty of sun beds and beach bars to keep you amused for a whole couple of weeks. We were looking forward to getting down there and renewing old aquaintances.
So it's sad to report that the beach is not a patch on how it used to be. Previously it was a 2 minute walk from our hotel, but following the road down we find the Boomerang beach bar has extended out across the beach - you can't get on to it that way anymore. Well, unless you want to take a leap of faith of their terrace that is.
So we turn back and head for a ten minute walk to "new" road that leads to the beach. When we get there, the first thing you notice is how crowded together the sun beds are. This is because several of the beach bars have been allowed to extended out, cramming all the beds into a smaller area. Seriously I spent my first day on the there with some wrinkly old bird's tits inches from my face - and I'm not Wayne Rooney I can tell you!
An effect of this is that a stroll along the beach means walking knee deep in the sea in places to get past all the bar extensions. No biggy, but inconvenient, say, if you had small children and a pushchair with you (although possibly extremely amusing!)
Another effect is that where no beach bar or hotel is along a stretch of the beach, this is where all the pebbles and seaweed and general detritus accumulate (and Germans...) making the walk rather unpleasant. This whole situation has lead to there being only one really nice stretch of beach with sun beds on it, and as you can imagine, that's where everybody wants to sit. Such a shame, but I suppose that's progress for you, but it might well make us think twice before choosing this otherwise excellent resort again.
Slight update - we turned the other way onto the beach today, and found it was a bit quieter - except for some inexplicably shouting Russians - so this improved the feelings somewhat, but it's still not what is was!
There is one final thing that means the beach seems even more crowded that it should be. It's the fact that the beach faces north-ish, so the sun is behind you all day if your sun lounger is facing the sea. This leads to everyone spending the day turning their beds to face the sun, and the gaps between them on the beach disappear. Nightmare, particularly as it gets later, because then your head is pointing down the beach towards the sea, and after ten minutes you have a bloody headache. I call the "back to front beach syndrome" but I can't see it catching on...
Anyway, we've still managed to get sun beds and spend pretty much 10.30 to 17.00 on the beach each day (with a couple of hours for lunch of course) so it can't be that bad. Let's see how it pans out over the next few days...
# posted by Bucko! @ 9:23 AM 
