Beaches in Europe

Svanemølle beach is one of Copenhagen's not-so-few city beaches. It's a new and artificial stretch of sand located a bit north of the city centre wedged by the districts of affluent Østerbro and posh Hellerup. During grey and cold days, not much is happening, but duirng a hot summer's day (yes, Denmark does get a few of those), every single square metre of the small beach is occupied by half-naked bodies soaking up the sun.

One of the favorite weekend destinations in summertime for Talllinners is the gorgeous, crescent shaped beach at Vaana-Joesuu. Expect crowds of sun seeking bodies and families on picnic. However in winter, it's of course a total different story...

The coast at the Black Sea, and especially at Batumi city, is a very popular summer destination for Georgians. During Soviet times, it was a favourite holiday spot for people from all over the Soviet Union. Today, Batumi beach is for Georgians, Armenians and Azeris what Cancun is for American spring breakers and Sunny Beach is for Europeans. The water is warm and not too salty, but there is no sand, just rounded pebbles. The rest of the setup is worthy of any beach resort with deck chairs, beach-front cafes, clubs during the night, a wide promenade and even a fairground. It is fun place to relax for a couple of days - or just people-watch Georgians when they let loose.

Without the masses of tourists and just a short (1,5 hour) ferry ride away from Santorini, Anafi is a great small island to kick back and relax for a few days. The hilltop town of Hora feels like it hasn’t changed all that much in the last 20 years and the local people still live there, work there and sit in front of their houses and on the squares.
By vehicle you can get to the other end of the island in less than a half hour and on foot it takes a couple. There is a small monastery and a hiking trail to the top of the enormous rock where you find beautiful views and another small monastery.
The beaches on Anafi are not exceptional but nice with beautiful calm waters. Although it's not officially allowed, many people camp out on some of the beaches.
All in all, it's a great island to escape the tourism madness of Santorini for a couple of days!

For the water sports fan, this is one of the places to be in Greece. Vassiliki is especially known for its windsurfing. During most of the day there isn’t much more than a gentle breeze, but in the afternoons the wind picks up for about 3 hours. This is because of the layout of the mountains where the hot wind is sucked down, which creates a nice steady and strong wind at one side of the bay of Vassiliki.
There are plenty of other water sports to do such as sailing, sea kayaking to beautiful sandy beaches (where you can stay overnight) and there are nice dive sites around. Also mountain biking is a good option if you can stand the heat on land or come in spring or fall.

Latvia's beach resort number one is JÅ«rmala hands down. The white sand beach stretches for more than 20 km along the Baltic Sea (well, actually the Gulf of Riga). In the past it was the summer playground for the Soviet elite, but now the sunbathing is done by the region's rich, famous and those who want to be seen, including new-rich Russians who add the flavour of kitsch which suits JÅ«rmala so well. A restored Soviet-era five stars hotel lies straight down to the waterfront, side by side with old wooden mansions and low-rise family homes. The town still has a lot of the traditional colourful wooden houses, but they are slowly getting bought up and replaced by more contemporary apartamentos for the holidaymakers. Though not Ibiza, JÅ«rmala can still be a lot of fun - but try to be here in summer!

The coastal town of Budva is famous for two very different things. Its historic walled town, and the beaches surrounding it. The closes ones are Mogren beach and Slovenska plaža beach. Mogren, west of the walled old town, is actually two connecting beaches. Slovenska plaža on the other hand is a 1500m long stretch of sand and pebbles thats curves along the bay. The narrow beach is lined cafes, bars and open air discotheques that are base for huge parties that attract partygoers from all over Balkan. Budva is Montenegro's equivalent to Cancun in Mexico.

On two islands in the Dnieper river, overlooking the Lavras (caves monastery), is Hydropark. It is an open-air playground including a fairground with bouncy castle and everything. Other odd options for entertainment are the bodybuilding gym with machines built from scrap metal, the sea of table tennis tables, and dance floor under shady trees. There are beer and shawarma stalls everywhere, fueling all the merry visitors. In summertime the river banks are enterprisingly turned into city beaches, which on sunny days can become ridiculously crowded with big babushkas in flower-printed swimming suits, vodka drinking macho men in speedos, and of course long-legged girls in skimpy bikinis - this is first class people-watching area.