Day 2: Exploring Armenistis, Mesatki Beach and Nas Beach Sunset

Monday 18th May 2026

A Sluggish Start

Despite yesterday’s long travel day, I woke from a restless and disrupted sleep. Not only was my bed quite uncomfortable, but the fridge in the corner of the room was quite noisy and, worse still, several mosquitos had got into the room and kept me awake with their high-pitched buzzing. Needless to say, I found several bite marks throughout the day!

On the plus side, it was sunny outside and my small balcony offered a pleasant view over the village and across the north coast of Ikaria.

Budget Breakfast and Beach Bound

Breakfast was included with my room at Pension Galini, so I got dressed and headed down to the reception area. On arrival, I’d been told that breakfast was available from 9 am – quite late by Greek standards – so I’d spent a bit of time in my room doing more video editing to pass the time.

I expected a buffet service, but, perhaps owing to a lack of many other guests, the owner asked me what I wanted and said he would bring it to me on a tray. I chose a basic selection of bread, jam, yoghurt, honey and coffee. I could’ve had eggs but I’m not a big fan of them so I politely declined.

Sitting out on the terrace, I eagerly sipped at the hot coffee hoping the caffeine would offset my poor sleep. Sadly, the breakfast wasn’t the best – the bread had been slightly toasted, I think because it wasn’t fresh, so it was quite hard and dry. The yoghurt was also the cheaper kind that has a slightly rubbery consistency and doesn’t mix well with honey. Given that it was free, I made the best of it and managed to get through all the bread, most of the yoghurt and a refill of coffee.

Despite being keen to explore Ikaria as fully as possible during my short stay, I’d deliberately kept my itinerary quite light for the first day so that I could relax into the trip and not feel rushed. The weather forecast was also quite mixed for the next few days, but since it was bright and sunny today, I wanted to make the most of it and get in some beach time. With all that in mind, I went back to my room to shower, apply suntan lotion and pack my small rucksack for a trip to Armenistis Beach.

Sunbathing in Paradise

The walk down from my accommodation and through the village was a pleasant 10-15 minute stroll. I passed a few people here and there, but in general it felt very quiet and peaceful. As I neared the beach, I had to stop and take in the amazing view (above) – crystal clear water and a wide expanse of soft, pale-yellow sand. It looked very inviting!

A few minutes later and I was laid out on the sand (well, on a towel). This beach is called Livadi according to Google Maps, but I think it’s also widely referred to as Armenistis Beach too – whichever you call it, it’s superb!

Sadly, the blue sky in the photos belied the fact that it wasn’t overly hot – a touch above 20 degrees Celsius – so my sunbathing aspirations were tempered by being slightly colder than I wanted. Still, I enjoyed laying in the peaceful surroundings, listening to music on my headphones and generally relaxing. I even managed a swim – though getting in required some courage – the water was pretty fresh but as a competitive swimmer I’m used to cold water. I’d forgotten to bring my goggles with me, but managed a bit of swimming to warm up before floating on the surface for a while.

Mesatki Beach, No Lunch

As much as I wanted to stay put for the entire day, I began to get the itch to explore a bit further, possibly encouraged by feeling a bit hungry from the light breakfast. I knew there was another beach, Mesatki, in the next bay east that was slightly larger, and Google Maps claimed had a couple of beach bars. Whether they would be open or not was debatable, but I only had one way of finding out.

I shook the sand off my towel and packed it back into my rucksack, then pondered the best way of getting to Mesatki Beach. I could see a set of blue steps at the eastern end of Livadi Beach, but they appeared to go straight into a building, possibly a hotel or taverna, and I wasn’t sure if I could get to the road that way. The alternative was backtracking towards the village and then following the road behind the beach instead. This seemed like quite a detour, so I decided to explore the blue steps and hope I could get through.

As I reached the bottom of the steps, I passed a lady and her two children who I’d spotted earlier coming down the steps, so I asked them if I could get up onto the road from here. She turned out to be Greek and only spoke a little English, but she knew what I was asking and confirmed it was possible to reach the road from the top of the steps – problem solved!

Back on the road, Mesatki Beach is barely two minutes further along and looked even more impressive:

I made it down onto the sand and walked all the way to the eastern end. There are some sunbeds and umbrellas there, run by Bensao Beach Bar. Although the beach was almost empty, most of the sunbeds were occupied and I could see a few people at the beach bar too.

Feeling optimistic about the propsect of lunch, I walked up to the bar and checked out the menu. They did have food, but when I asked what they were serving, I was disappointed to learn that it was only cold snacks. I was hungry enough that I wanted a meal, so I decided to settle for a drink instead and go elsewhere to eat.

Noticing an unfamiliar beer on the drinks menu, I opted for a bottle of the local Ikarotissa lager. It was pretty good, and certainly refreshing on a nice sunny day. I sat for a bit enjoying the cool drink and nice view down towards the sea.

Finding Food

My excursion to Mesatki Beach hadn’t solved the lunch problem and it was now just past midday. I was hungry so finding food was now the number one priority. In hindsight, I could’ve continued east to the small village of Gialiskari as it’s only a short distance from the eastern end of Mesatki Beach. However, I wasn’t sure what, if anything, would be open there either and the last thing I wanted was to expend more energy walking only to come up empty.

Decision made, I finished the last dregs of my lager and headed back along the beach towards Armenistis. Since the road goes quite a way behind Livadi Beach, I also retraced my path down the blue steps and along the town beach until I was finally back in the village.

I’d expected to find a selection of places for lunch, but Google wasn’t showing much in terms of cafes that were open. I tried a cake shop called Zacharoplasteio Ikaros as they had a board outside advertising sandwiches, but when I enquired about food they said cakes were all they had. The lady pointed me across the road to a place called Violeta, so that’s where I headed.

Sure enough, a few customers were sat eating food so it looked promising. I ordered a club sandwich and a Sprite (just to prove I don’t only drink beer!) and ate it under the shade.

Power Nap and Drone Time

My plans for the rest of the day were pretty basic: a visit to nearby Nas Beach to catch the sunset. This gave me a few hours of the afternoon with nothing much to do. After eating as much of the club sandwich as I could (it was too much food despite my hunger level), I walked back to my accommodation and decided on a quick nap to catch up on the sleep I’d lost during the night. I then packed my drone into my rucksack with the intention of getting some aerial photos and videos of the village.

I managed to find a quiet spot near the water opposite the mini market and got several good photos and some video clips that would hopefully add some variety to my YouTube videos.

Nas Beach

By the time I returned to my room, it was close to 6pm. I recharged the drone batteries, then decided to head straight to Nas Beach even though it was a bit early for sunset. The drive only took a few minutes so I was soon parking up in the small village.

I didn’t know much about the village other than it being famous for its unusual lagoon-style beach and west-facing position, making it a perfect sunset spot.

Sure enough, once I’d followed the short path past a couple of tavernas towards the signposted beach, I was hit with this impressive view. The beach is stunning in the late afternoon sun. I took a few photos before walking down the steps to the beach.

It’s worth noting that the only way to reach the sand is by wading through a bit of the lagoon – it’s only a couple of feet deep, so I was able to do it without getting my clothes wet, but shorter people may not be so lucky. The beach was almost empty, except for a couple of guys under an umbrella and a mother with her two small children. I had a walk around the small beach and filmed some of the waves crashing onto the sand – the sea was quite rough due to an onshore breeze.

I was keen to get some drone shots of the beach, so I retraced my steps back towards the top of the path, then spotted an area above the beach which looked flat enough to launch the drone.

You can see how small Nas village is in the above photo. Once I’d captured all the shots I wanted with the drone, I packed it away and headed back towards the car. I took a quick stroll around the village, but that only took a couple of minutes. It seems pleasant enough, but a bit too quiet for somewhere to stay.

Dinner Time

Back at my accommodation, I had a shower and changed into some nicer clothes before heading out in search of a good dinner spot. I’d seen a place called Mary Mary earlier while looking for somewhere for lunch, so I made that my first stop. A quick look at the menu outside and seeing how busy it was confirmed it was the right choice.

I managed to get one of the last tables and was excited to see they had two of my favourite things on the menu: arancini balls as a starter and Moussaka as a main course. Combined with some house white wine, it made for an excellent meal.

The food was delicious, and even the fairly cheap house wine went down a little too easily!

As I strolled back to my accommodation, I reflected on what had been a great first day on Ikaria and was looking forward to the days ahead.