Havana Beach Club, Drymades

How to do the day

Arrive late morning and take a front-row daybed — in July and August it is worth reserving one in advance, as the good rows go early. The water off Drymades is deep, clear and startlingly blue; swim first, then order lunch and hold your position for the afternoon. The kitchen covers seafood, salads and riviera staples, and the bar takes over as the sun drops.

Sunset is the non-negotiable moment. From about an hour before, the whole beach reorients west; cocktail in hand on a Havana daybed is the definitive way to watch the Ionian catch fire. On event nights the club shifts into party mode — check their social channels for line-ups, especially around the festival weeks that have made Dhërmi a fixture of Europe's electronic-music summer.

Drymades vs Dhërmi beach

Drymades is the northern, wilder sibling of Dhërmi's main beach, separated by a small headland and reached by its own lane below the old village. It keeps a looser, more bohemian energy than the increasingly polished Dhërmi strip — which is precisely its charm. Base yourself in Dhërmi old village or the hillside above and you can walk down to both.