Tiganakia Beach

Arkoi is one of the smallest inhabited islands in the Dodecanese, lying east of Patmos, north of Lipsi and southwest of Agathonisi, with a land area of just 6.7 square kilometres. The 2011 census counted only 44 residents, nearly all of them living around the single harbour on the southwest side, and administratively the island belongs to the municipality of Patmos in the South Aegean region. Its dry, rocky ground supports little beyond olive trees and hardy shrubs, and the working population lives from fishing, merchant shipping, goat herding and a handful of family tavernas.

An Island Complex Rather Than a Single Island

Arkoi is the largest of a small cluster that also takes in Marathi, Aspronisi, Avaptistos, Kalovolos, Makronisi, Psathonisi, Smineronisi, Tsouka and Tsoukaki. Marathi is the only other inhabited island in the group and the nearest neighbour; the rest are bare islets and rocks that shelter the channels between them. There are no roads worth the name, so everything on Arkoi is reached on foot, and the island is served by the ferry line running between Samos, Patmos and Lipsi, with the crossing from Patmos taking somewhere around forty to fifty minutes. Small local boats cover the short hop to Marathi.

Away from the harbour there are a few things worth the walk: the remains of an ancient acropolis on the hill above the port, a cave with stalactites and stalagmites on the side facing Samos, and a ruined building on the northern tip locally remembered as the Italian jail, from the decades when the Dodecanese were under Italian rule. Goats and donkeys outnumber people, and the surrounding water is known for grouper and for the colourful sea slugs that keep snorkellers busy.

Tiganakia: Where the Island Runs Out

At Arkoi's southern tip lies Tiganakia, a sequence of small coves mixing sand and pebbles that is widely regarded as the best beach on the island and one of the most striking in the whole Dodecanese. The coves face the islet of Avaptisto and a low, unnamed outcrop that partly shelters the bay; the strait between beach and islet is so narrow and shallow that it can be swum across in a minute or two. The surrounding rocks keep the water calm enough for swimming even when the wind is up elsewhere, and the pale bottom is what gives the coves their turquoise colour.

The beach sits roughly 2 kilometres from the main harbour, so it can be reached either on foot from the port or by tender from a boat lying offshore. There are no sunbeds, no bar and no shade beyond what the rocks provide, which means anything needed for the day has to be brought along. Sea shoes are sensible, as sea urchins are common on the rockier sections, and the shallow, sheltered water suits weaker swimmers as long as they accept that there are no facilities of any kind nearby.

Anchoring at Tiganakia

Anchoring here calls for care. The bay is shallow, only loosely charted and often gusty, so a lookout on the bow is worth having while you feel your way in, and most visiting boats anchor with a line ashore for a few hours rather than staying the night; skippers wanting an overnight berth generally move to the more enclosed channels further south or back to the harbour. Even with those caveats, Tiganakia has become a classic stop on a Greece blue cruise itinerary, offering clear, sheltered swimming a short hop from Patmos and Lipsi, and a genuine sense of emptiness in a part of the Aegean where that is increasingly hard to find.