Kathisma beach

Kathisma is the long one: an open sweep of pale sand backed by low cliffs on the west coast, reached by a road that comes right down to the beach rather than stopping above it. That accessibility is the point — where Porto Katsiki and Egremni cost a descent, Kathisma costs a parking space, which makes it the practical choice for families, for anyone in a dress, and for a session that has to work in an hour.

Because the beach faces west it takes the sun full on for the last part of the day, and the sunset drops straight into open sea at the end of it. The cliff road above has terraces looking down on the whole bay for the elevated frame, and the north end of the sand is usually emptier than the middle, where the loungers are.

Two practical notes. The Ionian west coast takes swell when the wind is up, and Kathisma is exposed: on a rough day the shoreline is not somewhere to pose. And the sand shelves steeply at the water line here, so children need watching in a way they do not on the east coast.