Vourvourou and Karydi beach

Vourvourou is a broad, protected bay on Sithonia's north-east shoulder, screened by the long pine island of Diaporos and a scatter of islets that break the gulf's swell to nothing. The result is water that behaves like a lagoon — shallow for a long way out, glass-calm on most mornings, in bands of turquoise over white sand. Karydi, the bay's best-known beach, adds the same smoothed white rock as Kavourotrypes at either end of its little crescent.

The stillness is the photographic asset. Morning water here mirrors sky and pines, couples can wade thirty metres out and still stand knee-deep for mid-water frames, and the islets layer the background instead of an empty horizon. Rented kayaks and small self-drive boats — no license needed for the smallest — open Diaporos's inner channels, where the shallow sandy straits between the islands photograph like the tropics.

Karydi itself is small and famous, which in August means arriving early or late; the bay shore has quieter entries for anyone who just needs water and light. Afternoons bring a reliable breeze that textures the water — good for sails, bad for mirrors. Mornings, always mornings here.