Vatera Lesvos

holiday report and Lesvos map

Vatera beach Lesvos

VATERA lies in the southeast area of Lesvos, a very green part of the island with plenty of olive groves, pines and citrus trees on rolling hills and lush, fertile valleys about 50km from Mytilini.
Vatera beach is very long - about 7km - with good clean sand for much of its length with the islets of Hios and Psara offshore.
Vatera beach is an ideal place for swimming, watersports, fishing and sailing and is safe for children with a long sloping shallow shelf into the sea.
There are plenty of summer homes and apartments to rent in the Vatera region, as well as permanent villas and small hotels. Vineyards and fruit orchards give it a very countryside air.
The chapel of Agios Fokas is found to the west side of Vatera beach. This was the site of an ancient harbour, now underwater although you can still see the paved slabs.
Agios Fokas is a pleasant place to visit with a small fishing port, attractive cafes and fish tavernas.
Archaeologists have also unearthed some remarkable fossils in the Vatera region. Bones of gigantic horses, mastodons, monkeys and tortoises have been found. Lesvos was once joined to the Asian mainland and the gulf of Vatera was a subtropical freshwater lake. It is believed the fossils were created in successive volcanic lava flows.
The coast around Vatera is full of craggy rocks and sandy coves. It can be worth hiring a boat to visit coves around Drota, to the east, itself a small fishing village with a tiny beach.
Further east are the beaches of Ammoudeli and Melinta, while inland is the beautiful mountain region around the village of Megalochori, rightly named the 'Little Switzerland' of Lesbos.