The village of Koumeika on the island of Samos in Greece
Koumeika is a traditional mountain village that you will pass if you drive on the main road between Pirgos and karlovassi and turn south south towards Balos Beach or the holiday resort of Votsalakia. The road runs along some newer, relatively large houses that are built there. to go to the heart of Koumeika itself, you have to take the exit to the village. After leaving the village again, you can for instance drive through to beaches like Perri Beach or Pefkos Beach. The center of Koumeika consists of a nice big square with big trees, an old well and terraces where you have a drink, surrounded by quaint old village houses and flanked by a pretty large church. The church has a blue and white dome and a bell tower. Koumeika is a quiet town without facilities for tourists. If you are looking for an accommodation you need to drive to the beach of Balos. Just outside the village near the beach of Koumeika and around the beach of Balos there are a couple of accommodations for rent (but not very much). After leaving Koumeika towards the beach of Pefkos, just outside the village, you will see a pictureque old church on your right hand side (Byzantine I believe).
Below the village Koumeika lies a beautiful beach, also known as "Koumeika Beach". It is not well known and there is no sign leading you to this beach. You can get there if you head towards Balos, but at the fork in the road do not to take the exit Balos (down) but instead drive westwards for about 300 meters (towards Votsalakia). On your left you will see a sign "Hotel Mandilada". The road gets worse here and past the car park of the hotel you really need an SUV / Jeep or else you walk. We think this site might be the nicest beach on the island, especially since it looks so beautiful and is almost always either empty or very quiet. There are no facilities at this beach and there are not many places with shade. There is a cave where you can sit down if you're lucky and you are the first on the beach. The last day of our holiday on Samos in 2010 we were again alone on this beautiful beach and we saw a spectacle of hundreds of dolphins that stayed in the bay an one hour long and jumped around.
