The trendy sign in bright pop colours and the poster by the ticket booth advertising various music events are your first indications that Voula Beach A' is a beach with brio: cheerful, busy and young. And, thank God, it has what it takes to sustain this role. Its huge expanse (more than 2 hectares) and broad sands make it more like a fun park than just another beach.

Although families do come, this is a primarily a beach for teenagers. They start with a game that involves dousing each other with water on the grass lawn above the beach until the guard tells them to stop, and then move down to the beach and continue with racquets (watch out for flying balls!). Then come the water slides, and finally over to the beach bar, where they all wait in line for sandwiches, crisps, cheese pies, ice cream.

The sea here is not the best: the water is shallow and becomes murky with the slightest wave; but the landscape is pretty, with a picturesque little rocky island in the background. And the facilities are really excellent, surprisingly so for such a heavily used beach. The lawns and flowerbeds are newly planted and well looked after.

There are plenty of recliners and beach umbrellas, and the showers and beach cabanas, while not new, are clean. The best thing of all, however, is the beach shop.

Apart from necessities like sunscreens, there are also beautiful pareos, clever T-shirts and ethnic handbags. Soccer fans are likely to head straight for Attica, one of the best-organised mini soccer centres in the region.

The other uncontested hot spot is the Palmie beach bar (on the far left). Its sun decks offer a feeling of privacy, and its new decor (part Caribbean, part African) is pure summer.