Day Trip to Neos Marmaras Beach

Since I had some free time during the summer, I went from Thessaloniki where I was staying to Halkidiki, a nearby beach area. Halkidiki is a popular resort area for the locals, so much so that the residents of Thessaloniki usually spend their summers on the beach of Halkidiki.

Halkidiki is an area with three peninsulas protruding like three feet. The left foot is named Kassandra, the middle one is Sithonia, and the right one is Athos. 

Cassandra is the most popular and touristic destination, and Sithonia seems to have cool hidden spots. Athos is mainly mountainous, where churches and monasteries are lined up. I went to Kassandra, the left foot, for summer school, but this time I went to Neos Marmaras, a beach in Sithonia, the middle peninsula.

Halkidiki is considered “nearby,” and it is the high season, so I anticipated that it would take about 1-2 hours by bus to get there. However, in reality, the transportation was quite inconvenient, and it took me 8 hours in total (!) for a round trip from Thessaloniki.

First, I called the Greek bus public transportation services (KTEL) the day before and asked if there was a bus from Macedonia, the main bus terminal in Thessaloniki, to Halkidiki. I was told that there is no bus from Macedonia; instead, buses to Halkidiki depart from the KTEL Halkidiki bus terminal in the south of the city. I was told to use the bus 45 from the city to get there.

I left home around 7:30 the next morning and went to the Kamara bus stop after 8:00am. I took bus 45A from there. 45 seems to be an express, but 45A came first, so I took that one. It took about 30-40 minutes and arrived at KTEL Halkidiki at around 8:50am. By the way, there is a convenient app to check the time of the bus in this city called Moovit, but in reality, the buses are almost always late. So, the most accurate way is to go to the bus stop and check the departure time on the electric bulletin board that corresponds to the real-time bus schedule.

KTEL Halkidiki is a small bus terminal, but there was a ticket office and a shop. There, I bought a bus ticket to Halkidiki. Originally it was 13 euros, but when I showed my student ID, it was 9.8 euros with a 25% student discount. I bought a round-trip ticket for 19,6 euros. Not so cheap considering the distance. There seem to be three buses a day to Marmaras, one in the morning and two in the afternoon.

The bus was leaving at 9:30am, so I bought some snacks and had breakfast, and waited for a while. A bus came and everybody got on, and it took about 2 hours and 15 minutes to finally get to Neos Marmaras. The beautiful Aegean sea eventually appears in the sight, and you can see resort areas here and there. After stopping several times in front of a large hotel, we finally reached our destination, Neos Marmaras.

I was planning to go to the beach, but I got off at the bus stop in the city center just before the beach and walked about 15 minutes to reach the beach. The streets are with restaurants, cafes, and souvenir shops, creating an atmosphere of a tourist destination. We also passed in front of a church overlooking the sea called Taxiarch Angels.

Neos Marmaras was a beautiful beach. Although the water was not as vibrantly blue as it was in Kassandra, it was clear enough. However, the wind was strong, which created some waves. It also got cold after swimming for a while.

After relaxing on the beach for a while, I thought about going to the beach called Porto Carras next door, but I gave up because it was too deep to cross the river with my bags. But by swimming, you can easily cross this river.

After eating lunch at a nearby restaurant and swimming again, the departure time for the return bus at 6:30pm was already approaching. We waited for a while in front of the red bus stop in front of the beach, but even after 6:30pm, there was no sign of it coming and we were the only people waiting. We started to wonder if we were waiting at the wrong bus stop. When I called KTEL, I was told that it was definitely the red bus stop in front of the beach. The person said that the bus would come in about 10-15 minutes. If I missed this bus, I would be stuck in Marmaras another day, so I was a little worried if it would really come. In the end, it appeared at around 6:50pm.

Following the same route, we came back to KTEL Halkidiki. It was written on the electric bulletin board that the bus 45A would come in 30 minutes, but it never came even after waiting for an hour. It got completely dark by that time, and I started to wonder if it would really come. There were still around 10 people waiting at the stop including myself.

Suddenly, a bus approached us and told us all to get on the bus. the bus driver was on his way home from work when he noticed the people still waiting at the bus stop. He knew no bus would come after this hour. He took us to the nearest transfer stop so that we can catch another bus to the city center of Thessaloniki. What happened to the bus we were waiting for? No one knows…

Anyway, thanks to that bus driver, I was able to transfer to bus 2k and arrived home safely a little before 11:00pm. It took 4 hours each way to and from Neos Marmaras. Although it is considered a "nearby resort," it felt like it wasn't close at all. It was possibly cheaper and definitely more convenient to rent a car than take the bus. But the sea was beautiful, and it was a nice beach town that was well worth a visit.