Lake Vouliagmeni: swimming, tickets, hours and where to stay

Lake Vouliagmeni is a thermal lake in a limestone hollow, a few minutes from the sea at Vouliagmeni. The water stays warm through the year, roughly in the low-to-mid twenties Celsius, which is why people swim it in January as well as in August. It is brackish, mineral, and nothing like a hotel pool. If you are staying on this coast, it is the outing that is actually different.

Tickets and hours

The lake is run as a public swim with a ticket, changing rooms and a small café. Hours are longer in summer and shorter in winter, and the ticket price moves. We do not print a number here that will be wrong next season. When you book a house in Vouliagmeni we confirm the current hours and the adult and child prices for your dates. Go in the morning if you dislike a crowd. August afternoons are the busy ones.

The swim

You enter from steps, not from a beach. The lake is deep away from the edge. It is a place to float, not to do lengths as exercise, though people do both. There are fish. If that bothers you, it will bother you in the first minute and then it will not. Bring sandals for the stone and a towel. The café is fine for a coffee afterwards and is not a reason to stay for lunch. Lunch is back at the villa or at a taverna in Kavouri.

Where to stay nearby

The lake is the argument for Vouliagmeni. A house in the pine streets puts it in the day without a project. Kavouri is better if the sea is the morning swim and the lake is once or twice. Voula and Glyfada are a short drive, sensible if the lake is one visit in a week rather than the reason you came.

Astir Beach is on the same headland, a separate ticket and a different mood. The comparison between sleeping in a villa and sleeping at the Four Seasons is in villa or hotel. Houses with a pool of your own, for the days you do not want either, are the private-pool villas.

Getting there

From Glyfada it is a short drive south. From the airport, you would not come only for the lake, but it is an easy first afternoon after you drop bags at the house. Parking at the lake itself fills. If the villa is close, a transfer or a taxi there and back is less annoying than circling.

FAQ

Can children swim in the lake?

Yes, with an adult, and away from the deep water. It is not a paddling beach. Voula is the easier beach day for small children.

Is the lake open all year?

It runs through the year, with shorter hours in winter. Confirm the week you travel. A winter swim is one of the better reasons to take a heated-pool villa on this coast.

Do I need to book tickets?

In high summer, assume you might. We check when we confirm the villa, rather than you discovering a queue with wet children.