Aias Club Beach, Maroudi: Named for the Hero Whose Island Was Itself Named After His Grandmother

Greece | Maroudi | Salamis, Saronic Gulf

Aias Club, the beach in Maroudi, takes its name from Aias — Ajax to most readers more familiar with the Latin rendering — the legendary hero of Salamis who commanded twelve ships at Troy in Homer’s Iliad, son of Telamon, king of the island. The naming runs deeper than a single hero, though: the island itself, Salamis, takes its name from a nymph, daughter of the river god Asopus and sister of Aegina, the island visible just across the water from much of this same coastline. Two generations of myth, a grandmother and her grandson, both lending their names to places I can stand on the same afternoon.

I want to correct a detail that several looser descriptions of this stretch of coast get slightly wrong: Aias Club sits specifically in Maroudi, close to the larger village of Aianteio — itself named after the same hero, having been called Moulki until 1915 — rather than in the Peristeria area further south, which is a separate, distinct part of the island known instead for the Cave of Euripides and its own cluster of clean beaches. The two are both on Salamis’s southwestern stretch, but they are not the same location, and I’d confirm which one I was heading to before setting out, given how easily the names blur together in casual descriptions.

Getting There: A Quick Ferry, Then a Drive Through Aianteio

The crossing from Perama, a suburb of Piraeus, to Paloukia on Salamis takes roughly fifteen minutes, with ferries running around the clock at intervals of fifteen to twenty minutes — the same near-constant service I described reaching Kanakia Beach Salamis Greece. From Paloukia, the drive south through Aianteio and on to Maroudi covers the bulk of the remaining journey, the total trip from central Athens running close to an hour including the crossing.

Local buses connect Paloukia port to the southern coast, and asking the driver for the Aias Club stop should put visitors within a short walk of the beach, though I’d treat a car as the more reliable option given how spread out Salamis’s southern beaches are relative to bus frequency.

The Beach: Small Pebbles, Tamarisk Shade, Organised With Plenty of Free Space

Aias Club is organised with sunbeds and umbrellas during the season, though I found genuine open space remains for anyone preferring to bring their own gear rather than rent — a balance I appreciated, since it avoided the all-or-nothing character some beaches in this series have shown. Tamarisk trees provide natural shade along the back of the beach, and a pleasant promenade runs along one stretch with fishing boats docked at the end, giving the beach a lived-in, working character alongside its more recreational use.

The water stays clean and clear, sheltered enough on this southern stretch of the island that conditions tend to remain calm even when wind affects more exposed parts of Salamis further north.

Aias Club Beach, in Maroudi near Aianteio on Salamis, takes its name from Ajax, the island’s legendary hero, while Salamis itself carries the name of a nymph, daughter of the river god Asopus and sister of Aegina. Small pebble shore, tamarisk shade, an organised section alongside genuine free space, and a fishing-boat promenade nearby. Distinct from the separate Peristeria area further south, known instead for the Cave of Euripides. Roughly an hour from Athens via the Perama-Paloukia ferry and a drive through Aianteio.

Take the ferry from Perama. Drive through Aianteio, not toward Peristeria. Choose the free section if you’d rather not rent a sunbed.