Best time to visit Preveza: What to Know Before You Go

The quietest half of the season and, for our money, the best. The beaches are open and staffed, the sea has warmed up enough to swim in without hesitating, and the beach car parks are never a problem. The seasonal bars are running but not busy, so you can actually get a table at Monolithi at lunchtime.

Hot and getting busier, but still manageable. Nikopolis becomes a morning-only proposition from here on — it is open countryside with almost no shade, and the middle of a July afternoon there is genuinely unpleasant. The Acheron, which is cold all year, starts making a lot more sense as a day out.

The busiest fortnight on this whole coast. Greek domestic holidays peak around the fifteenth, and the effect on a small coastal area is immediate: beach car parks fill by late morning, the tavernas in Preveza need a table booked, and the road through town slows down. None of this makes August a bad choice — the weather is reliable and the sea is at its warmest — but arriving at a beach before eleven is worth more than any other piece of planning you will do.

The other quiet month, and the one people underestimate. The sea holds its summer temperature well into the month while the crowds have gone. The trade-off is that the seasonal beach bars start closing, so several of these beaches change from organised to bring-everything — which, if what you want is quiet, is an improvement rather than a loss.