Crete is the largest Greek island. Its beautiful sceneries, primarily maritime ones, as well as mountains, forests and sands attract tourists. The island has a mild and healthy climate. The air is always clean and fresh, because there are no industrial plants nearby.

On Crete the sun shines 340 days a year. The swimming season lasts from April to mid-November. Winter is short, not frosty, with a positive temperature of 13º to 16º C. Therefore the tourists rest there the most time of the year.

 

Cretan seas

Crete is located almost in the heart of the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. It is washed by water areas, which do not even appear on maps, since they have purely historical names.

The island is surrounded by just 4 seas: Myrtoan in the west, Libyan in the south, Sea of Crete in the north and Karpathian in the east.

The western part of Crete is washed by the Myrtoan Sea. There are there such resorts as Aghia Marina, Maleme, Platanias and Gerani. Note that the western Crete has more green and flowering nature than the rest of the island, but there are not many attractions there.

South Crete is washed by the Libyan Sea, which is believed to be a couple of degrees cooler than the Cretan Sea in the north of the island. The southern part of the island is more suitable for those who like a quiet beach holiday. Here you will find small quite villages, scattered along the coast. In some of them, you can get even only by the ferry, because of the lack of roads.

The northern coast of island is washed by the Sea of Crete and is very popular among tourists. The reason is a large number of beautiful well accommodated sandy beaches with smoothly increasing depth of the sea. The most beaches, that have received the “Blue Flag of Europe” for the purity of the sea, are on the coast of the Sea of Crete. There are there many beautiful sandy beaches, the best of which are located in the village of Bali, nearby Elounda and nearby Agios Nicolaos on the coast of the Gulf of Mirabello.

The Karpathian Sea lies east of Crete. There is no such official name for this sea, but the locals still use it. However, if you look at the map of the island, you will understand that this is really an independent water area and not a part of the Aegean Sea (the Sea of Crete). On the east coast, there are diverse beaches – from sandy to pebbly. Most of them are hidden in sheltered bays. In general this sea is more like the Lybian: it has many natural slabs, pebble bays, turtles laying eggs in the sand and, of course, crystal clear water, rest, and tranquility.

All these seas are absolutely different, that is noticeably even with the naked eye. It is remarkably that every tourist can find on Crete an ideal place for his vacation. The Myrtoan Sea is more suitable for families with children, the Libyan and Karpathian – for a romantic holiday, and the Sea of Crete is ideal for everyone. In such a wide variety, every tourist will find his favorite corner.

First of all, it is necessary to choose a resort place on the island in accordance with your preferences during the rest, and there are beautiful beaches in any part of the island – sandy and pebbly, crowded and secluded, even very small ones, reachable only by swimming.

On the island of Crete, each beach is beautiful and unique in its own way. Most tourists prefer to relax on the beach with soft sand. The choices from them are very many. The advantage of them is that they are always clean: technicians scratch the sand with rakes every morning. But there are also tourists preferring pebble beaches. Undoubtedly, pebbles are very useful for legs and back. Almost all beaches are well-equipped and many of them have attractions.

June 2017