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Falasarna beach on Crete with turquoise water and umbrellas on white sand
Falasarna on the west coast, where the sun sets into the sea

Europe · Greece

Crete

Europe’s only wild palm forest, Minoan palaces and a beach season that runs into November.

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Crete is big enough to be a country. It has snow on the White Mountains in April while people swim below, a gorge you walk for sixteen kilometres to a beach with no road, palaces older than Athens and a cuisine of wild greens, olive oil and honey that people write books about. The palms at Vai are the reason it belongs on this site, but you will stay for everything else.

The palm: Cretan date palm

Phoenix theophrasti grows nowhere else but Crete and a few Aegean corners. The forest at Vai in the far east is the largest natural palm grove in Europe, five thousand trees behind a beach that hippies discovered in the 1970s. A smaller grove lines the river mouth at Preveli on the south coast.

When to go

°Crainsea January: 15°C by day, 12 rainy days, sea 16°C15°February: 16°C by day, 10 rainy days, sea 15°C16°March: 17°C by day, 8 rainy days, sea 16°C17°April: 20°C by day, 5 rainy days, sea 16°C20°May: 24°C by day, 3 rainy days, sea 19°C24°June: 28°C by day, 1 rainy days, sea 23°C28°July: 30°C by day, 0 rainy days, sea 25°C30°August: 30°C by day, 0 rainy days, sea 26°C30°September: 27°C by day, 2 rainy days, sea 25°C27°October: 24°C by day, 6 rainy days, sea 23°C24°November: 20°C by day, 8 rainy days, sea 20°C20°December: 17°C by day, 12 rainy days, sea 17°C17°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Typical daytime highs, rainy days per month (one drop is about four days) and sea temperature. Green bars are comfortable months, amber bars are hot or wet or cool, and the darker bars mark the best time to go.

Sights

Knossos

The Minoan palace with its red columns, dolphin frescoes and the labyrinth myth, five kilometres from Heraklion.

Samariá Gorge

Sixteen kilometres down through the mountains to the Libyan Sea, then a boat to Chora Sfakion.

Chania old town

A Venetian harbour with a lighthouse, Turkish baths and the best food on the island in the back lanes.

Spinalonga

The fortress island and former leper colony off Elounda, a short boat ride and a haunting walk.

Beaches

  • Vai

    The palm beach of the east, with sunbeds under the fronds and a taverna behind. Sunrise side of the island.

  • Elafonisi

    Pink sand and a lagoon at the south-west corner, a two hour drive from Chania and worth every bend.

  • Preveli

    A river runs through a palm grove into the sea below a monastery. Walk down from the car park.

Events

  • Apr

    Orthodox Easter

    Candlelit midnight services, fireworks and lamb on spits the next day, the biggest feast of the year.

  • Aug

    Chania Rock Festival

    Late summer concerts in the old harbour’s Venetian arsenal.

  • Oct

    Raki season

    After the grape harvest, villages fire up the stills and invite anyone passing to taste.

For remote workers

Internet4/5

A comfortable month: about €1,600

Chania and Heraklion have fibre, cafés that let you sit for hours and a small but steady remote community. Greece offers a digital nomad visa with a tax discount for non-EU workers. Rents drop sharply from November to March, when the island is green and the tavernas are full of locals.

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For families

Calm water4/5
Shade2/5
Medical care4/5

Elafonisi’s pink lagoon is knee deep for hundreds of metres, Almyrida and Georgioupolis are calm family bays, and Heraklion has the Cretaquarium. Bring your own shade in the west, where beaches are wild and beautiful but bare.

Rank for your family

Three things to know

  1. Fly to Chania for the west and the food, to Heraklion for Knossos, the east and Vai.
  2. The south coast is warmer, emptier and windier than the north; plan Preveli and Elafonisi as full days.
  3. October is the secret month: 24 degrees, warm sea, empty gorges and the raki flowing.

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