Elafonisi Beach

Elafonisi lies at the southwestern tip of Crete, where a low sandy islet sits just off the coast and the sea between the two is so shallow that on calm days you can wade across. The result is a shifting pattern of sandbars, lagoons and channels in every shade from almost white to deep turquoise. What makes it famous is the sand itself: along the water's edge it is tinted pink, in streaks and patches, by the fragments of tiny marine organisms washed up by the tide and waves.

The islet is a protected nature reserve and part of the Natura 2000 network, covered with low dunes where more than a hundred rare plant species grow. Crossing through the shallows onto the islet is part of the experience: in fine weather the lagoon is shallow enough to wade, and the dunes beyond give a view back over the whole pattern of sand and sea.

The quiet scenery hides a grim history. On Easter Sunday in 1824, during the Greek War of Independence, Ottoman soldiers reached the islet, where several hundred Cretans, most of them women and children, had taken refuge; hundreds were killed and the survivors were sold into slavery. A large wooden cross on the island marks a later disaster: the wreck of the passenger steamer Imperatrix on 22 February 1907, in which 38 people died. A lighthouse built after that wreck was destroyed during the German occupation in the Second World War.

Getting there

Elafonisi is about 75 km by road from Chania (roughly 52 km in a straight line), a drive of about an hour and a half through the mountainous west of the island, usually via the highway to Kissamos and then south. Chania International Airport (CHQ) is about 63 km away in a straight line. In summer a daily KTEL bus runs from Chania to Elafonisi via Kissamos, returning in the afternoon.