The wide bay
Long sand with a dry mountain immediately behind and little building.
Uoaei1 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Uoaei1 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Martin Bernardi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Goldkatzer — CC BY-SA 4.0
**A long sandy beach under bare mountains** — on the south coast, where the **Kotsifos** gorge ends and opens onto the Libyan Sea. The setting is what sets it apart: a wide open bay, more than a kilometre of sand, and directly behind it a **dry bare mountain wall** with no trees — a hard contrast of blue against grey that you do not get on the north coast. The town itself is **small and low-rise**: a row of small hotels and tavernas along the front, no towers and no big resorts. You can walk it in twenty minutes. It works better as **a base** than as a destination: from here you reach **Damnoni**, **Souda** and **Ammoudi** in minutes — smaller, quieter beaches in neighbouring coves — and Preveli with its palm beach, and the **Kotsifos** and **Kourtaliotiko** gorges. ⚠ But wind is a real issue here: **it usually gets up in the afternoon** and raises a swell.
Long sand with a dry mountain immediately behind and little building.
Damnoni, Ammoudi and Souda minutes away and better sheltered.
A road cut through vertical rock on the way in from Rethymno.
Plakias, 74060 Rethymno, Crete
**Plakias if you want a base, somewhere else if you want a single day.** Its advantage is not the beach itself — which is good rather than exceptional, its sand coarse and the wind on it — but **its position**: five different beaches, three gorges and Preveli all within half an hour, plus somewhere to sleep and eat at reasonable prices. ⚠ For a day trip from Rethymno, though, **Preveli** (palms and river, an unforgettable sight) or **Damnoni** (finer sand, better shelter from the wind) is usually the better choice. The rule: **sleep in Plakias and swim at its neighbours**. And for the quietest thing in the area, **Ammoudi** is a small cove minutes away that is almost empty.
**About 35 km and 45 minutes from Rethymno**, and the road is part of the pleasure: it leaves the north coast, crosses hills and villages, then enters the **Kotsifos gorge** — a narrow cleft in vertical rock that the road actually runs inside, and a sight worth stopping for. ⚠ But it is **winding and narrow in the gorge**, with bends and drops — drive slowly, and anyone prone to motion sickness should sit in front. **The bus** from Rethymno runs daily but **only a few times**, and may not work for a same-day return — check the timetable before relying on it. There is a second road via the **Kourtaliotiko gorge** that passes near Preveli, which is the better choice if you want to combine the two in one day.