Wading the river
Up the freshwater course between palms and rock.
Mihael Grmek โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Uoaei1 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท dronepicr โ CC BY 2.0 ยท dronepicr โ CC BY 2.0
**By boat** if it is running โ which applies to most visitors. Regular seasonal services from **Plakias** (the nearest) and Agia Galini set you down on the sand, sparing you a hard descent and a harder climb, and the run along the southern coast is lovely in itself. **On foot** suits anyone who wants the walk and doesn't mind 15โ20 minutes down over uneven rock and twice that back up in the heat. โ With **small children, older travellers or knee trouble**: the boat, or nothing.
The **Cretan date palm** (*Phoenix theophrasti*) is a wild palm growing naturally only in Greece and south-western Turkey, and is not cultivated commercially โ its fruit is small and inedible, unlike the familiar date palm. It is **rare and protected**, and in Crete grows in only a few places, best known among them **Preveli** and **Vai** in the east. โ The **2010 fire** destroyed much of the Preveli grove, and the palms have recovered slowly because they grow slowly to begin with. Visitors are therefore asked **not to light fires or camp** in the gorge, and to remember that the forest is a protected area rather than a park.
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A beach on the **Libyan Sea** unlike anywhere else in Greece: at the mouth of the **Kourtaliotiko** river, fresh water meets the sea, and along its banks grows a dense **palm forest** of the wild **Cretan date palm** โ a rare native species growing in only a few places on the island. So you find yourself between sand and sea on one side and a **freshwater pool and palms** on the other, and you can **wade up the riverbed** into the gorge between palms and rock โ the best thing about it. โ A **major fire in 2010** destroyed many of the palms, and the forest has recovered gradually โ so what you see is smaller than it was before. There are two ways in: **On foot** from a clifftop car park: a **15โ20 minute descent** on a steep path of rock and irregular steps, with a **much harder** climb back in the heat. **By boat** from **Plakias** or Agia Galini โ a short run that sets you down on the sand, and by far **the easier option**. โ There is little shade on the sand and no lifeguard.
Up the freshwater course between palms and rock.
A rare native species growing in only a few places.
Southern Crete โ warmer, clearer water than the north coast.
Preveli Beach, Agios Vasileios, 74060 Rethymno