This week’s travel dream: Crete’s quiet coast

Though Crete is Greece’s most popular travel destination, the famous attractions weren’t what drew me to this mountainous mass in the Mediterranean, said Jane Black in The Washington Post. In fact, its “most hyped” spots, such as Knossos, home of the mythical Minotaur, don’t “quite meet expectations.” They overflow with tourists, while the “best of Crete is found in the most unexpected places.” I came to the largest of the Greek islands to find peace and quiet, and my search led me to the beaches and sleepy towns of Crete’s northwest.

For a few days, I made the “sleepy but functional town” of Falassarna my base. This ancient port on the “jewel-colored” Sea of Crete happens to be home to one of the nicest and most natural beaches on the island. In no time, I had fallen into the “rhythm of sunbathing, swimming,” and feasting on meze platters of feta, grape leaves, and garlicky tzatziki. The water at Falassarna is “cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough” to walk right into, and the soft white sand never gave me a reason to bother wearing shoes. After three days of doing nothing at all, I took a ferry to the nearby island of Gramvousa, where I hiked up to a 16th-century fort that once served as a base for Greek pirates. When I reached the top, I could see why this spot had been so coveted. The rocky ruins offered “360-degree views” of the glistening sea.

On the way back, the ferry stopped off at Crete’s Balos Beach—the kind of place you typically only stumble upon if you’re “lucky enough to sail your own yacht.” On one side of this thin stretch of pink sand, you can wade daintily through “a “crystal pool of warm, ankle-deep water.” On the other, you’re faced with the gently frothing surf of the Sea of Crete. “It’s like an amusement park wave pool as imagined by painter David Hockney.” As the gangplank dropped, we stepped ashore, “wearing bikinis and carrying umbrellas.” Looking out at the dusty cliffs in the distance, I waded past the “bubbly foam” of the waves and then dove bravely in. I’d found what I came looking for. Contact: Explorecrete.com

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