Arena beach — Attraction in Municipality of Chersonissos

Visited june, at 6 pm with family of 5. After we spent hours driving around trying to find a nice beach in the agios nikolas area that wasn't heaving with people, we decided to head the other way towards heraklion, and found this one .... loved it.. big, wide beach and all sandy, sunbeds, free parking, clean, good waves to play in. Could easily have spent a whole day here ( imagine it's busier during the day but still there's alot of space so think it would still be ok and not too cramped like many other beaches we tried ) There's a cafe and a lifeguard and a few different sections with sunbeds...

Best beach ⛱️ close to heraklion. We've been from heraklion to Agios Nikolaos and this is by FAR the best, wide, sandy, no stones, no pebbles. Most beaches have stones when you enter the water and don't have even slope. Trust me don't go looking for best beach on this side of the island , save your time and stay on Arena. 3E for beach chairs and 3E cofee, 3,5 E for beer, decent service. Food choice is limited but you wont die starving.Free parking and also as a bonus at least for me is that you get to see planes landing as the Beach is close to...

Wonderful beach very close to Heraklion. We stopped here for a swim after having landed. No pebbles/rocks at all. Clean, clear water. Small waves. Quite shallow, maybe 50-75 cm when you go out 25 meters into the sea. Overall absolutely perfect with small kids.

Parking right off the road with a 50 meters into walk to the beach. Plenty of restaurants near by as well.

Can’t speak to how crowded it generally is as we visited outside of the busy season (early October, where the water temperature was still great...