Glyka Nera beach — Attraction in Municipality of Sfakia

Wow, wow, wow! One of my all time favourite beaches. The hike from the trail head is 25 minutes and it is stunning and not so difficult but be sure to wear shoes and not thongs or sandals and carry everything in your back so you have 2 hands free. When you arrive at the beach you will think it’s just ok and nothing special. The sand is greyish and there are pebbles. The reward is when you enter the water and get past the rocky entrance. The waters are some of the cleanest, most crystalline I have ever seen. As you swim further out the water changes from aqua to turquoise to azure, all the while being crystal clear as if you’re in a swimming pool. The visibility is incredible, even more than 100 metres off shore. This beach feels quite wild, it is very long and is not accessible by car, so it never feels crowded (last week of August, first week of September 2023). There are fresh water springs under the sand so you can take a fresh water shower on the beach. Umbrella and 2 chairs €10, and even arriving at 1pm there were still free beds. At the end of the beach are toilets and a very good taverna, the food is delicious and the staff are lovely. You get on and off the very on the same jetty as the taverna, in fact the taverna is the jetty. The taverna end seemed more for families. The other end of umbrellas that you come to first if you’re hiking from Sfakia is more clothing optional. I love this beach. Go if you want dramatic scenery, peace and quiet, crystalline water and a...

The beach is good and it’s not super popular. It can be accessed either by a hike (25-30 mins) or by a boat. There were not so many people coming by boat in the beginning of September so overall by 12:00 there were probably ~30-40 people overall on the beach (and the beach is pretty long). Part of the beach closer to Sfakia is taken by nudists. What is pretty unfortunate is that a large part of the beach is closed by a fence with tables that forbid camping there (likely due to risk of falling rocks). The set of two sunbeds and an umbrella costs 10 euro and you must pay to the owner of trattoria who pretty much took over the beach. It is possible to just lay on your towels but there is not so much space and most of the space in the shadow of the mountains/trees is closed with the fence (first tile I have seen it). Either this is a beach with a very high risk of stones falling down, or the owner of the sunbeds wants to maximise the profit. The water was pretty clear although there was a lot of garbage like tyres on the bottom of the sea. The beach itself is not very picturesque. There is a free shower. Overall it might be worth a 1-1.5h ride because the hike to the beach is beautiful but definitely this should not be your top priority to visit if you are...

Beautiful secluded beach that’s well worth a visit! You can get there by ferry, but we parked at the start of the trail and walked down. Park by the road and take some trainers or hiking shoes because the path is quite rocky. It isn’t a difficult hike but go slowly as parts of it is quite steep and you walk along the cliff. It’s about 30 minutes down to the beach. As you finish the trail, you enter the nudist side of the beach but keep walking towards Mermaid Bar at the other end and you can sit on some sun loungers away from the nudist half. Beware of the goats if you have food in your bag, we were confronted by a pretty aggressively hungry goat who chased me and my bag of food around the beach! The stones are very hot so take flip flops to walk to the sea and enjoy the crystal...