CalmBeach Greece
Sandy
Sandy beaches in Rethymno
12 sandy beaches in Rethymno: with sand underfoot rather than pebbles. Check live wind & waves for each beach on CalmBeach before you go.
- 12beaches
- 10organized
- 7with photos
Looking for sand rather than pebbles in Rethymno? These 12 beaches are recorded as sandy, so they are easier on bare feet and better for children playing. Check wind and waves in CalmBeach before you go.
The beaches
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Livadi beachBali's first, broad sandy beach — Livadi is the first and largest sandy beach at Bali, on the north coast of Rethymno in Crete. It spreads along an open bay at the entrance to the…
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Damnoni
The bay with hidden coves — A wide bay with turquoise water and coarse white sand, ~5 km east of Plakias. The western end is organised (sunbeds, sports, diving), while the…
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SchinariaThe little cove below Lefkogeia — Schinaria lies on the south coast of Rethymno in Crete, in the Lefkogeia community of the Agios Vasileios municipality, a few kilometres east of…
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Plakias
The resort at the foot of the gorge — About 1.3 km of fine golden sand shelving gently into the bay, backed by mountains and facing the Libyan Sea, ~21 km south of Rethymno. The name…
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Paralia Episkopis
The long sands of the old bishopric — Episkopi beach stretches along the north coast of Rethymno, Crete, about 14 kilometres west of the town, in a fertile plain that runs down to the…
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Ammolofi Agiou PavlouThe great sand dunes of Cape Melissa — The Ammolofoi (Sandhills) of Agios Pavlos stretch along the south coast of Rethymno, Crete, on the western side of Cape Melissa, between the small…
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Photo credits
- Schinaria: Uoaei1, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Ammolofi Agiou Pavlou: Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0
- Varkotopos: Yanemail, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Limni: Ttzavaras, CC BY-SA 4.0
Good to know
Which beaches in Rethymno are sandy?
The beaches listed here are recorded as sand rather than pebbles or rock. Shorelines shift with storms and seasons, so the mix can change from year to year.
Does sand mean shallow water?
Not always. Sand describes the shore, not the depth — some sandy beaches drop away quickly. Open a beach to see its recorded depth, and check live wind and waves before you swim.
When is the sea calmest here?
Across 12 of the beaches on this page, the open water in front of them is typically 0.49 m in June, 0.53 m in July and 0.53 m in August when the meltemi is at its strongest, and 0.54 m in September. June is the calmest month of the season. We calculate these figures ourselves from European Copernicus wave-model data at 4.2 km resolution. They describe the sea offshore, not the shelter of an individual cove — a bay protected by a headland will usually be calmer than this.
How warm is the water, month by month?
Off 12 of the beaches on this page the sea is typically 19.5 °C in May, 22.8 °C in June, 25.1 °C in July, 26.1 °C in August and 25.3 °C in September — ideal at the height of summer, mild in June. In October it is still 23.6 °C — warmer than June. August is the warmest month. Satellite measurements, 1995–2024, from a sea cell about 5 km offshore; shallow bays usually run warmer than this.
Wind and waves change every day. See live conditions for any of these beaches before you drive out.
Open the live map →