Prevelei, Monastery and Lake

The Preveli, or Foinikas as it is called officially, is located on the southern coast of Crete, about 40 km south of Rethymnon. It is a unique sandy beach, beautiful, with a small forest of palm trees make her look exotic. At this point, the beach, stand the estuary Kourtaliotis, who has enough water even in summer. It forms a small lagoon before flowing into the sea. So the visitor to choose this beach for swimming, has the unique opportunity to swim in salty seawater or freshwater lagoon and the river!

Also fantastic experience for the visitor is to walk and climb up the River. The palm trees on the river provide shade and rich soil is smooth and sandy. At times one could believe he is an African oasis.

Because this picture gives the unusual environment, the beach is very popular destination for tourists even from the 1970, when came and camped here many hippies who made huts with grass and twigs from trees. This continued until late 1980.

Because the beach is open to the South affected by the winds.

Fortunately this small paradise is not very organized. One can serve food and drink, but there is no possibility to stay overnight. In recent years there were several umbrellas and sunbeds for bathers, but because the image is destroy the exotic appearance of the beach decided to retire. So the image of African oasis remained intact, hoping for some time yet.

There are two ways to get to the beach. The comfortable way and difficult for the more buff. If you follow the easy route, you arrive with an average of Plakias (bus or car) and then by boat in the morning you make your next trip Preveli. The boat departs at about 10 am and return around 4 pm. You get physically relaxed in the beautiful beach, but you will lose the opportunity to enjoy the spectacular view from the top descending on foot.

The hard way is now to drive your car until Preveli, leave it in the parking area (marked on), about 1,500 meters from the Monastery and then walk to start descending the trail has several steep steps are the hardest part of the journey. You walk like that for about half an hour, but of course in return you will make more (uphill, fatigue, noon). If you nevertheless choose to follow the "hard" way do not forget to have water with you and of course a hat because the sun of Crete does not trifle with, especially from 11.00 to 4.00 pm which is really "hot." Although difficult, this method can reach the beach you will be rewarded with a magnificent view of the beach from above.