Elafonisi

Elafonisi lies at the south-western tip of Crete, about two hours by road from Chania on a route that is slow, winding and part of the point. The beach is really a system: a mainland shore, a shallow lagoon, and a low islet — Elafonisi itself — that you cross to on foot through knee-deep water.

It is known for the colour of the sand, and the explanation is specific. Broken shell fragments, principally from foraminifera on the surrounding reef, mix with white sand and give the shore a pink cast that is strongest along the waterline and in low light. Photographs saturated to hot pink misrepresent it; the effect is real but subtle, and it varies with where the sea has last deposited shell.

The lagoon between shore and islet is very shallow, warm and calm, which makes it exceptional for small children and useless for a proper swim. Beyond the islet the water opens to the Libyan Sea and behaves differently. The whole area is a Natura 2000 protected site, with dunes and sea daffodils that are fenced off, and loggerhead turtles nesting on the far side.

Development is deliberately minimal and has been reduced: a car park, canteens and a limited sunbed concession, with restrictions tightened after years of overuse damaged the dune system. Taking the sand away is prohibited, which is stated because people did it in quantity. Kedrodasos, a twenty-minute walk south over the rocks, is the same water without the canteens or the coach parties — juniper growing to the shore and no facilities at all, which is what Elafonisi itself looked like before the road was improved.

Pink at the waterline, shallow enough to wade to the islet, and a Natura 2000 site that people carry away by the bagful — taking the sand is prohibited and fined, and the beach has measurably lost material. Come early, park before nine, and use the wooden walkways, which exist because the dune behind is what makes the beach.