From Kissamos, we drove about an hour South across very small roads to get to Elafonissi beach, one of the best beaches I've seen in Europe. Paradise on Earth! This is located in Crete's southwestern corner.
We had booked a few nights at one of the rare hotels located in Elafonissi called "Elafonisi Resort by Kalomirakis Family". Unfortunately, this is not a place I would recommend staying. We had a very bad experience, they are showing renovated and modern rooms on Booking.com, but when you get there and tell them you are not happy to get an old school room, they are getting angry and telling you to leave if you are not happy. Customer service is clearly not something they are aware of! However, the location was pretty amazing as it was less than 10 minutes walk to the beach (or 3 min by car if you are lazy!).
Elafonissi beach
We spent in total 2.5 days in this area and it was a very relaxing and stunning white sand beach! On one side, you have the very transparent blue lagoon and on the other side, you have a very shallow transparent water and you can watch the kit surfers in action. (btw it looks like a great spot for kit-surfer amateurs!)
The best is to come not too late in the morning and rent a set of sun loungers/umbrella (I think it was 10 euros per day per set). I highly recommend to go as far as possible as this is a long stretch sand that can get very crowded and get a set in the first row.
For lunch, you have a few basic options on the beach but we bought some sandwiches in the morning in a supermarket close by.
If you continue beyond the last batch of umbrellas, you will get to a quieter beach - still pretty stunning where you can shoot a few nice snaps.
A French family spent a few hours building up the "Pantheon" next to our sun loungers. How impressive!
Pink-and-cream sand
Moni Hrysoskalitissas Monastery
On our way back, we made a stop to the monastery, which is perched on a rock high above the turquoise sea and is quite imposing. There are two tiny museums including a folk museum as well as a pretty church. Worth a quick stop if you have the time (and this is on the way).
Where to eat: restaurants/taverns
Despite the fact we would not recommend our hotel, we actually quite liked the restaurant, which is managed slightly separately from the hotel part. From the terrace of the restaurant, you have a very nice view on the sea to enjoy the sunset.
We also went to Glykeria, a tavern located on the main road before the monastery.
Both restaurants were offering some nice options of fish and seafood but you could enjoy the local souvlakis (meat skewers).
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