Where to swim in Crete today
Live conditions: S wind, 7 to 12 km/h depending on the coast. We rank Crete's beaches by how calm the water should be right now, from wind direction, shoreline orientation and measured wave height.
All beaches
Chiona Beach
East Crete · Sitia · today's pick
The S wind (8 km/h) runs along the shore here, keeping the water manageable. Waves around 0.2 m, sea at 22°C.
Good choices by area
Touch a zone of the island · or use the pills
Georgioupolis Beach
offshore wind · 11 km/h · 0.2 m
Almyrida Beach
offshore wind · 7 km/h · 0.6 m · sand
Balos Lagoon 3.8
offshore wind · 7 km/h · 0.6 m
Agia Pelagia Beach
offshore wind · 8 km/h · 0.3 m · sand
Livadi beach
offshore wind · 11 km/h · 0.2 m · sand
Lygaria Beach
offshore wind · 8 km/h · 0.3 m · sand
Ammoudi
offshore wind · 10 km/h · 0.1 m · sand
Agios Nikolaos · 1 km
Istro Beach 5.0
offshore wind · 10 km/h · 0.1 m · pebbles
Agios Nikolaos · 6.3 km
Itanos Beach 4.3
cross-shore wind · 8 km/h · 0.2 m · sand
Live conditions by station
live · 04:59 AMHeraklion
14°
8 km/h · 0.3 m · 23°C
Chania
18°
7 km/h · 0.6 m · 22°C
Rethymno
16°
11 km/h · 0.2 m · 22°C
Ag. Nikolaos
17°
10 km/h · 0.1 m · 22°C
Ierapetra
19°
9 km/h · 0.6 m · 23°C
Sitia
17°
8 km/h · 0.2 m · 22°C
Makrigialos
18°
8 km/h · 0.6 m · 23°C
Elounda
17°
10 km/h · 0.2 m · 22°C
Hersonissos
18°
11 km/h · 0.3 m · 23°C
Malia
20°
12 km/h · 0.3 m · 23°C
Where should I swim in Crete today?
Today's data pick is Chiona Beach (East Crete): with the current S wind at 8 km/h it is on the sheltered side of the island.
Is it windy in Crete today?
Right now the wind over Crete blows from the S at 7 to 12 km/h depending on the coast. One side of the island is usually calm whatever the wind: this page lists it live.
How this works
Every 30 minutes we combine live Open-Meteo data (wind speed and direction, wave height at the nearest marine point, sea temperature, 10 stations across Crete) with each beach's shoreline orientation, estimated from its position relative to the island's mountain ridge. Offshore or cross-shore wind means flatter water; onshore wind builds chop. Individual bays can behave differently: always judge conditions on site, especially with children. For 180 of the 183 beaches, field-observed data (typical sea state of the bay, sand type, depth, crowds) corrects the geometric estimate: a bay known usually calm scores better than its exposure alone suggests.
Conditions updated: Saturday, October 24, 04:59 AM (Europe/Athens)