Where to swim in Crete today
Live conditions: NW wind, 9 to 32 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
Ilingas Beach
West Crete · Chania · today's pick
The N wind (9 km/h) blows from the land here, leaving the shoreline flat. Waves around 0.6 m, sea at 26°C.
Good choices by area
Touch a zone of the island · or use the pills
Anidri Beach
offshore wind · 9 km/h · 0.6 m · pebbles
Domata beach 3.6
offshore wind · 9 km/h · 0.6 m · pebbles
Samaria Gorge · 6 km
Elafonisi Beach
cross-shore wind · 9 km/h · 0.6 m
Elafonissi · 0.3 km
Keratokambos
offshore wind · 26 km/h · 0.2 m · sand
Agiofarago Beach
offshore wind · 15 km/h · 0.6 m · pebbles
Matala · 6.5 km
Agios Georgios
offshore wind · 15 km/h · 0.6 m · pebbles
Kakkos
offshore wind · 26 km/h · 0.2 m · fine pebbles
Ierapetra · 9.6 km
Agia Fotia 3.8
offshore wind · 28 km/h · 0.2 m · fine pebbles
Atherina beach 3.6
offshore wind · 28 km/h · 0.2 m · pebbles
Exposed today
Onshore wind and chop expected: better another day.
Live conditions by station
live · 04:32 PMHeraklion
26°
20 km/h · 0.9 m · 27°C
Chania
26°
9 km/h · 0.6 m · 26°C
Rethymno
25°
15 km/h · 0.6 m · 26°C
Ag. Nikolaos
27°
24 km/h · 1.0 m · 26°C
Ierapetra
27°
26 km/h · 0.2 m · 26°C
Sitia
24°
32 km/h · 1.1 m · 26°C
Makrigialos
26°
28 km/h · 0.2 m · 26°C
Elounda
27°
24 km/h · 1.0 m · 26°C
Hersonissos
25°
19 km/h · 1.0 m · 26°C
Malia
25°
19 km/h · 1.0 m · 26°C
Where should I swim in Crete today?
Today's data pick is Ilingas Beach (West Crete): with the current N wind at 9 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 NW at 9 to 32 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: Friday, September 18, 04:32 PM (Europe/Athens)