Paleochora located to the Libyan Sea, on Crete’s southern coast, Paleochora (75 kilometres south of Chania) a small charming village occupying the south-west peninsula of Crete, is one of the island’s best kept secrets. It is cut off from the rest of the island by a mountainous area with olive groves.
Paleochora is an easy-going seaside village, popular with Greeks in search of an unpretentious summer retreat. There are no big commercial hotels, only small but very nice family-run hostels and apartments to let. Everything is local and family-run: low-key B&Bs. Informal taverns and cafés, plus a much-loved therino cinema (open-air summer cinema).
The main beach, Pachia Ammos, is a half-kilometre curving swathe of sand, dotted with umbrellas and sun-beds all the beaches are clean and perfect for kids to play, swim and snorkel, the waters are shallow and transparent and there are even cedar trees on the beach if you need a shaded spot. And with a naturist area at the far end. Beyond the village are more secluded bathing spots, some nudist-friendly.
Peaceful Gialiskari and Anidri (3 kilometres east) Gialiskariis a pebble beach that was popular amongst hippies in the 70s. They often walked in from Paleochora with enough supplies to last them a few days and spent the weekend around a campfire. Anidri is a sand beach nudist-friendly locate next to Gialiskari. While Grammeno (3.5 Kilometre west) is a sand-and-pebble beach backed by a grove of cedar trees.
There are excursion boats from Paleohora to Elafonissi,that also can be visit with hiking from Krios beach. A coastal ferry run from Paleochora to Agia Roumeli, Sougia and Samaria gorge. Or you can hike up a rocky gorge to the village of Anydri (three kilometres) for a lunch at an old-fashioned taverna.
