Crete's south-easternmost region offers breathtaking scenery between sea and mountains, far from mass tourism. It's a region well worth exploring, offering different discoveries every season. Its wild beaches, its numerous gorges, its waterfalls, its arid mountains covered with a blanket of snow in winter, its vertiginous roads winding between rocks and scrubland, where you regularly come across goats and sheep... Where you can be alone on a beach in August, where you can be overwhelmed by the starry sky... Where they'll offer you fruit just picked from the tree at the bend in the path... That's Crete. The real Crete. The one I want to share with you, the one I want you to discover.
The Lasithi Country
Crete has 30 million olive trees, or around 60 per capita. Olive oil production is one of the main sources of income for families, along with tourism.
Just below Pefki, 7 km down the coast, lies the seaside resort of Makrygialos. Once a small fishing village, it expanded in the 90s with the construction of hotels, restaurants and stores. There are pharmacies, boutiques and mini-markets, beautiful sandy beaches with shallow waters, and the port comes alive in the evening during the summer season with tavernas and cafés open late into the night. From Makrygialos you can take the boat for a day trip to Koufonissi, an island of clear sandy beaches and turquoise waters.
Pefki lies between the two main towns on the eastern tip of Crete, Ierapetra at 36 km and Sitia at 37 km. Ierapetra is the starting point for a boat trip to the island of Chrissi and its crystal-clear waters. As for Sitia, it's a timeless town where you can stroll along its harbor, offering a multitude of tavernas and cafés in a family-friendly, local atmosphere. The east coast also abounds in secret, magical places.
