The Greek island of Crete is home to some of the best beaches in the world. This isn’t an overstatement… in 2025, TripAdvisor named Elafonisi Beach the best beach in the world. And in the same year, they named Balos Beach the best beach in the world of all-time (based on 25 years of reviews!). The great news is that these award-winning beaches are also the best family-friendly beaches on Crete!
We visited many of the best family-friendly beaches in Crete and simply can’t believe how beautiful they were. If you are looking for a great destination for your family beach vacation to Greece, Crete should be at the top of your list!
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4 Excellent Kid-Friendly Beaches on Crete
1. Elafonisi Beach
As mentioned above, TripAdvisor named Elafonisi Beach the Best Beach in the World in 2025, and it’s easy to see why. This beach is beautiful, unique and very special.
We all stopped in our tracks when we caught our first glimpse of Elafonisi Beach on the walk from the parking lot down to the sand. The white sand beach is huge, with a large cigar shaped island just a few feet offshore.
The water all around the beach is a very deep turquoise color, which would make the finest beaches in the Caribbean jealous. One thing that makes Elafonisi Beach so special is the vast amount of turquoise water – it’s more than I’ve seen anywhere else in the world.
The water is so clear and beautiful as it is very shallow and well protected from the elements. There are virtually no waves to speak of, making it one giant bathtub with brilliant turquoise water. The shallow, calm water makes Elafonisi Beach an amazing family-friendly beach for your trip to Crete.
Another element which makes Elafonisi Beach special is the pink-hued sand. It is often referred to as the “Pink Sand Beach”, which is a little misleading, as 99% of the sand is a soft white, but if you look in the shallow surf, you’ll often see pink sand floating around in the water. It’s very beautiful, but don’t get your hopes up that the entire beach is pink sand.
If you want to visit the island just offshore, it’s possible to get there with only getting your legs wet. We thought visiting the island was a lot of fun. It’s possible to go for a long walk on soft sand along the shoreline, where there is a lot of pink sand in the shallows. We love going for long walks in the sand, and Elafonisi Beach is so gorgeous, that it made our long walk on the island that much more special.
Note: The drive from Chania to Elafonisi Beach is up and over a mountain and through a gorge. While 95% of the drive is perfectly normal driving, a small portion is a bit precarious. There are a few spots where the drop offs are a bit unnerving, the road drops to 1-lane traffic, narrow village roads, etc. If you are not a confident driver, you may wish to let someone else do the driving and take a tour to Elafonisi Beach.
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Before you pack for your trip to Crete, be sure to check out our beach vacation family packing list.
2. Balos Beach
After visiting Elafonisi Beach the day prior, which was ranked the #1 beach in the world for 2025 by TripAdvisor, we were super excited to visit Balos Beach, which was ranked the #1 beach of all time!
It’s not easy getting Balos Beach though – the final 10 km / 6.2 miles is along a very bumpy, gravel & rock road, which most rental car agencies forbid you drive on. There’s plenty of boat tours to Balos Beach, but the price tag was a bit steep for us, so we found a more affordable (and more fun) option – renting ATVs!
We were so glad to be on ATVs – they are incredibly fun and we didn’t need to risk our rental car on the super bumpy road. The scenery along the road was breathtaking, ranging from the layers of mountains inland, to the reddish cliffs overhead and the deep blue ocean immediately below. All along the road were families of sheep and goats, which were super cute standing on rocks overlooking the ocean.
The parking lot is ~1.4 km / 0.9 miles away from Balos Beach. It’s a steep downhill walk along stone steps, but you won’t even notice as the scenery will literally take your breath away. As you near the first viewpoint, it’s easy to see why Balos Beach was voted the best beach in the world of all time – it’s incredibly stunning.
The large lagoon located between Gramvousa Peninsula and Cape Tigani showcases nearly every color of blue known to man. The water closest to the open sea is a deep peacock blue, which transitions to deep turquoise blue, to a nearly translucent blue as you get further away from open water.
Interspersed throughout the many shades of blue, is a brilliant white / pink sand beach. From the aerial viewpoints, it’s some of the most breathtaking beach scenery I’ve seen anywhere in the world!
To be honest, Balos Beach is more beautiful from above. Once down at sea level, the lighter colors of water lose much of their color and the effect is less amazing. But, if you set up your beach blanket near the deeper turquoise water, it’s still a stunning beach scene.
The scenery alone is worth the effort to visit Balos Beach, but overall, Elafonisi Beach is a better family beach. Elafonisi Beach offers nearly endless soft white sand and shallow water for kids to play in, while the beach at Balos is a bit rockier and there’s less area for kids to enjoy.
I’m sure the full day boat tours which visit Balos Beach and nearby islands are a ton of fun, but I can’t help but think they are missing out on a lot by not seeing Balos Beach from above. My recommendation is to rent ATV’s for your family, so you can enjoy a fun adventure and still see Balos Beach at it’s finest from up above. ATV rentals are available in the nearest town Kissamos, but we rented ours from an ATV rental shop right where the bumpy road begins.
Facilities are limited here, so be sure to bring everything you need for your outing, including plenty of water and sunscreen.
Directions to Balos Beach – rental cars not recommended
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Beaches are the main reason many families visit Crete. But if you visit this amazing Greek island, you can’t miss these incredible family-friendly hiking trails on Crete.
3. Falassarna Beach
As is typical with the many great beaches in Crete, the views of Falassarna Beach from the drive down to sea level are outstanding, and get you excited for the family fun you are about to have.
There are several beaches as part of Falassarna Beach, but we visited the main one, Pachia Ammos. The first thing we noticed was how big the beach was – it’s a really deep beach and very long. Even on a super crowed high season day, I bet there’s plenty of room for your beach blanket at Falassarna Beach.
The next thing we noticed was how big the area of brilliant turquoise water is offshore. In many top beaches around the world, there’s a small area of turquoise water, but at Falassarna Beach it’s massive. The overall effect is amazing – just pure beach heaven.
The sand is very soft, allowing us to go on a nice long family walk together. As is common in the area, there is some pink sand along the coastline as well. We walked through the rocks at the north end of Falassarna Beach and found many small coves, which were perfect for kids to wade in.
Given its position on the west side of Crete, Falassarna Beach is known for its magical sunsets over the water.
It’s also known for the ruins of Ancient Falassarna, which are found just a few minutes north of the main beach. You can wander through the remnants of old city walls, towers, and a stone throne believed to have been dedicated to Poseidon.
Directions to Falassarna Beach
4. Gerani Beach
After visiting many of the outstanding beaches on Crete, we decided to visit the beach right in front of our first hotel (Hotel Kostakis Beach). Although it’s not nearly as stunning as the other beaches described above, but it’s still a really nice beach.
One of our favorite things to do as a family is to go on long beach walks, and at 2.5 km / 1.5 miles long, Gerani Beach is perfect for long family walks. The beach is a 50/50 mix of soft sand and small pebbles. We had endless fun looking at the many beautiful pebbles along the shoreline.
Given that many of the top beaches on Crete do not have hotel development on them, this is a good opportunity to stay on a beach in Crete. A big bonus is that it has been awarded a Blue Flag, indicating high environmental and quality standards.
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Traveling to Greece with a picky eater? First, check out our guide to Greek food for picky eaters. Then pick up a copy of our printable Greek Food Scavenger Hunt, to make mealtimes easy & fun!
How We Got to Crete
After 3 amazing days in Athens with kids, we took an overnight ferry from Athen’s Piraeus port to Heraklion. Anek Lines offers family rooms with four bunk beds, which was perfect for us!
The 4-bed family room was bigger than I’d expected, and the beds were quite comfortable. The ferry journey was from 9 pm to 6:15 am, so we all had enough time for a good sleep.
The walls are pretty thin though, so if you don’t like hearing your neighbors, bring some earplugs.
Overall, the overnight ferry between Athens and Heraklion was an inexpensive and fun way to get to Crete. It’s way cheaper than an on-land hotel plus airfare, plus you travel while you are sleeping, so you don’t miss out on any precious sightseeing time as you move!
Once at the Heraklion port, we rented a car from Avis Budget at their location right in the port.
Where We Stayed on Crete
We had a ton of adventures planned for our family vacation to Crete, which were spread out quite a bit geographically. To minimize the amount of driving we had to do, we stayed at three different hotels on Crete.
To enjoy the amazing beaches of northwest Crete, we based ourselves at the Kostakis Beach Hotel for our first three nights. It’s a really nice beachfront hotel with a big swimming pool. We stayed here as they offered a two-bedroom apartment, which we value a lot as a family. Having separate bedrooms not only gives everyone some privacy, but it helps ensure everyone gets a better nights’ sleep vs everyone sharing the same hotel room.
Once we left northwest Crete and started working our way back east, we stayed at the Steris Elegant Beach Hotel & Apartments in Rethymno. The hotel has an excellent beach-front location along Rethymnon Beach. We stayed here primarily due to the fact that it had a 1-bedroom family room, with 4 twin beds.
Our final night on Crete was spent in a family-friendly hotel in Heraklion as we prepared to take a ferry to Santorini the next morning. We chose to stay in the Candia Suites & Rooms as they offered a 1-bedroom suite with four beds, not far from the ferry port.
Follow Along on our Family Trip to Greece
After beginning our family vacation to Greece with three amazing days in Athens with kids, we spent 5 days on Crete enjoying the best beaches and family-friendly hiking trails we could find. Next up, we took a quick ferry ride to an iconic Greek island where we spent two days on Santorini with kids.
Our Travel Journal for Kids
Based on our family travels, our kids helped us design this Travel Journal for Active Kids! This engaging travel journal encourages kids to document their adventures, spark creativity, and stay entertained on the go – grab yours now on Amazon!
Dan Brewer is an intrepid family travel blogger with a passion for exploring the world's most captivating destinations. With 62 countries under his belt and a sense of wanderlust that knows no bounds, he has made it his life's mission to share his travel experiences and insights with fellow families who love to travel.
When Dan isn't traveling with his wife and kids, he's either out enjoying the Canadian Rockies he calls home or working on one of his three travel sites (Family Can Travel, Travel Banff Canada and Ultimate Sports Road Trip).