Elafonissos beach and the islet of Elafonisi on the island of Crete

Elafonissos and the opposite island of Elafonisi / Elafonissi make the second largest beach in the west of Crete and are advertised almost everywhere (likewise for Vai beach) as "the most beautiful beach of Crete" and "it looks like a tropical beach". Be warned though. There's not any commercial activity going on until the 15th of June when a couple of small "tavernas" open up and litter the island with with sunbeds. Before that is is littered with garbage, because nobody cleans it. I've never seen so much garbage on a pile in my whole life. It was absolutely disgusting and a total disgrace. Plastic and other litter is everywhere, making it hard to see the (hard) sand. An absolute disgrace! There is also not much accommodation to be found in the area.

Harma Martens was on the beach island Elafonisi in the period that the beach was cleaned up and she was very positive about Elafonisi island and the beach. She send me the pictures above and wrote: "We were on the palm beach of Elafonisi. This is much better than Vai. It can get quite busy but if you go early in the morning there is almost no one. If you arrive later in the day, you can lie down on the side of the beach. Here there are no umbrellas and hammocks but it is a quiet stretch of beach with a beautiful piece of sea." In short: if you want to go to the beach and want it to be in his glory than timing is essential.