<The beach of Sfinari in Crete
Sfinari is a small village 34km from Kisamos on the west coast of Crete. The actual village is not on the beach itself, but a little bit more up the hill. Down in the bay are a couple of taverna's in front of the "sandy beach" (as they call it themselves), but actually it is more partly pebbles and partly sand. It's not a bad beach though and it's usually pretty quiet because it is so remote. In the meantime a couple of parasols have arrived on the beach. There are a few accommodations in the village renting out rooms, but most of the inhabitants seem to live from agriculture and goat hearding.
On the other side of Sfinari was once the large pebble beach slash garbage dump, including rotting vegetables, an old car and all kinds of rubbish. That garbage belt has now been totally cleared and it is all looking much better now. There are also vegetable houses containing tomatoes at the seashore and on our last visit in 2011 we also saw large quantaties of cucumbers. In Sfinari free camping is allowed. The drive to Sfinari is a spectacular one with beautiful views from up the mountains to the shores below. The road is good, but can get quite narrow though from time to time, and since you're driving along cliffs most of the time it's advisable to take your time, drive slowly, and arrive in one piece.
