Agia Galini Crete

holiday report and Crete map

Agia Galini beach Crete

AGIA GALINI is a long-time Crete beach favourite of tour operators and is found on the south central coast. It is split into three parts, the village, the quayside and the beaches - quite an achievement for such a small beach resort.
Agia Galini village is pretty enough with its whitewashed houses perched on the steep hillsides around an attractive harbour. A pity then to see most of the Cretan character disappear under a plethora of English language signs.
Agia Galini is almost hopelessly Anglicised. Being here is a bit like being in the UK's Lake District but without the Cumbrian rain.
All roads lead to a large quayside backed by several flower-bedecked tavernas. The quayside should be one of the prettiest spots in the village pretty but the local council has opted to use is as a large and ugly car park.
The Agia Galini beaches are a little way out of the village, around the headland and below some vertiginous cliffs. The cliffs have been strung with netting to prevent accidents from falling rocks and there are barriers to prevent tourist cars getting through.
It is a 100m walk to the first beach, a coarse, grey gravel affair filled with sun loungers and liberally showered in cigarette ends. The dirty grey gravel slides sharply into a rocky seashore.
Beyond that a second Agia Galini beach has even coarser sand, and it's another 500m walk to get there. There are loads of beach tavernas, indicative of the popularity of the place, as are the premium prices both for sunbeds and for food in the many tavernas that back the beach.
Despite an overdose of tourism Agia Galini is still a resort of some charm with 1,000 permanent inhabitants and many well-appointed hotels, apartments, camping sites, tourist agencies and other such.
There are caves along the coast and excursion boats to take you there. There are also some Minoan excavations at Agia Trianda and Festos along the road leading north from Agia Galini.