It looked like a scene out of “Exodus” — if the Jews making their way to Palestine had been wearing bikinis and carrying beach umbrellas. The ship opened its creaky steel doors and lowered the gangplank. And we stepped out onto the soft sand, blinking in the glare of the midday sun. The path to the promised land was a crystal pool of warm, ankle-deep water. In small groups, we splashed our way across to Balos Beach.
The beach is a narrow strip of pink sand. On one side is a natural wading pool. On the other, the Sea of Crete, striped turquoise, emerald, then sapphire, and surrounded by a ring of dusty cliffs. The waves are gentle but just feisty enough to elicit a bubbly foam. It’s like an amusement park wave pool as imagined by painter David Hockney.
Balos is the kind of beach you envision lucky tourists stumbling upon by accident. The kind of place you find when you get lost on a hike or if you’re lucky enough to sail your own yacht. And so what’s most miraculous about it is that you can easily get there on a cheap tourist day cruise. Also included in the price are several hours of smooth sailing and a steep but rewarding hike to a 16th- century Venetian fort that once served as a base for Greek pirates.
I had expected Crete to be full of sites as impressive as Balos. After all, it’s Greece’s most popular destination: A quarter of the country’s visitors head to this mountainous island that’s renowned for its food — Crete is the birthplace of the Mediterranean diet — its history and its beaches. The diversity is an attraction in itself. Guidebooks tout plenty to entertain travelers for a week or more, with no pesky inter-island ferries or flights.
Those were the reasons two friends and I had chosen Crete for a recent vacation. But the most hyped destinations didn’t quite meet expectations. Knossos, reputed in Greek mythology to be the palace of King Minos and home to the Minotaur, was a series of re-imagined rooms and temples, many of which came with the disclaimer that they may not have actually looked like that. Hania, which is advertised as a Venetian town with a maze of streets populated with boutiques and elegant churches, was overrun by traffic and European chain stores.
I also had a bias. Previous travels to the Greek islands had taken me to picture-perfect blue-and- white villages decked with bougainvillea. Crete was more, well, real: The cities were modern; the beaches, many very beautiful, spoiled by tacky holiday developments. As a traveler, I’m all for seeing the real world. Most of the time. On this trip to Greece, I was seeking escape.
Crete’s northwest corner, which includes Balos Beach, fit the bill. For three days, we made our headquarters in Falassarna, a sleepy but functional town. There’s no town center per se, just a string of mid- priced hotels, a grocery/souvenir shop, a beach cafe and a restaurant.
We checked into the Plakures, a compound of whitewashed condos, neatly trimmed in Tiffany blue. Each room comes with a wrought-iron bed, a marble floor, functional Ikea-style furniture and a small, well-equipped kitchenette. Though the area is dry, the hotel property is lush. Gravel pathways that connect the rooms to the pool and restaurant are lined with palm, fig and pomegranate trees. The hotel is Greece just as you imagine it … if you were German.
Owned by a German family, Plakures caters almost exclusively to middle-aged Teutonic couples who want nothing more than to lie in the sun by day and drink beer — lots of it — at night. The contrast between the cerulean sky and the pink, full-figured guests gave me a start at first. But we soon appreciated the bicultural aspect of the hotel, which seamlessly blends the good parts of Greece (the food, the weather) and Germany (intense efficiency and very large breakfast buffets).
Beach worth the hike
We spent most of our days lying on the beach. The approach is not encouraging — a quarter-mile path down a scrubby hill — but the reward is a stretch of soft white sand and placid, jewel-colored water.
On our last day in Falassarna we decided to risk being tourists once again with a cruise to Gramvousa Island and Balos Beach.
The ferry cruises to the northwest tip of Crete, a lick of land called Cape Vouxa. We headed up to the island’s 16th-century ruined castle.
The fortress, built in 1579 by the Venetians, was used to fight the invading Turks until 1692, according to our Blue Guide. It was later used as a base for pirates. It offers 360-degree views of the sea and a prime view of ships crossing from Crete to the island of Antikythera.
Back on the ferry, there was just enough time for a quick lunch before arriving for our three-hour stop in Balos. Where an American ferry would serve unappealing hot dogs, chips and sodas at extortionate prices, the Greek equivalent offers a host of fresh, reasonably priced food: fresh Greek salads, chicken souvlaki with delicious roasted potatoes and bowls of fresh red grapes.
Crete Insider’s Guide
Beach season in Crete begins in June. Flights on Olympic Air or Aegean from Athens to Hania, Crete, start at about $90 round trip.
STAY: Hotel Plakures, Kissamos, 011-30-28220-41581, plakures.de. Double rooms start at $110 per night.
DINE: Spilios Taverna, taverna- spilios.gr. Everything is made from scratch and generously portioned. Try the earthy moussaka and the boureki, a dish of layered potatoes, zucchini and local cheese. Dinner for two is $30.
PLAY: Gramvousa Balos Cruises, Port of Kissamos, Hania, 011-30-28220-24344, . About $27 per person for a 7 1/2-hour cruise (though we were able to negotiate the price down to about $13).
MORE INFO: visitgreece.gr,
