Preveli beach is an amazing little piece of heaven located south of the city of Rethymno! The sea is crystal clear (and a little cooler than the northern beaches of Crete). It is also famous for the pine forest that has an amazing natural beauty. You can take a walk in the pine forest as there is a path and you can see the small river that comes from Kourtaliotiko gorge. The place is very relaxing and you can sleep under the trees by the beach.You will need a little bit of stamina to go up and down the mountain since the beach is at the end of the gorge. As you approach the beach by car, there is a municipal parking area at the top of the mountain. Afterwards you need to walk down a paved path which is around 2km but offers a great view (and you will need to go back up that way so take your time) and wear trainers! It can be really hot so have water with you for the walk. At the beach there is a small place to buy food and water, however, I would recommend that you carry your own as well as it can get busy there.There also boats from Plakias village that bring you to the beach, so you can avoid the hiking.It is an amazing beach and I would definitely recommend it.Also, if there is time you can pay a visit to the Prevelis monastery nearby.
dive in the cold water of the river rest under the trees and then dive in the blue water of the sea the long way up and down is the prise you have to pay as a ticket to paradise
The beach is it small, however it has something suggestive. Not easy to go and the wind .... but a viewing wonderful.
Arriving to this place after a long drive in the hot weather, we were really disappointed! When you see the pictures anywhere, or you ask people on the island, they say it is very nice, beautiful, it seems having white sandy beach with its fresh water river and oasis with palm trees. Reality: the last 15 kms of driving is very challenging, then you have to climb a lot, the part we arrived with the car was very windy, so then we arrived to preveli, where the sand is dark grey, the beach is full of huge stones so hard to go to swim without special plastic sea shoes, and the fresh water river is dirty and polluted, you cannot swim in. We walked up to the river but it was also impossible to get into the water. The oasis is nice with its palm trees. Not worth to visit. There are better place on Crete to go.
We traveled over to Preveli beach this week and I thought a couple of comments might help others headed that way. There's some confusion regarding the names, Preveli Beach, and Palm Beach. It would seem that the two are one and the same, and the signs that lead you there are posted together. Whether you are headed there from Plakias or coming down from Rethemno you will still need to turn on the road to the Preveli Monastery.The locals will try to send you to the upper parking lot about 3/4KM below the Monestary, on the access road, telling you that the road labeled Palm Beach (and Preveli Apts) isn't safe for regular vehicles. Well yes and no.The left turn at the Palm beach sign takes you a cross a stone bridge and then up a rather lengthy 4.5KM gravel (rocky) road. It IS passable if you pay attention to what your doing. Low ground clearance vehicles can navigate the road if you work to miss the bigger rocks.The road ends at the beach at a rather lovely taverna called Dionysus and from there the Preveli Beach is a short 200M walk up and over a rock point.The alternative (Monestary access road parking lot) lands you at the head of the "staircase from hell" this precipitous drop is addressed by zigzag staircase that winds some 500ft up the cliff face. Just the thing after a refreshing plunge in paradise to arrive back at your vehicle looking like you've been dragged behind a truck!Skip the death march and take the cutoff labeled "Palm Beach", Preveli Apatments".RLW
Beautiful beach with the opportunity to swim in the sea and also fresh water within a couple of hundred yards in the same area. Downfall is that if you do not go there by boat it is a very steep climb up steps and over the rocks to get to the beach.
Extrem clear water, white sand, shallow water, some rocks, not too much umbrellas, I liked the mountains in the background, parking at this time of year possible near the beach.
We visited Preveli as part of our honeymoon trip in Crete. It was recommended to us by our new friends at Heraclion, so we did not really do alot of research before going. After driving for quite some time (road was good), we finally arrived at the famous beach, only to discover that we had to walk a long long way down a mountain (parking lot is located on top of a mountain and has a fee) during a hot day carrying all our stuff. We arrived completely exhausted and terrified of the moment that we would have to walk up the mountain in order to get to our car ! The beach is nothing special, but there is abeautiful Palm tree forest with is a small river running through it. The local municipality has created a very beautiful path in the forest that takes you to a beautiful little lake. The forest is Breathtaking and worth visiting. On our way out from the forest we went the wrong way and ended up off the beaten path. It was very hard to get back to the beach, as we had to climb over fallen palm trees etc., but I had the opportunity to take some great pictures and I loved it. There was a little tavern for coffee and snacks on the beach. The walk up the mountain back to the car was very very very...very hard...it was great going once, but I do not think I'll do it again in this lifetime...
I drove a Peugeot 206 along a mountain dirt track for about 4 miles in 1st gear !!!! The beach is nice but really not all that. Its the palm forest and fresh water stream running through it thats the attraction. If you love adventure, do it. If you dont like palm trees, dont...
The beach itself is nothing special and may be overcrowded, however it has something suggestive. The small hill overlooking the shoreline is a great point for amazing pictures.