Greece / Crete
Elafonisi Beach
Elafonisi Beach is a 439 m-long sandy beach facing south-south-west, 13.5 km west of Palaióchora (Crete, Greece). The sea averages 25.3 °C in August, its warmest month, and 15.8 °C in February; it is 21 °C or warmer in June–November. Recorded status on Wikidata: Blue Flag beach.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
Month by month
October at Elafonisi Beach
Beach-day index 7.8/10 · Greece median 7.0
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 16.4 °C | 15.8 °C | 15.9 °C | 16.7 °C | 18.9 °C | 21.8 °C | 24.1 °C | 25.3 °C | 24.7 °C | 23.3 °C | 21.0 °C | 18.3 °C |
| High °C | 13° | 13° | 15° | 18° | 22° | 26° | 29° | 29° | 26° | 22° | 19° | 15° |
| Low °C | 10° | 10° | 11° | 13° | 16° | 20° | 23° | 23° | 21° | 18° | 15° | 12° |
| Rain mm | 98 | 90 | 51 | 27 | 17 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 21 | 57 | 83 | 103 |
| Cloud % | 66 | 65 | 57 | 49 | 38 | 21 | 10 | 10 | 25 | 43 | 59 | 68 |
| Wind m/s | 6.4 | 6.4 | 5.8 | 5.3 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 5.1 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 5.3 | 6.1 |
| Daylight h | 10.0 | 10.9 | 11.9 | 13.0 | 14.0 | 14.5 | 14.3 | 13.5 | 12.5 | 11.4 | 10.3 | 9.8 |
| Record high/low | 19°/3° | 22°/1° | 23°/4° | 26°/7° | 33°/12° | 36°/16° | 36°/20° | 35°/21° | 32°/17° | 32°/12° | 26°/7° | 22°/6° |
| Beach index | 2.6 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 6.8 | 9.3 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 9.4 | 7.8 | 5.1 | 3.2 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
The beach-day index peaks in June–September; July scores 9.7/10 with highs of 29 °C, sea at 24.1 °C and 3 mm of rain.
In July that is 0.3 points above the median of the 415 beaches in Greece covered by this atlas.
Across the year the sea averages 20.2 °C, warmer than 63% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
December is the wettest month (103 mm) and July the driest (3 mm); the yearly total is about 560 mm.
Daylight runs from 9.8 hours in December to 14.5 hours in June; in mid-July the sun rises at 06:21 and sets at 20:41 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces south-south-west (196°). Open water fills about 50% of the horizon close by, which makes it an open stretch of shore.
The sun sets over the sea in April–September and December–January; in mid-June it goes down at 20:41 local time on a bearing of 300°.
Sunrise is over the sea in November–January.
Straight out to the south-south-west the next coast is roughly 200 km away, so waves are mostly wind-driven sea rather than ocean swell. The beach is on an island of about 8,277 km².
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 3 m deep and 310 m at 3 km, a shallow, gently shelving sea floor. Behind the beach the ground is about 27 m above sea level 500 m inland and 54 m at 1.5 km.
Within 1 km, the land is 33% shrubland, 31% grassland and 18% tree cover (satellite land-cover map, 2021): a largely natural setting. Water makes up 47% of that circle.
- Shrub 33%
- Grass 31%
- Tree 18%
- Bare 14%
- Built 4%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m). Orientation from OpenStreetMap land polygons sampled in 36 directions; depths and heights from the GEBCO 2020 grid (about 450 m cells), indicative only.
Bathing water quality
The official EU bathing-water site “Elafonisi”, 100 m from the beach centre, was rated Excellent for the 2025 season. It was Excellent in 11 of its 11 classified seasons since 2015.
- 2015Excellent
- 2016Excellent
- 2017Excellent
- 2018Excellent
- 2019Excellent
- 2020Excellent
- 2021Excellent
- 2022Excellent
- 2023Excellent
- 2024Excellent
- 2025Excellent
Source: European Environment Agency, EU Bathing Water Directive assessments · national site profile. Classes are based on four seasons of bacteriological sampling.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Photos
From above
Facilities within 1 km
- 2Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 2Public toilets
- –Showers
- 6Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 2Hotels & guesthouses
- 1Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 1Cash machines
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 2 restaurants. Accommodation: 2 hotels and guesthouses.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Around the beach
Nature
- Elafonisi Nature Preserve nature reserve 130 m NE
Islands in view
- Ελαφονήσι 1.0 km W
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chania International Airport Souda | CHQ | 62.3 km | north-east |
| Heraklion International Nikos Kazantzakis Airport Heraklion | HER | 149 km | east |
| Santorini International Airport Santorini Island | JTR | 215 km | north-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 1 bus stop within 1.5 km, ferry terminal Êlafonissos (710 m) and 6 mapped car parks within 1 km.
No town of 1,000+ people lies within 10 km; within 30 km there are 2 (about 6.6K).
Map and nearby beaches
Loading map…
Open in OpenStreetMap · Directions in Google Maps
- Balos Beach34.7 km NCompare
Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 18.0 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w374311369; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Water body, status and length: Wikidata (CC0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Photos: Wikimedia Commons, author and licence under each image.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2C_34SGE_20260906_1_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Bathing-water quality: European Environment Agency (site ELBW139322072101).
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 60.5K Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.