Greece / Crete
Vai Beach
Vai Beach is a 318 m-long sandy beach facing east-north-east, 6.4 km north of Palekastro (Crete, Greece). The sea averages 25.0 °C in August, its warmest month, and 16.1 °C in February; it is 21 °C or warmer in June–October.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
Reference
Vai (Greek: Βάι), Greek for "palm", is a region of east Crete between Cape Sidero and Cape Plaka, just south of the site of ancient Itanus but north of the villages that surround and are part of Palaikastro. Vai does not belong to them nor is it part of any civic unit of the local civic division of Greece.
Wikidata item Q168548 · classified as protected area.
Month by month
October at Vai 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 | 16.5 °C | 16.1 °C | 16.2 °C | 16.9 °C | 19.0 °C | 22.1 °C | 24.1 °C | 25.0 °C | 24.5 °C | 22.9 °C | 20.4 °C | 18.1 °C |
| High °C | 15° | 15° | 16° | 18° | 20° | 24° | 26° | 26° | 25° | 23° | 20° | 17° |
| Low °C | 14° | 13° | 15° | 16° | 19° | 22° | 24° | 25° | 24° | 21° | 18° | 15° |
| Rain mm | 113 | 88 | 49 | 29 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 46 | 65 | 109 |
| Cloud % | 70 | 68 | 57 | 50 | 37 | 17 | 8 | 10 | 21 | 43 | 59 | 71 |
| Wind m/s | 7.1 | 7.0 | 6.3 | 5.7 | 4.9 | 5.6 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.1 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 6.7 |
| 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 | 18°/7° | 18°/6° | 19°/7° | 21°/10° | 26°/16° | 29°/19° | 29°/22° | 31°/23° | 30°/20° | 29°/15° | 25°/10° | 22°/8° |
| Beach index | 2.3 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 3.8 | 6.0 | 8.7 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.3 | 7.8 | 5.5 | 2.9 |
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 July–September; July scores 9.5/10 with highs of 26 °C, sea at 24.1 °C and 2 mm of rain.
That matches the median for beaches in Greece in the same month.
At its warmest the water here is 0.6 °C cooler than the Greece median for August (25.6 °C).
Across the year the sea averages 20.2 °C, warmer than 63% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
January is the wettest month (113 mm) and July the driest (2 mm); the yearly total is about 540 mm.
Daylight runs from 9.8 hours in December to 14.5 hours in June; in mid-July the sun rises at 06:10 and sets at 20:30 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces east-north-east (75°). Open water fills about 39% of the horizon close by, which makes it an open stretch of shore.
At no time of year does the sun set over the sea here: sunset bearings run from 242° to 300°, behind the land.
Sunrise is over the sea in every month.
Straight out to the east-north-east the next coast is roughly 50 km away, so waves are mostly wind-driven sea rather than ocean swell. The beach is on an island of about 8,281 km².
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 30 m deep and 71 m at 3 km. Behind the beach the ground is about 33 m above sea level 500 m inland and 30 m at 1.5 km.
Within 1 km, the land is 60% grassland, 33% tree cover and 3% shrubland (satellite land-cover map, 2021): a largely natural setting. Water makes up 41% of that circle.
- Grass 60%
- Tree 33%
- Shrub 3%
- Bare 3%
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 “Vai - Foinikodasos”, 110 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.
Average wind speed at 10 m reaches 7.1 m/s in January, the windiest month.
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
- 1Public toilets
- –Showers
- 2Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 2Viewpoints
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 1 restaurant and 1 café.
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
- Wai nature reserve 140 m S
- Φοινικόδασος του Βάι nature reserve 370 m W
Islands in view
- Περιστερόβραχοι 230 m NE
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sitia Airport Crete Island | JSH | 15.5 km | west |
| Karpathos Airport Karpathos Island | AOK | 82.0 km | east |
| Heraklion International Nikos Kazantzakis Airport Heraklion | HER | 98.9 km | west |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 2 mapped car parks within 1 km.
1 town or village of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 1.3K residents); within 30 km there are 3 (about 11.2K).
When people look it up
The EN Wikipedia article was read 9,542 times in the 12 months to August 2026. Interest peaks in July (1,572 views), 4.1× the quietest month.
Map
Loading map…
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 16.7 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w52495263; 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 S2A_35SMV_20260826_1_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Bathing-water quality: European Environment Agency (site ELBW139313100101).
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 590 Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.