Aghia Pelagia is one of THE most popular summer destinations in the Heraklion prefecture. This is 21 km from Heraklion and has a long beach of some 450m with fine sand.
Often horrendously busy, you will always find a crowd of people about. The water is crystalline, blue and almost always calm as the sea here is shut in within the bay that opens to the east, and so is protected from the northerly winds.
It is fully organized with sunbeds, umbrellas, showers, a lifeguard, water-sports .. you name it, it’s there! A diving school operates too. The village has many tavernas, restaurants, cafeterias, bars – and a choice of hotels of all grades, rentable rooms and apartments for your sojourn.
On the north side of Aghia Pelagia, in a cave there was found an icon of this saint, after which the village is named – and as a result the cave is named the Discovery. After its finding, a monastery to the saint was built about a kilometer off, but it no longer exists. Cristofero Buondelmonti mentioned the beach in his book A Description of the Isle of Crete (1412): also the fact that many pilgrims came there to bury whatever part of them was diseased or unwell in the sands, in the hope of a release from whatever was making their life a misery.
To get to Aghia Pelagia, you will take the main north-coast road west out of Heraklion, and turn off at the appropriate exit, when you see the sign. Other signs will then guide you down to the village and the beach.
To the east of Heraklion are many lovely and lively beaches. Some such are in the area called the Vatheiano Kampos (or Plain).
