TSOUTSOUROS

The "small" beach on the east side of the town.

Located 65 km from Iraklion, on the south coast of Crete lies a secret: the small village of Tsoutsouros. It is built next to the ruins of the ancient city of Inatos. Mainly a fishing/ farming community of about 100 permanent residents, it can be reached after a long and winding, but mostly spectaculairly beautiful road through the mountains.

Sheep running around in the harbour.

Part of the big beach.

Tsoutsouros is the heaven in the municipality of Arkalohori to the south of Heraklion. An unexpectedly picturesque and exquisite place with sparklingly clean sea and a big sand beaches. Not so well known by the tourists, but populair with the Cretans themselves you might find yourself on a beautiful and completely empty beach during the weekdays (like we did). As there was nobody there we had the opportunity to swim in the nude :).

The end of the big beach, with sand dunes.

The long, big, beautiful, empty beach of Tsoutsouros.

While we were there we stayed at a wonderful place with a big balcony that overlooked the whole village and the beach (Mouratis Apartments/taverna). It was run by an older, very friendly lady, that hardly spoke any english...but we understood eachother anyway. She's also a marvelous cook. We had a two rooms apartment that was big, clean and cheap :).

The clear water and a little cave around the corner from the big beach.

Our apartment, with the balcony above the palmtree (room 304).

Most of the houses in Tsoutsouros are built along the coastal street, just by the long sandy beach. While most houses are new there are still some of them preserving the old traditional character, especially at the center of the village. A lot of the houses are covered with bougainville and other kinds of flowers. There are plenty of taverna's and supermarkets, but out of high season a lot of them are closed. On the beach there are no beachchairs and umbrella's (yet), but you will find a couple of showers to wash off the salt from the sea. Tsoutsouros really stole my heart: one of the best places in Crete.

The view from the balcony as the sun is slowly going down.

A house with flowers.

Next day: some clouds on top of the mountain.

On the way to Tsoutsouros: a cross along the road.

The church on the way leading to Tsoutouros. A thunderstorm has suddenly started.