We stayed in Crete in June 2015. We had visited nearby Krios as a part of our Cretan holiday, as it was a nearby beach that had a reputation for being a bit more sheltered when the wind starts blowing (as it does!). Krios itself was nice enough, pebbled, deep, quite cold water, with the side furthest from the cantina being more likely to be nude. There were a number of people in the buff, and I joined them for a bit (tucked away, as I do), but a wave of clothed people coming through changed the overall tone quite quickly. Especially as those clothed people were laregly made up of classic stereotypes of the loud, brash American, noisily laughing and shouting, sucking the pre-existing serenity out of the place. We had heard there were underwater ruins at Krios and tried to find them, and saw others snorkeling about looking for them to no avail.
While at Krios though we noticed a (very) small number of people filing up the rocks on far side of the beach, and decided to see where they were disappearing to.
A brief, steep climb of maybe 5 minutes and we were wandering through swathes of thyme humming with local honey bees. Looking back at Krios... with its noisy Americans.
We could see the potential for another bay over the ridge quite quickly, so continued for about 15 minutes in the heat, walking through quite rocky terrain, before seeing the best possible version of what we hoped for.
What looked like a totally human free beach sheltered by rocks on either side, forming a 'lake.' After another 10 minutes of scambling through brush and over rocks we discovered it wasn't human free, but it was clothing free. Until my partner decided to stay clothed! The majority ruled though, and I swam in this glorious, glorious, secluded place for a couple of hours naked.There was total silence the whole time we were there. It was almost a rule that people didn't shout, speak above a whisper, or splash about like idiots.
The water is mostly chest height, but does get a little deeper at various points. And it was here we discovered the ruins we had heard about. Pillars in the sand, and underwater, and the base of a Roman temple submerged to the left of the picture. We didn't have a mask or snorkel, and it began to get a bit late, so we wandered back to home base.
Surprisingly (to me at least), my partner was super keen that we come back the next day, so we did. Interrupted only once, I spent over six hours in uninterrupted nakedness (except for the hastily bought mask and snorkel). Again surprisingly, a couple of hours after the one group came and went, my partner joined me in the nude. Easiest beach in the world to convert someone to the benefits of skinny dipping it turns out!
Grade: 10/10 (My first post to set the bar high)
Difficulty of access: 6/10 (does involve climbing a bit at first, a 25-30 minute walk in the hot, hot sun, no road access)
Likelihood of others being around: 2/10
Ease for a skinny dipping newbie: 9/10
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