A full-day trip to Elafonissi island in the southwest of Crete. You will travel on an air-conditioned bus, with a stop in the traditionall village Elos and Kaloudiana.
This is your chance to visit one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Elafonissi is a heaven on earth, with soft white – pink sand, exotic crystal waters and cedar trees reaching the coast line. It is located in the southwestern side of Crete. We pick you up from your Hotel area around 7:30 am. We would like to remind you to be at your assigned location promptly to avoid delays. Our first stop is by the traditional village Elos, where you have the possibility for breakfast. On our way to Elafonissi you will be able to see small traditional villages combined with a typical Mediterranean scenery as well as the rugged landscape around the Topolia Gorge. Once we have reached Elafonissi, you will have 4 hours of free time to soak in the amazing sun and enjoy all the shades of blue this beach has to offer. On the way back we have a stop for lunch; here you can have a coffee, refreshments or have a lunch, if you feel like it ( not included in the price)
Guests staying at Rimondi Grand Hotel will be picked up from the OPAP shop in Stavromenos. Guests staying in the old town - Hotel Ideon - Jo An Palace - Olympic Palladium pick up from the 4 Martyrs square bus stop. Pick up not available from Panormo area. There is no possibility to drive to each Hotel, we will send you the nearest pick up point for you! Gusts
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Elafonissi Beach from Rethymno lasts about 12 hours. The itinerary has 1 stop.
Prices start at $35 per person for this Crete experience, booked through Viator with the price shown before checkout. There are 2 booking options, so the final price depends on the option you choose.
Yes. Cancel at least 1 day before the start for a full refund. Later cancellations are non-refundable.
Yes, pickup is offered. Guests staying at Rimondi Grand Hotel will be picked up from the OPAP shop in Stavromenos. Guests staying in the old town - Hotel Ideon - Jo An Palace - Olympic Palladium pick up from the 4 Martyrs square bus stop. Pick up not available from Panormo area. There is no possibility to drive to each Hotel, we will send you the nearest pick up point for you! Gusts Pickup points include Ibiscos Garden Hotel.
The experience is available in DE, EN, FR.
It is a small-group experience with a maximum of 49 participants.
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
Yes, bookings are confirmed instantly.
When we were on the wrong side of the road for pick up early in the morning, Kosta called me. Kosta & Emmanuela were a great team. When we realized we would not make our dinner reservation, Emmanuella helped us cancel the reservation at the hotel. From the music played on the bus to the knowledge of the local towns, it was a well choreographed, and sincere experience. Elofianissi was a beautiful beach. The stops were well timed for the bathroom and special treats!
This was just like every other beach in Greece beautiful but extremely windy, not a pink beach at all. Lacking sun lounges all sold out minimal food and drink available at location and had to pay for toilet facilities and took four hours to get to location from pickup.
We completely understand that the beach may not have met your personal expectations, and we respect the fact that every visitor has different preferences and experiences. However, we feel that giving our company a one-star rating because you were disappointed with the beach is rather unfair. Such a rating does not only reflect your opinion of the beach; it also affects the overall reputation of our company, even though our team did its very best to provide our customers with the best possible service and experience. If your disappointment was specifically about Elafonisi Beach itself, rather than the services provided by our company, we believe it would have been fairer to leave the one-star rating on the Elafonisi location. This way, the rating would reflect what you were actually unhappy with, without unfairly harming a business that genuinely did its best to make your experience a positive one. Nevertheless, we are sorry that the experience did not meet your expectations, and we respect your opinion.
Overcrowded beach in high season. The beach is not pink in normal sunlight, several pink grains of sand, alpine, and crystal clear, the beach and the square are beautiful, but allformye people. Our operator delivered to us quite early, before 10:00 the beach facilities were overcrowded.
Thank you for sharing your experience. We completely understand your comments, but we would also like to point out that Elafonisi is an extremely popular destination, especially during the peak summer season. With thousands of visitors arriving every day, it is completely natural for the beach to become very crowded, particularly during the busiest hours. The same applies to the sand. When thousands of people walk across the beach every day, it is perfectly normal for the sand to be stepped on and for its natural pink color to be less noticeable than it may appear in photographs or under certain lighting conditions. We are pleased that you found the beach and the area beautiful, with crystal-clear waters and shallow sea. These are natural characteristics of Elafonisi that cannot be controlled by our company. We always do our best to organize our trips and bring our guests as early as possible in order to give them the best experience available. Unfortunately, we cannot control how many other visitors choose to visit Elafonisi on the same day. Thank you again for your feedback, and we hope you understand that some aspects of a world-famous natural destination are simply beyond the control of the tour operator.
Very well organised and fun day tour. Emmanuel and Kostos were both very good and friendly, took very good care of the group.
Beautiful blue and clear water that becomes more beautiful and beautiful during the day. We thought it was worth it. A tip to go early though. We left Chania at 6:30AM given all the reviews about crowds. We were at 8:15AM at the rear main parking lot we were not stopped by anyone at that time. The parking space costs 5 euros you can pay with debit card or cash. There are toilets at 0.50 cents that are really spotless. On the beach there are also toilets for 1 euro. It is then a 10-15 min walk downhill for the disabled not doable because we are concerned. We were at the beach at half past eight and had the beds and umbrellas for choosing. Getting up early not only pays for that but also because you see the beach in its real beauty with hardly any people really beautiful. We lay relaxed in the front row for the rest of the day, 20 euros for two beds and 1 umbrella. From 0945h there is no umbrella and from 1015h there are no cots even without umbrella. From 1030h the crowds start with a lot of people....we left at 14:30h and even then a lot of people still arrived. All in all highly recommended and must if you are on Crete.
Stunning beach and well worth a visit. Only advice would give is to keep in mind there isn’t a lot of shade so take hat/umbrella/water. There are sun-beds with umbrellas but they go quickly. There are 2 canteens on the beach if you want to get some snacks/drinks.
Good price nice place but had a horrible person on our bus who insisted I must not talk on the bus because he wants the bus to be quiet then he went to tell the tour operator who then thought it would be a good idea to ask me (who was on the bus first) to move to another seat?!?! Would of been a great day if it wasn’t for the aggressive man insisting I must not talk and the tour operator basically asking me to move when I was on first and he was the one with the problem!
Hello Katrina, this is Katerina from the office. I sincerely apologize for what happened on the bus. It’s the first time something like this has occurred, and the behavior of that individual caused stress for us as well and was difficult to handle. At the moment, they are asking us for €500 in compensation and have been continuously bothering us since yesterday. Thank you for your comment — we don’t want you to delete it, as it is important evidence. However, it would be great if you could give us 5 stars; if not, we still thank you and apologize again for everything.
I can’t believe it’s only now that I remember to complete this review. We went down to the Elafonissi beach from Rethymno and our guide Lazarus was more than helpful. He also spoke German for the German tourists onboard. On the way there we stopped at a lovely cafe/restaurant within the mountains who provided us with fresh food and orange juice (charge). When we reached the beach, I’d say that there is a mile walk down to the beach itself. It’s not all pink as shown in the photos online but there are some pink bits there and it was SO BEAUTIFUL! When Lazarus saw I was struggling to walking up from the beach to the bus, he asked a staff member to drive me and my partner back up to the bus - Most people were not offered this service, but I was due to my access needs. We also stopped on the way back to Rethymno in this lovely village and Lazarus recommended us some places to eat. I had this honey chicken dish and it was to die for! I would definitely recommend Lazarus and this tour for anyone wanting a nice relaxing day at the beach!
This was a great experience and more than what we expected. A bus picked us up from Rethymno and we drove out to Elafonssi beach. It was approximately a 2 hour drive and well worth it. Kostas was a magnificent driver and maneuvered this huge bus through the mountains and Lazarus was a great guide. You get so much more than what you pay for.
We waited for the bus and sent an app when it didn't come, but we only got a cancellation a half hour later by email without a reason.
| Tour | Duration | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elafonissi Beach from Rethymno | 12 hours | 4.6 (85) | $35 | |
 Elafonissi Beach Trip from Chania | 12 hours | 4.4 (449) | $31 | View |
 Elafonissi Beach Private Custom Tour – Crete’s Pink Sand Paradise | 8 hours | 4.9 (154) | $232 | View |
 Half-Day Rethymno Quad Safari | 4 hours | 4.9 (524) | $70 | View |
 Balos & Falassarna Beach - Jeep Tour with Loungers and Lunch | 7–8 hours | 4.9 (381) | $192 | View |
 Rethymno Old Town: 6-Stop Traditional Cretan Food Tour | 3 hours | 5.0 (53) | $103 | View |
 Private Tour Elafonisi Beach with Honey Olive Oil & Wine Tastings | 7–8 hours | 4.7 (24) | $674 | View |