Balos Beach and Lagoon

The Balos Lagoon offers a beautiful scenery dominated by the massif of the Gramvousa Peninsula, the island of Tigani, and a large laggon with white-and-pink fine sand and shallow water, making it possible to walk and wade through the water even a several dozens of metres from the coast.

The Balos Lagoon has between  450-500 m in diamater and it is closed from all sides. Right opposite the access path, the small island of Tigani is located (with about 700 m in diameter and a height of 117 m), connected to the mainland in the southern part with an about 35 m wide rock bank protruding above sea level up to 50-100 cm. Tigani looks like a frying pan which gave the name to the island resembling a frying pan turned upside down.

The northern part of the Balos Lagoon is open to the sea, and in this direction, you can also see the Gramvousa island, renowned for its old Venetian fortress from 1582 (there are more islands in this direction but Gramvousa is the very first one).

What to do on Balos Beach

Near the Balos Lagoon, there is about a 20-50 m wide and almost 800 m long sandy beach. If you come to Balos with your you will drive ove rthe whole Gramvousa island, and finally you will need to park about 1 300 m from the beach on the peak of the island. Near the car park there is a small refreshment facility which comes in handy especially when travelling back from the lagoon. Then you can walk on a simple path down approximately to the middle of the beach. To the right, there stretches a 400 m long sandy beach, to the left this beach is getting narrow until becoming a 20 m long stretch of land with a tavernad and a nice sit-down in the shade at its end (there is no shade anywhere else in the laggon). 

If you continue further behind the taverna, the sand will pass to the rock bank - which is not a compact stretch of rock but rather jagged rocks with water flowing through them and which are poured over with sea water when the waves are huge. In many places, small pools have formed in the rock, which dry up and salt builds up in them. Then the service of the taverna goes there with a ladle and a basket to pick the salt - near the taverna (named Balos, of course), you can notice a tray with a shiny white fabric - this is where the gathered salt is left to dry completely.

The clefts in the rock or the pools are about 20-50 cm and it is not difficult to walk through them up to the island of Tigani. If you walk through this path, you will find yourself right opposite the island of Gramvousa. There you will stand on the fine sand, with the beautiful Balos lagoon with turquoise blue water in front of you, and  the 700 metres high rock ridge of Gramvousa towering above all that. The Balos Lagoon has almost no waves and it is only about 5 to 20 cm deep. The deepest place of the lagoon is the underwater ‘channel’ from where water is draining off that got there through the stone transition to the Tigani island. Yet even this deepest point is mostly about 100-120 cm deep, so you can walk through it with no difficulty. On the beach you will walk out about 100 m from the path on which you arrived at the lagoon.

The Balos Lgoon can be walked all around and it is not difficult to find there a place where no one will disturb you and where you can fully savour the beauty of this place.

How to get to the Balos Beach/Lagoon?

During the top season, there are boat trips being organized to the Gramvousa island and the Balos Lagoon, departing from the port near the town of Kissamos/Kasteli. The trip to Gramvousa / Balos is an all-day one, and first the visitors go to the Gramvousa island where they visit the old Venetian fortress of Gramvousa, and then continue to the Balos Lagoon wherethey have some time to to bathe. Then they go back in the late afternoon.

There is one for way to the Balos Lagoon, yet suitable for very experienced travellers; since the journey on the completely bare slope of the Gramvousa island with scree fields and sometimes almost vertical walls that need to be overcome take the whole day. The way through the west coast of the Gramvousa Peninsula to Balos starts at the beach of Falasarna and it is one of the most difficult paths on Crete.

Balos Beach/Lagoon: Location

The Balos Lagoon is located at the end of the Gramvousa promontory / peninsula in the north-west part of Crete.

Accommodation near Balos

There are no accommodation facilities on the Gramvousa Peninsula or near the Balos Lagoon. Sometimes people sleep there in a tent though.