Crete Paradise – Gramvousa and The Balos Lagoon

It’s time to discuss one of my favourite trips whilst I was in Crete back in May. Sit back and enjoy while I talk you through this little bit of paradise, the islands Gramvousa and the Balos Lagoon.

Like Elafonissi, we booked our trip through Klados Travel and again, it couldn’t have been easier to arrange. A coach comes and picks you up outside your hotel and takes you straight to the port of Kissamos. There you hop on board the ferry (which is super fun and you’ll get to take in some real beauty as you sail around Crete) and head towards your first of two stops, Gramvousa. This island is where Princess Diana and Prince Charles honeymooned. They had their pictures leaked to the press and all the paparazzi flew out to the Caribbean as they assumed that’s where they were due to how blue the water is. Crazy!

I would advise you to either buy food and drink on the boat or come prepared with something already, as there is literally nothing to buy on this virtually untouched island. Two things to point out are that you don’t need to worry about taking a sun umbrella as you can rent them directly from the ferry and that there aren’t any sunbeds on the islands, so if you’re not a lover of sand this may not be the most ideal trip for you.

You have around 2 hours at Gramvousa which sounds like a long time but in actual fact, it wasn’t long enough! The island and its turquoise blue waters really took my breath away. I just couldn’t wait to jump straight in and go for a refreshing swim. You can also walk up the hill where you can find the castle which was built by the Venetians to protect Crete from the Turkish invasion back in the day (can you tell that I forgot the exact date…). We unfortunately didn’t have time to walk up the hill as we were too busy swimming and taking in the natural beauty of Gramvousa, but we will definitely be sure to check it out next time.

It was time to head back to the ferry and onto our next stop, which was to Balos. It took around 20 minutes to reach the island and again, the only word for it was wow! Just simply wow. We had around 2 hours at the lagoon and it was just perfect from start to finish.

This was literally the best place to relax and take everything in. I didn’t realise the beauty that I could find in Crete and there is still so much for me left to see, as there are so many reasonably-priced tours to go on or you could just rent a car and drive around the island at your leisure, which would be something else all on its own.

I was so sad to leave the lagoon, but we had to head back to the ferry, where we had around an hour left on-board so we had a cheeky cocktail or two and some food. It’s such a beautiful trip on the ferry and you get to see so much with sailing through Kissamos Bay. You even pass by a cave that served as an ancient shipyard surrounded by the beauty of the Cretan ocean.

The trip does get very popular as there’s only one ferry, so make sure to book your tickets in advance. I honestly can’t recommend this trip enough, it’s definitely one of my favourites of all time.

Have you been to Crete? Have you been to the Balos Lagoon? Can you recommend any more trips to me?

Comment below and subscribe so you can be informed of my next post 🙂

Follow: