Glaria island private boat tour

We leave the Marina of Agios Nikolaos in the morning or afternoon.

The first thing you see is the town from the water: the white buildings, the harbour, the hills behind. It looks different from out here.

The boat follows the coastline north. Past the last resorts the coast quietens down; this stretch is active dive territory underwater.

Then the Elounda area opens up: the flat water of the canal, the bay in front of you, and in the shallows the traces of Olous, an ancient city that now sits mostly under the sea. We continue along the Kalydon coast, the long Spinalonga peninsula (not the island, the peninsula that shares its name).

Glaria Island sits facing the bay of Agios Fokas. It is a small islet but it has presence: wild, no facilities, no dock, no beach bar. It is also known locally for the Barbarossa cave: one of those places with a story (or legend?) about treasure and an old corsair. We stop close enough to see the cave entrance and take the photo with it behind you.

The beach in Glaria Island is tiny. The water in front of it is that blue-green that looks edited in photos but isn’t: clear to the bottom, the colour of places that you don’t forget. The islet is a refuge for seabirds, in particular seagulls, and it is left to them.

We anchor, swim, eat. Sometimes the captain adds a stop along the way: another bay, if the conditions are right.

On the return we pass the uninhabited island of Agii Pandes, home to Crete’s wild Kri-Kri goats. If the conditions are right and there is time, we stop for a swim. The captain reads the sea and decides.