Elafonissi, the famous "pink sand" beach located on the South Coast of Chania region, is one of the main reasons why travellers visit Crete.
In this article, we take a dive into what is hidden below the surface & unknown to most travellers. We'll uncover details to hopefully trigger awareness & true protection of this fragile, beautiful ecosystem.
Just as soon after the scheduled flight from Athens landed to Chania (CHQ) Airport and the passengers started to come out of the terminal, a fellow tour guide of mine approached the gate looking for her guests, holding up a board with their names. A few minutes later, as her guests appeared, one of them, a lady from China, immediately announced in her broken English: I-Want-Piink-Saand!
Probably the best example to realize just how popular Elafonissi Beach is worldwide.
In fact, it is so popular that it has become downright problematic due to over tourism. We need to make vital decisions & take immediate actions that will protect the whole area, for real, according to the needs of this sensitive environment - according to the Greek & EU bureaucracy, this is a protected NATURA 2000 area.
For many, many years now on the island of Crete, we're witnessing the same problems occur around us again and again - problems that are created in the name of a touristic ''development'' (development for whom?) without any sustainable long term plan.
To shed light, raise awareness and bring these problems to the surface (for all visitors of Chania), we are discussing the subjects openly with our guests in person and using our website: https://www.bonnieandclydeurbantours.com/blog & Social media.
Our travel agency promotes eco-responsible travel on a human pace, at its very core.
Chania is both blessed & cursed by having two of the most beautiful beaches, not only in Crete or Greece but worldwide: Elafonissi & Balos. Both are shallow sea water lagoons of extreme beauty and highly sensitive environmental systems. It almost seems like both these sublime beaches escaped from the Caribbean sea for an unknown reason.
The present blogpost deals with realities that Elafonissi faces during the busy Summer months & in the near future, we'll dedicate more space & time in a blogpost for Balos lagoon (from what I read the newspapers, the situation there is very chaotic).
About Elafonissi Beach
Elafonissi is located at the South West part of the Chania region, 70 kms. away from Chania's town centre. It became widely popular & rapidly famous on social media from the "pink sand" & the light blue shallow waters pictures, which are quite stunning & indeed "instagrammable".
First of all, we need to make clear that there is no actual pink sand.
The pink colour comes from an countless number of sea shells (broken from the wind & waves into tiny minuscule pieces) of different colours, size & shapes. This pink shell layer lays on top of the classic beige sand, as it is a lighter weight material, thus creating a surface illusion of pink coloured sand.
unquestionably, collecting "sand" is prohibited.
I repeat:
COLLECTING SAND FROM ELAFONISSI IS PROHIBITED!!
As we mentioned earlier, Elafonissi is part of NATURA 2000, the European network which protects very sensitive environments & eco-systems. This place is defined as a “Site of Community Importance” for the European Union (EU). Unfortunately, this title doesn't seem strong enough for local authorities & big Travel agencies to respect & uphold it.
With an extremely complex & delicate biodiversity system of flora (which includes shore flowers, juniper trees, sand dunes & the underwater vegetation) and fauna (sea turtles, dolphins and many many many very small to tiny sea creatures), it should be expected to be a highly protected area from massive tourism & invasive human activity.
Regrettably, this not the case in Elafonissi.
The Problems
Elafonissi, still today, remains without any control on how many guests may visit it daily, how long can they stay (no visiting hours) & no enforcement of rules of conduct. In parrallel, for the local authorities, success is calculated according to the highest volume of daily visitors, in order to make lots of money by renting umbrellas/sun chairs (30 EURO a pair) & selling ice-cream, coffee, food, etc. in single-use plastic containers. It would appear they believe that since the ecosystem has not collapse yet (a faulty, short-sighted, superficial pseudo-assessment), it can handle even more activity & has not reached its maximum number of daily visitors. Simple, isn't it?
Meanwhile, in other places on our planet such as Thailand (what do they know?), coral damaging sunscreens are Banned from Marine National Parks . The local authorities even Close over-crowded beaches, like Maya Bay on the island of Phi Phi Leh, made incredibly famous by the film The Beach, after most of its coral was destroyed from over-tourism.
Why not here in Crete as well? Who hasn't seen a light film of sunscreen oil floating at the surface of the shallow waters, while walking through endless rows of sunbeds during their visit to Elafonissi? In a NATURA 2000 protected area, could this even be legal? In this case, we've let the wolves become the shepherds.
It's downright no longer possible to pretend that we don't see or hear the problems that over-tourism is creating to small local societies across the globe & Nature's balance.
At the same time, many of the decision which are made by the local authorities often take in important consideration the needs & ''advice'' from big local Tourism Agents, even massive Overseas Tour Operators, according to their profit calculations. This is unquestionably disastrous for the sensitive biodiversity which has no voice of its own.
Cretan Travel agencies are allowed to sell unlimited tours to Elafonissi Beach on a daily basis, without any limits. We literally mean NONE. Literally, one, two, three or even ten 50-seater busses can be sent to Elafonissi beach from one single Tourism Agency. Not to mention the mini busses, the private tours & the public bus access. Add to this hundreds of individual tourists visiting the place with their rented cars, mini vans, scooters, ATV'S, etc. This equals an army of daily visitors, in the search of the "pink sand beach". An explosive cocktail that is even worst than imagination.
Everybody is welcome to ''enjoy'' for at least 3 ½ hours (that's the average stay for a cheap day tour excursion). If time seems too short, you can just snatch some of the "pink sand beach" back home with you. Will there be anyone to stop you?
I repeat:
COLLECTING SAND FROM ELAFONISSI beach
IS PROHIBITED!!
A very interesting piece of information that I would like to know is: how many visitors each Tourism Agency is sending yearly to Elafonissi, during the tourist season. Also, if after all these years of operation and the profits that they have made by selling this day trip excursion all these months, have they:
ever paid some money back in order to protect this unique & fragile ecosystem?
clean the garbage that their tourists leave behind?
if ever organized an action in favor of Elafonissi ?
I would really also like to know how many people should be allowed to visit this place every day, according to NATURA 2000 regulations, without creating any problem to this eco-system. How is it possible for us to accept, that in the name of financial profit for the local authorities, big tour operators, tourism agencies & transfer companies, Elafonissi will turn into an over-touristy waterpark?
Unfortunately, this is the second catastrophic era for Elafonissi, the pink sand beach; the first one was the fishing by using dynamite, a habit dated back in the 80's & 90's. Will there be anything left for the future generations to see? The answer is: we shall see...
In most of the countries on our planet, a place like Elafonissi would be protected by the central governmental & local authorities. No questions about it. Unfortunately not here in Greece.
Some thoughts for a better future
There are many positive actions that if taken from the local authorities, without any financial cost, can change to a better reality immediately :
limited number of daily visitors (that can be based on a proper research assessment)
tourism agencies to pay a small fee per person, that will be used for the maintenance and cleaning of the area
no visitors during local species & animals reproduction period
very limited water sports activities
a big fine for collecting sand, stones, plants etc.
ban the chemical sunscreens & oils
the beach canteen to be forbidden to sell single use plastic material
multilingual written boards that will inform the visitors, of how sensitive & important Elafonissi is for our planet. Knowledge is the best way to protect our Planet.
At Bonnie and Clyde Urban Tours, we'll continue to write articles that promote forward thinking, eco-responsibility, long term sustainability. We create non-touristy tours & experiences to remember back home, in small groups & an environmental-friendly way.
We'll also keep bringing the problems that over-tourism creates to the surface.
- Bonnie and Clyde Urban Tours
Read about the reality in the Juniper forest here 👉🏿 :
