Things to do in Stalida and Malia

Stalida and Malia sit next to each other on Crete's north coast, inside the roughly 20-km package strip that runs from Hersonissos to Malia on an island that stretches about 260 km east to west — so treat this as one dense holiday stretch, not a preview of the rest of Crete.

Both are on the KTEL coach line linking Heraklion and Agios Nikolaos, with Stalida the quieter, family-leaning end and Malia carrying the bulk of the beach bars and nightlife. The season runs May to October, with July and August the hottest and busiest, when sunbeds fill early and prices peak.

For a change of pace, the Minoan palace of Malia, a short trip inland from the resort, gives a couple of hours of ruins and history rather than sand. This is not the calm, traditional Crete of a mountain village — it is a working resort strip, and it reads that way from June through September.