Discover Anissara

Anissara beaches & the coast

Anissaras' beaches are its quiet triumph, and honestly the main reason to choose it over its louder neighbour. Along the headland runs a series of small coves and sandy stretches — soft golden sand, clear and often calm water, and a gentler, more spread-out feel than the packed town beaches of Hersonissos. Many of the large hotels have their own patch of organised beach with loungers and umbrellas, so a day here is an unhurried one: sea, shade, a swim, and not much of a crowd to fight through.

The coast around the Cape Sarandaris headland is the character of the place — low rocky points between the sandy pockets, clear water for a proper swim, and views back along the bay. It is calmer and more refined than the busy central Hersonissos strip, which is exactly the point. If your children want a long, shallow, gentle beach to paddle on, the sands at Stalida a little to the east are the softest option in easy reach.

Be honest with yourself about pace before you book. Anissaras' shore is quieter and more scattered than one big central beach, which is glorious for a peaceful swim-and-lunch day but means less of a single lively beachfront scene. If you want the buzz — watersports lined up, bars behind the sand, the whole promenade — walk the few minutes into Hersonissos and treat Anissaras as your calm retreat to come home to. That balance, quiet base and lively town on tap, is the whole trick of staying here.

Things to do around Anissara

The clever thing about Anissaras is that it borrows all of Hersonissos' amenities while keeping its own quiet. A few minutes' walk or a short taxi brings you to the full run of the town: shops, tavernas, a harbour, waterparks and the buzz when you want it. Close by in Hersonissos is the Aquaworld Aquarium, a small, hands-on aquarium and reptile rescue that is a genuine hit with children, only a couple of kilometres from the enclave.

For a taste of the real Crete, the open-air Lychnostatis Museum near Hersonissos recreates traditional Cretan life — a windmill, an old farmhouse, olive presses and herb gardens — and makes a lovely half-day out of the sun. Inland, the hillside villages of Piskopiano and Koutouloufari sit just above the coast, with old lanes and tavernas serving proper Cretan cooking, while the beaches back down at the shore offer the usual watersports for those who want them.

Anissaras makes a natural launchpad, too. The whole of central Crete opens up from here: the Palace of Knossos and the archaeological museum in Heraklion to the west, the wild Lasithi Plateau and its windmills up in the mountains to the south, and a string of coastal towns east and west. If you like a holiday that mixes lazy beach days with the odd big day out, this calm base gives you the best of both.

A calmer base next to Hersonissos

What people quietly fall for in Anissaras is the balance it strikes. You have the sea, the space and the calm of a refined hotel enclave, yet the full life of Hersonissos — one of Crete's biggest resort towns — is within walking distance when you want it. That means you can have a peaceful morning on a quiet cove, a shady lunch by your pool, and then stroll into town in the evening for the tavernas, the shops and the harbour before drifting back to the quiet to sleep. It is grown-up and unhurried rather than sleepy; you simply choose your own tempo.

Settle in for a day or two and the shape of an Anissaras holiday reveals itself fast: sea and pool in the heat of the day, a siesta through the fierce midday sun, and long, gentle evenings that are as busy or as quiet as you make them. Because the enclave is spread out, a hire car or the local buses are handy for reaching Hersonissos' far end, the villages above, or the beaches east and west — but plenty of guests are happy never to stray far from their patch of sand. That easy calm, with the amenities of a lively town just up the road, is exactly what its returning regulars come back for.

Day trips: Knossos, Lasithi Plateau & the coast

Anissaras' position in central Crete puts a huge amount within an easy drive. West, about half an hour away, is Heraklion, with the extraordinary Bronze Age Palace of Knossos on its edge and one of Greece's finest archaeological museums in the city. East along the coast you reach a run of beaches and resort towns, while the neighbouring sands at Stalida and lively Hersonissos are a five-minute hop in either direction.

For a change from the coast, climb south into the mountains to the Lasithi Plateau, a high green bowl ringed by peaks and dotted with old windmills, with the Diktaean Cave — mythical birthplace of Zeus — on its rim. It is cooler up there, wonderfully scenic, and a world apart from the beach. A word on driving: Crete's coast road is fast and good, but the mountain lanes wind, so allow more time than the map suggests. For the longer days many visitors prefer an organised trip with a driver-guide, which your GoToBeach team can help arrange alongside your stay and your airport transfers.