Malia

Malia lies on the north coast of Crete, in the eastern part of the Heraklion regional unit, about 35 kilometres east of the city and its airport and just beyond the resort of Hersonissos. It is one of the island's best-known package destinations, and its reputation rests on two very different things: a long strip of bars and clubs that draws a young summer crowd, and a major archaeological site that draws anyone with an interest in the ancient Aegean.

The resort itself divides neatly. Along the coast runs the beach zone, where a wide sweep of soft golden sand and shallow water backs onto a promenade of tavernas, sun loungers and water sports. The main beach shelves gently and suits families by day, while the parallel club strip comes alive after dark in high season. Away from the seafront, the old town of Malia climbs the hillside in a tangle of narrow lanes, whitewashed houses, small churches and family-run tavernas, keeping the character of the farming and fishing village that existed here long before mass tourism.

A short distance east of the resort stands the Palace of Malia, the third-largest of the Minoan palaces after Knossos and Phaistos. Built and rebuilt between roughly 1900 and 1450 BC on a coastal plain, it retains a broad central court, storerooms lined with great clay jars, a pillared hall and the celebrated kernos, a round offering stone. Because it sits on flat open ground and has not been reconstructed like Knossos, it is unusually easy to read as a plan, and it is quieter to visit.

Beyond palace and beach, Malia makes a practical base for eastern Crete. The fertile Malia plain produces the potatoes for which the town is known across Greece, the Lasithi Plateau and its windmills lie inland, and the resorts and antiquities of the coast are within easy reach. Late spring and early autumn bring warm swimming and the archaeology without the peak-season noise, while July and August are hot, crowded and at their most boisterous after dark.