According to villa rental company CV Villas, Greece has five of Europe’s top ten bluest waters, backed by science. A recent investigation revealed that two of these magnificent beaches are in Crete.
Researchers compiled a list of the most popular and beautiful beaches. They then performed a color analysis by taking unedited images from Google Maps and using a color dropper tool. The exact shades of waters were obtained, and then compared to the official shade of YInMn Blue, officially the bluest of blues.
Voulisma Beach (Instagram above) in Crete, which took sixth place in the list, is about 12km east of Agios Nikolaos, a fantastic town on Maribello Bay to the East of Crete’s capital, Heraklion. Voulisma, which means white sand, has unbelievably clear blue-green waters offshore. This natural wonder is near Istron, one of the island’s most interesting and beautiful areas.
The order of beaches with the bluest waters in Europe is as follows (Greek beaches in bold):
- Pasqyra (Mirror Beach), Albania
- Bouka (Long Beach), Greece
- Kassiopi, Greece
- Plage de la Vernette, France
- Kaputa, Turkey
- Voulisma, Greece
- Foki, Greece
- Praia do Carvalho, Portugal
- Ombros Gialos, Greece
- Los Lances Beach, Spain
The Instagram above shows off Ombros Gialos (or Ombrosgialos), which came in at 9th position. This relatively unorganized beach is just over 25km from Chania Town on the East coast of Drapanokefala. The rocky beach affords snorkelers and scuba divers perfect waters for exploring the seabed. This remote beach is accessible by boat or car from Georgioupolis or Kalives.
Image credit: The featured image is courtesy of Mistral Mara Hotel, a fabulous 4-star hotel overlooking Blue Flag Voulisma (Golden) Beach.