0Aproveitando ao máximo a praia

Most peo­ple visi­ting Cre­te for a holi­day will be plan­ning to visit the bea­ch. The­re isn’t much nee­ded for a quick dip in the sea other than swimwe­ar and a towel, but the­re are other things you might want to think about taking to enhan­ce the expe­ri­en­ce, espe­ci­ally if you plan to spend lots of time on the beach

Água gelada

After an hour on the bea­ch, or an acci­den­tal mouth­ful of seawa­ter I’m always ready for some cold fresh water. In typi­cal Cre­tan sum­mer tem­pe­ra­tu­res it’s also impor­tant for your health to hydra­te regu­larly. Para a água mais refrescante, colocamos um copo meio cheio 2 litre bot­tle of water in the fre­e­zer over­night slo­ped sligh­tly upward (descanse em algo) so the neck is cle­ar. The next day top it up to full from a new bot­tle, e depois coloca o novo, e agora meio cheio, bot­tle in the fre­e­zer in pla­ce of the one you just remo­ved. The one you just remo­ved is now half-ice and half water. By the time you’­ve tra­vel­led to the bea­ch and have had a bathe or a laze for a few minu­tes most of the ice will have mel­ted and the water will be ice-cold.

Óculos, mascarar & Snorkel

The water on Cre­te is beau­ti­fully cle­an and cle­ar so snor­kel­ling and diving are highly recom­men­ded. If you only have gog­gles the­se add plenty of fun, but a full snor­kel, mascarar, and flip­pers is even bet­ter. I recom­mend taking some che­ap tooth­pas­te to cle­an the insi­de of your mask to pre­vent it ste­a­ming up.

Balde & Pá

If you have kids a buc­ket and spa­de are essen­ti­al, but even adults can have fun — may­be you want to dig a big hole and bury your mate in it for a funny pho­to. The buc­ket will also pro­ve use­ful if you want to try your hand at cat­ching any sea cre­a­tu­res but remem­ber to put them back afterwards.

Pão & uma rede

Se você quiser ver (and or cat­ch) anything the best thing to do is take a bit of old bre­ad with you. Chuck a lit­tle into the sea and the­re will soon be a lar­ge num­ber of fish enjoying it. If you want to have a go at cat­ching any then you’ll need a net, but they’­re usu­ally fas­ter than you, so without the bre­ad you’­re unli­kely to have much suc­cess. Some bea­ches have rock pools whe­re you can cat­ch lit­tle fish, caramujos, camarão, and baby crabs but you should put them back very soon — a small buc­ket of water will very quic­kly warm up and your cat­ches will die in minu­tes in the overhe­a­ted (and deoxy­ge­na­ted) água.

Câmera impermeável

You might alre­ady have a came­ra or pho­ne with came­ra that you take to the bea­ch, but a water­pro­of acti­on cam (como um profissional) é muito mais seguro e pode ir no mar com você também. The­re are plenty of lit­tle 4k acti­on cams onli­ne for a lot less than a GoPro.

Cadeira de acampamento

If you like to spend a few hours rela­xing on the bea­ch then it is nice to be able to sit. Some bea­ches have sun­beds but you usu­ally have to pay for the­se, and many of the nicest bea­ches are off-the-bea­ten-track and so don’t have any faci­li­ti­es. A lit­tle camp chair or sto­ol makes it much easi­er and nicer to sit on the bea­ch whilst rea­ding a book or lis­te­ning to a podcast.

Beach ‘mat’

Simi­lar to a camp chair, a pad­ded bea­ch mat is much nicer to lie on than a towel, and also fre­es up your towel for use as a pil­low whilst sun­bathing and reading.

Barraca pop-up

We first took a pop-up tent to Cre­te when we took my eldest child, quem era mero 6 semanas de idade na época! It was essen­ti­al that she was fully pro­tec­ted from the UV, and also that her mother had some pri­vacy for fee­ding her. The tent pro­ved immen­sely use­ful not just for child pro­tec­ti­on but also as a spa­ce to keep keys, pho­nes, livros, água, etc fora do sol, fora do vento, e fora do caminho de qualquer areia. Ours is only about 1m squa­re and just over 1m high, but it twists to fold up into a bag and beco­mes the size of a small-ish bicy­cle whe­el. This means it can just about be sque­e­zed into a lar­ge suitcase.

Sapatos de água

Water-safe sho­es are really use­ful for 2 rea­sons. Firs­tly becau­se the sand on most bea­ches will be hot enough to burn your feet for most of the day in sum­mer, so some footwe­ar is essen­ti­al. Whilst san­dals and flip-flops do a per­fec­tly good job on the bea­ch, it is really handy being able to keep your sho­es on when you rea­ch the water, espe­ci­ally if the ground is rocky under the sea as many of the cle­a­rest bea­ches are. Water sho­es will also pro­tect you from acci­den­tally step­ping on an ane­mo­ne whi­ch can be painful.

Lilo

A lilo is nice to flo­at lazily on if the sea is calm, mas não se afaste e se afaste! It can also be a lot of fun to bat­tle over with fri­ends — tip­ping each other off. Don’t make the mis­ta­ke of lying on it on the bea­ch though as you are almost cer­tain to punc­tu­re it.

Frisbee, bastão & conjunto de bola

No mat­ter who you’­re at the bea­ch with, once the most inten­se heat has drop­ped off in the later after­no­on it’s gre­at to be able to play some games on the bea­ch. The­re are lots of types of water-pro­of balls and friz­be­es that flo­at that can be thrown around or a bat and ball set.