It’s not just sun, sea, sand and all-night parties – there are plenty of things to do in Malia besides. Malia, like neighbour Hersonissos, has long attracted the party crowd, but it’s also hugely popular with families planning their two weeks in the summer sun. And there’s another side to Malia – it has a beautiful Old Town, a World Heritage Site on its outskirts, AND it’s one of the best bases for day trips in Crete.
We stayed in Malia for most of the three-month summer season, staying on because it made such a brilliant base for exploring the central and eastern parts of the island.
In this article I’ll show you all the Malia sights including its famous beaches, its Old Town and more. I’ll also show you some of the places you can visit from Malia on day trips, including some off-road tours in the nearby mountains, to give you an idea of what you can see from there. I’ll also suggest places to stay in Malia. I hope you find it informative and helpful.
Best Day Tours From Malia
Santorini Day Tour From Malia – it’s a long way and a long day, but you can get there and back, with six hours on the island – enough to see the magical caldera views from the villages of Oia and Fira
Crete 4 x 4 Safari – a trip into the mountains visiting the Lassithi Plateau and the legendary Zeus’ Cave
Spinalonga, Elounda, Agios Nikolaos, Boat Tour & BBQ – the fascinating former leper colony island, stunning coastal scenery, swimming stops and a beach barbecue
Visit Some Malia Beaches
There are some outstanding Malia beaches, particularly as you head away from the town centre in either direction. The town grew from a small village to one of the biggest resorts in Crete on the back of them, and the location is wonderful.
Most of the ‘beaches’ in Malia are actually one single, long beach, which for the sake of simplicity I call ‘Malia Beach’. Each section of Malia Beach has been given a name, usually after the bar that runs the lounger and umbrella concession, and some names have changed over time. The sections are all typically ‘organised’, so you have to pay for use of a set of loungers with a single sun umbrella – usually around €10, though prices tend to drop the further you go away from the town centre.
If you turn left at the bottom of the Malia ‘strip’ (of bars, restaurants and clubs), the first part of the beach, before the Aeolos Bar, is very narrow, but as you walk west – in the ultimate direction of Stalis beach – you’ll find wider sections of beach and more empty sand. Kernos Beach, and beyond it, Ikaros Beach and Alexander Beach are all a bit more spacious than the beaches near the centre of town.
To the east of Malia town centre, Pyrgos Beach is the best section of beach, with plenty of sand for kids to run around on – thankfully the space isn’t all taken up with loungers and umbrellas.
Where To Stay Near The Beaches In Malia
**** – Drossia Palms Hotel and Nisos Beach Suites – unbeatable location right on the beachfront, and a fantastic sunset spot
**** – Parthenis Beach Suites By The Sea – another superb beachfront location, near some of the wider sections of beach
**** – Pyrgos Beach Hotel Apartments – one of the best aparthotels on the eastern side of Malia, halfway to Potamos Beach from the centre
Explore Malia Old Town
Malia Old Town, just to the south of the main road through the town, is a different world from the strip of bars and clubs to the north.
Malia has history (see the Minoan Palace later in the article), but the Old Town is relatively recent, from the 19th and 20thcenturies. It’s a little labyrinth of side streets, whitewashed houses, small squares and churches, especially enjoyable early in the morning or in the evening when you miss the heat of the day. The area has a healthy population of street cats, and walking around there every day for three months meant we soon had our own posse.
Eat Out In One Of The Old Town Restaurants
But the highlight of Malia Old Town is its restaurant scene, which is marvellous. We ate at several of them over the course of our three-month stay, and everywhere was pretty close to faultless.
Special mention goes to the Stone House Restaurant on the side street opposite Agios Nektarios Church, and also to Avli, its neighbour with tables on the stepped street leading into the Old Town.
Head right at the top of the steps, past a tiny whitewashed church on the right, and you’ll come to the bougainvillea-covered Odas Taverna, another of the top restaurants in the area. And less than five minutes away, in another intimate square next to a church, is the flower-decked San Giorgio restaurant, decorated with blooms as beautiful as anywhere we’ve seen on the whole island.
Where To Stay In Malia Old Town
**** – Stelios Residence Apartments – aparthotel with swimming pool on the edge of Malia Old Town
**** – Sarpidon Apartments – aparthotel with pool and all facilities, in the heart of the Old Town
24-7 Boutique Hotel – studios with swimming pool, again in great location in the backstreets of Malia Old Town
A Sugar Rush At Savoidakis Bakery
Our eyes lit up the moment we saw the Malia branch of this Cretan bakery near our hotel. We lived a 5-minute walk from the Rethymno branch for two months, and rare was the night I didn’t pop down the hill for a sugary treat.
As well as the cakes they also bake bread and various savouries, including my regular lunch, spinach and feta pie. They also serve coffee and ice cream on the terrace outside, looking out over Malia’s main square and St Nektarios’ church.
I also have to commend them for the excellent job they did baking my son’s 9th birthday cake in the style of a Star Wars stormtrooper’s helmet. They’re open from 6.00 am until 10.00pm daily.
Malia Minoan Palace
The Palace site two miles east of Malia – and very close to Potamos Beach – is one of the most significant Minoan sites in Crete. It’s one of the largest so-called palatial sites on the island, a large complex of buildings that may have been part-palace, part-town.
The Malia Minoan Palace was built in an amazing location, with the sea a few hundred metres away in one direction and the Dikti mountains a few miles to the south. In 2025 it became part of the Minoan Palatial Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with Knossos and four others.
Malia’s Minoan site was probably first occupied around 2500 BC, and as was the case with the other Minoan sites around the island, it’s likely that three different palaces were built on the site over the course of several hundred years, with a natural disaster – perhaps earthquakes in Santorini to the north, or a resulting tsunami.
The site is extensive, and excavated foundations of buildings is what you will mostly see. There is a large central court area, which suggests that part of the site was indeed a palace. And you’ll also see several reassembled pithoi, large storage jars, around the site. For more of an idea of the civilisation that lived there, I strongly suggest visiting Heraklion Archaeological Museum at some point during your trip to Crete.
Getting there: Catch one of the regular buses from Malia to Agios Nikolaos (or beyond to Ierapetra or Sitia) and ask to alight at stop 36. The Palace is a 200-metre walk from there.
Time Out at Potamos Beach
Malia’s two best beaches are at either end of the town – Potamos Beach to the east, and Stalis (sometimes called Stalida) to the west.
Potamos Beach – a short walk from the Minoan Palace site – is the quieter of the two, with a few restaurants and not much else close by, while Stalis is right next to a busy village.
Potamos consists of one large beach, three small partly rocky coves and another longer beach stretching to the west. The shallow waters off the shore make it ideal for families, and kids can have a great time paddling there or learning to swim.
It’s also a lovely place to watch the sunset, with a centuries-old amphora (small storage jar) on a rocky headland making it a wonderfully evocative sight.
Getting there: It’s a 2-mile, 30-to-40-minute walk from Malia town centre. Or you could catch the Agios Nikolaos-bound bus to stop 36 and walk the 500 metres from there. Taxis cost €9-10 one way.
Family Fun At Stalis Beach
Stalis Beach – also known as Stalida Beach – is at the far western end of Malia, just before the bend in the coast that separates it from Hersonissos.
It’s a long, sandy beach, wide in some parts, narrower in others. And it has a lengthy shelf of sand extending from the beach, which means there’s a large area of shallow water perfect for paddling. It makes it a great beach for families, and this is why many of them decide to stay in Stalis for their family holiday.
The beach routine is the same as most places in Greece, with a charge (usually €6-8, less than you’d pay on Malia Beach) for a set of two sunbeds and a parasol. Bars on the main street have gardens at the back which extend to the beach, mostly serving typical Greek classics.
It’s a wonderful spot, busy but without the nightlife of Malia, so considerably quieter!
Malia Nightlife
We didn’t visit Malia for its nightlife, rather as a base for travelling up and down the coast and inland on day trips. I didn’t visit when I was the age of the target market for pool parties, booze promotions, all-nighters (though I managed a fair few of them…) and the like. But this is what many, particularly in their teens and twenties, come to Malia to enjoy.
The street leading from the main square and town centre – Mattheou Zachariadi, which later joins Dimokratias – is about a mile (1.6 km) long, and packed with pubs, bars and clubs like the popular Apollo Malia. I knew the owner of the latter, and suffice to say that it was rare for him to surface before 5.00 pm!
There can be some night-time noise, especially close to the main strip, but generally the further you are from there, the quieter it tends to be.
Around Malia
Sissi
Sissi is the easternmost village of the heavily touristed section of the north Crete coast that stretches from west of Heraklion. It’s one of the prettiest villages in Crete, but oddly is a little cut off from the rest of the tourist strip because no buses run there.
We were nonplussed by this as Sissi is gorgeous, and there were plenty of tour buses parked along the roads into the village. The main thing to see is the picturesque harbour, with a tiny, crowded beach, cold and clear estuary water, with the whitewashed village and peaks of the Dikti mountain range forming a stunning backdrop. I recommend the walk down the hill through the flower gardens of the Palm Bay Hotel, where it’s wonderfully cool and shady.
We’ve been told that the food at the restaurants around the harbour and shoreline is great, but opted for dinner at the Anixi Apartments taverna instead – and it was tremendous. You also get a fantastic view of the summer sunset from there.
It’s a €15-20 taxi ride from the centre of Malia, otherwise the buses to Agios Nikolaos drop you off on the main road, seemingly in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and from which it’s a 2.5 km walk with the sun on your back to the village.
Lassithi Plateau
The stunning Lassithi Plateau is an hour’s drive high into the mountains above Malia and Hersonissos. It’s a small area, surrounded by peaks which are often snowbound for much of the winter. The meltwater from the mountains is what makes this area exceptionally fertile, and vegetables grown there are greatly praised in Cretan culinary circles. I’m not a great potato connoisseur, but the Lassithi potatoes I tried must be the best I’ve ever had anywhere in the world.
It’s a beautiful landscape with a few windmills across the fields, and irrigation channels keeping the crops watered through the long, hot summers. High above the Plateau, at Psichro, you can walk up the hill for 15 minutes to Zeus’ Cave, the legendary birthplace of the god of gods.
Frequent tours from Malia and elsewhere along the coast run to the Lassithi Plateau, including this Lassithi, Zeus Cave and olive mill tour. There is also the option of a tour of Lassithi Plateau and Knossos.
Spinalonga
Many day trips from Heraklion, Hersonissos and Malia head to Spinalonga, a tiny fortress island off the northeast Crete coast where leprosy sufferers were confined in isolation until the late 1950s.
The leper colony was set up on an island originally fortified by the occupying Venetians in the late 16th century. Most excursions to Spinalonga include at least one other element, whether it’s a visit to Agios Nikolaos or, more commonly, some swimming time in the clear waters around the Kalydon Peninsula to the south of the island.
This tour from Heraklion and resorts along the north coast visits Spinalonga, Agios Nikolaos, Elounda village and a swimming stop off the coast.
This Spinalonga, Agios Nikolaos and Kolokitha beach barbecue tour is a variant on this, with a swimming break off Kolokitha and a barbecue meal on the beach afterwards.
Lychnostatis Museum
Lychnostatis Open Air Museum is just beyond the town boundary of Malia, and past the bend of the coast road leading into Hersonissos. It’s one of the best things to do in Hersonissos, and one of the best museums in Crete, a series of recreated buildings and rooms documenting rural life in Crete in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
I’ve always been a big fan of this type of Museum, and it’s also one of the best of its kind anywhere in Europe.
Start in the gardens with displays of plants, trees and grapes grown in Crete, and there are some fascinating outbuildings like the drystone mitato (shepherd’s hut) and the whitewashed chapel by the seashore.
The rooms inside the main building range from a middle-class Heraklion family’s bedroom to a beautifully arranged farmhouse, and there’s also a small exhibit on the 19th-century Cretan Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule.
The entire Museum is superbly curated and designed, and the storerooms stacked with herbs and dried flowers deserve a special mention. Opening times – are 9.00 am to 2.00 pm every day except Saturday.
You can book your Lychnostatis Museum tickets here.
Hersonissos
Hersonissos is Malia’s sibling in sun-soaked foam parties and all-nighters followed by all-dayers sleeping it off in full-blast air conditioning. Some of us have been there, some not. And like Malia, Hersonissos also attracts many families looking for a fortnight of seaside and sun.
Most of the Hersonissos beaches tend to be quite small, narrow and packed with umbrellas – there’s only a bit more sand space when you venture beyond the town, particularly to lovely Gefyri and Sarantari beaches, just to the north.
Hersonissos does have some great boat trips, from full-on adrenaline rush of this Hersonissos jet boat ride with snorkelling to the relaxed vibe of a sunset cruise around nearby bays.
It also has the wonderful Aqua World Aquarium and Reptile Rescue Centre, a much more intimate, family-run affair than nearby CretAquarium. As well as some fantastic fish kids can handle some of the non-venomous snakes and other creatures in the sheltered area at the back. It’s one of Our Little Man’s favourite places to visit in Crete.
The Hersonissos Villages
The three hillside villages above Hersonissos offer a brief, quiet retreat from the busy, brash resort on the coast. Old Hersonissos, Piskopiano and Koutouloufari have superb views over the countryside and coastline below, and merge into each other on the hillside high above the town, close to the main Crete motorway. A few people I spoke to described them as a taste of ‘the real Crete’. I’m not entirely sure about that, but they do make a pleasant break from the hubbub down the hill for a while.
The villages mostly date from the 19th and 20th centuries. There are a few picturesque streets and churches, a few flower-decked restaurants, and in Piskopiano, a beautiful small Rural Life Museum that, if you enjoy Lychnostatis, is also well worth seeing.
The main thing to do in all three villages is eating and drinking at the local restaurants and bars. The three villages all get a fair share of visitors, but it’s quiet and sleepy compared to Hersonissos just down the hill. And that’s their charm and appeal, a little like Malia Old Town a few miles down the road.
Water City, Dinosauria Park and CretAquarium
These three big-ticket Crete family attractions are on the main road across northern Crete, close to the village of Gournes. If you’re visiting Crete with kids, you’re sure to be visiting at least one of them, perhaps all three.
Water City is great fun, with long water slides galore and the quieter option of a lazy river ride or a jacuzzi. It’s a great family day out and you can book your tickets here. Alternatively, you can book Water City tickets and transfer too.
Dinosauria Park is another great place to visit with kids. My son loved the many animatronic figures, including a few lesser-known species we weren’t expecting. We also enjoyed the ‘dinosaur hospital’, where we watched a hatchling emerge into the world!
The CretAquarium is a mile’s walk from Dinosauria Park, overlooking a small beach. It has a great collection of sea creatures, showcasing the marine life of the island in a state-of-the-art setting with some great ambient music. We combined it with the dinosaurs, on an easy day trip from Malia by bus. Alight at bus stop 9 which is very close to Dinosauria Park. You can also pre-book CretAquarium tickets here.
Heraklion
If possible, I suggest spending at least one day in Heraklion during your time in Crete. The island’s capital isn’t the most attractive city you’ll ever visit, but for history, it’s as fascinating as they come.
The reason most people set foot in Heraklion is for visiting Knossos Palace, the famous Minoan site to the south of the city. The Bronze Age complex is over 3,500 years old – a millennium older than the great monuments of Classical Greece – and it’s the second most-visited ancient site in Greece after the Parthenon in Athens.
Replicas of the great artworks found there can still be seen, while the originals are held in the extraordinary Heraklion Archaeological Museum, one of the greatest museums of its kind in the world.
Heraklion Old Town also rewards a wander, with some lovely Venetian fountains, the Ottoman-style Agios Titos Church and the Venetian-built Koules, one of the finest castles in Crete built to defend the Venetian Harbour.
There are other things to do in Heraklion besides, not least more intriguing museums (Cretan History Museum, Natural History Museum of Crete) and Ammoudara Beach, a great place to sit by the sea for a while, two miles (3 km) west of the city centre.
Tours: This is the best Heraklion tour, including Knossos, the superb Archaeological Museum and over two hours to explore the historic centre of the city
Things To Do In Malia – Final Thoughts
I hope you have found this article helpful. I know I had a few preconceptions about Malia before staying there – and hopefully this guide has convinced you that there’s much more to it than parties and pubs.
We have spent over eight months in Crete, and written many articles on the island. Here is a selection for you to peruse:
Hersonissos or Malia – which is better for you?
Things To Do In Chania – discover the most beautiful city in Crete, indeed, perhaps, Greece
Pink Beaches In Crete – the 3 stunning pink sand beaches to visit on Crete
Famous Landmarks In Crete To Visit – from Knossos to its most famous beaches, gorges and more
Kedrodasos Beach – glorious pristine beach and coves in a grove of rare juniper trees
Things To Do In Rethymno – discovering Crete’s enchanting third city
Rethymno Beaches – 20 of the best beaches in Rethymno province in central and western Crete
Bali Crete Beaches – guide to all 5 beaches in this beautiful north coast village
Things To Do In Heraklion – discover the greatly underrated capital of Crete
Visiting Knossos Palace Crete – the foremost ancient Minoan site in the world
Santorini Day Trip From Crete – the full lowdown on a day trip to Santorini from Crete
Panormos Crete – complete guide to this charming fishing village on Crete’s north coast
Arkadi Monastery Crete – fascinating monastery and church, site of infamous massacre during the Cretan Revolt
Kalypso Beach Crete – a fjord, of all things, in Crete – and one of the best places to swim and snorkel in Greece