Vai Palm Beach
The palm beach of Vai (actually: palm forest of Vai, Greek Φοινικόδασος του Βάι ) is located on the east coast of the Greek Mediterranean island of Crete , on the Bay of Grandes (Ormos Grandes) . The Cretan date palm (Phoenix theophrasti) forms the largest natural palm grove in Europe. The beach is named after the small town of Vai one kilometer behind the coast.
According to a Cretan legend , the palm grove was created when pirates, who hid here after their raids, threw away the kernels of the fruits they had eaten, from which palm trees then grew. The palm forest is said to have developed from this over the centuries. However, this is a separate type of palm, different from the real date palm, the fruits of which are rather inedible. Therefore the legend is not tenable.
Vai was “discovered” for tourism in the 1970s by the remaining “ old hippies ” who withdrew from Matala and Preveli .
When the insider tip Vai made the rounds among backpackers across Europe in the mid-1970s, Vai became a mixture of a chaotic campground and garbage dump, to which the law enforcement officers reacted rigorously. Vai was fenced in and declared a nature reserve, and wild campers and the rest of the “hippies” that remained there were driven away with drastic methods. That was very good for the unique biotope, the forest recovered, the beach became clean. Then tourism “rediscovered” Vai. The palm beach, which is part of the property of the Toplou monastery , experienced its second "run" as an attraction for day tourists who arrive there daily with several buses. Today only a narrow strip of the palm forest can be walked on the beach, the rest is not open to the public.
The palm beach is now a tourist stronghold of Eastern Crete, with several thousand visitors every year. Closest towns are Palekastro and Sitia .
Web links
- Vai palm grove. Cretan Beaches, accessed March 14, 2017 .
- Vai. Explore Crete, October 11, 2016, accessed March 14, 2017 .
Coordinates: 35 ° 15 ′ 15 ″ N , 26 ° 15 ′ 53 ″ E