Lake Kourna is a place where you can enjoy your swimming without a salt in your hair. When you come to this place, you will feel a bit like at “Mácháč” (Máchovo Lake in the Czech Republic). It is admirable how much you can feel that you are not by the sea but by the lake. Near the lake you can find a cave which is not accessible in way of guided tour, but you can get in only with a flashlight and keeper’s keys on your own. If you would like to go in, you should find the keeper near an entrance.
A road around the lake is crowded of parking free signs, but in fact, there are two or three parking at all which are accessible from all sides by arrows. They are really free so you do not have to be scared to take the first free parking lot. If you go down to the lake, you will park practically on the beach which is fine, because you will save a lot of time on the road from anywhere to anywhere.
There are free deckchairs on the beach, in the fresh water is possible to swim but the beach is not very nice, for swimming is much better to borrow a pedal boat and ride to the other side of the lake where you can see a typical postcard shot from Kourna Lake. You can perfectly split the difference with touts even at half price. We had the pedal boat for 5 people for 5€ per hour out of a season. If there is very hot weather, the best idea is to borrow the pedal boat with a chute, it is a lot of fun.
In nearby taverns, there are very pleasant prices and view too, so you can take a break for lunch by the in the middle of your trip.
Because of a sweet water and mainly because of non-typical beach there, it is rather stop on your road from somewhere to somewhere, there are no changing rooms or shower available. Toilet is better to use in any of the nearby taverns. You do not have worry about search they are marked already from the beach.
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The road to the lake has again two options. If you are an adherent of narrow Greek hairpin bends and dramatic avoiding the oncoming traffic, you can use the variant through Episkopi, whence is possible to keep the road according to signs to Kourna. If you want to avoid narrow alleys, is possible to use exit to Episkopi (the first one on the road from Chania) from the main road Rethymno-Chania, which already leads directly to Kourna which is very close.
The beach by the lake is characteristic like a stop on your road, there are a lot of taverns, shops and houses nearby which we considered like a place civilized enough to spent a night here. In our opinion, the beach is not very suitable for spending a night here but if you test or find some awesome place for sleeping, let us know.
