Agia Roumeli Crete

Agia
Roumeli, Crete: A place with a marvellous beach and plenty of one-day visitors,
where time stands still.

Agia
Roumeli, Crete,
is a small village in a really remarkable location: right at the southern exit of
Samaria Gorge, the longest gorge in Europe.

Agia
Roumeli
is not accessible by car. You can reach it only through the Samaria Gorge, or
by ferry or boat from the nearby villages of Hora Sfakion, Loutro, Sougia and
Paleochora.

Although isolated enough, Agia
Roumeli, Crete has sufficient amenities for travellers, like taverns, cafes, mini
markets, sun beds and parasols by the beach in front of the village and rooms
for rent. The main reason is that some of the more than 300.000 yearly visitors
that pass through Samaria Gorge stay for a night or two here. Also, Agia
Roumeli, due to its wild, isolated charm, attracts many nature lovers who want
to spend their vacation in total quietness.

The
magnificent beach of Agia Roumeli, Crete

Agia Roumeli stands out, among other
destinations in Crete, for its wonderful beach: long, crystal clear, with small
pebbles and uncrowded most of the times, the beach of Agia Roumeli is a beach
lover’s delight.

The part of the beach in front of the
village is the most organized, with cafés very close to the beach and some sun
beds and parasols. The west part of the large Agia Roumeli beach is fairly
uncrowded and better if you want more isolation and quietness. Finally, to the
east of Agia Roumeli is the well-known beach of Agios Pavlos, where you can get
fast enough by boat from the village.

As Agia Roumeli, Crete, lies at the
mouth of Samaria Gorge on its southern end, visitors to the village and to the
beach of Agia Roumeli largely vary from time to time. In the morning, the
beaches are totally quiet. Then, in the midday, lots of visitors to Samaria
Gorge arrive to the village to swim, eat and drink something after the long
walk. And, finally, in the afternoon, when the large majority of the Samaria
Gorge hikers leave by ferry or boat, the beach of Agia Roumeli is again as
tranquil and quiet as it gets.

Agia
Roumeli, Crete – a village of religion and history

The name “Agia Roumeli” means St.
Roumeli and the location has been a place of worship from ancient times.

Very close to Agia Roumeli village was
the ancient city of Tara or Tarra. Tara was an important religious centre of
the Dorian Greeks and flourished mainly during the ancient Roman period. At
that period, here in Tara used to be the famous temple of the Roman Goddess
Rumina or Rumilia. Then, when Christianity came to Crete, in the place of the
temple of Roumilia, a church was built, dedicated to St. Roumilia, or Agia
Roumilia in Greek. Finally, through the centuries, the name of the church changed
to Agia Roumeli, which also became the present name of the village.

Agia Roumeli, Crete,
is a pretty remote village, but has hundreds of thousands of one-day visitors
every year, due to its position at the southern exit of the great Samaria Gorge.
But the village is also very interesting for another, not so well known reason:
the magnificent Agia Roumeli beach,
which, with its impressive natural surroundings, is one of the finest beaches
in South Crete.

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