To get from Chania to Matala, drive east on the A90 national road to Heraklion then south across the island through the Messara plain via Mires, about 135 kilometres in 2.5 to 3 hours, to the south-coast village with its sandstone caves and beach. Plan the whole trip with Greece Tours.
This guide covers the trip from Chania to Matala in full: where it is, how to get there by car and bus, the drive time, the famous cliff caves, Matala beach and Red Beach, Kommos beach, the history and the hippie era, the ancient Messara sites of Phaistos and Gortyn, families, the best time, where to stay and eat, and whether this long south-coast trip is worth it.
Where is Matala from Chania?
Matala is a village on the south coast of Crete in the Heraklion region, on the Bay of Messara below the Asterousia mountains, about 135 km south-east of Chania. It sits in a small cove framed by a sandstone cliff riddled with hand-cut caves.
Chania stands at the western end of Crete, on the north coast, while Matala faces the Libyan Sea at the southern edge of the Messara plain. The straight-line distance between the two is roughly 100 km, and the road distance runs to about 135 km because the route crosses the island from the north coast to the south. The journey moves east along the northern shore, then turns inland and drops south through the widest flat basin on the island.
The village occupies the northern corner of a sandy bay. A ridge of soft sandstone rises directly above the beach, and the whole face of that ridge is pierced with rectangular openings. These are the caves that give Matala its name across Crete. To the west lies open sea; to the east and south the Asterousia mountains close off the coast, keeping Matala small and set apart from the resort strip of the north.
Matala sits near two of the great sites of Minoan Crete. The palace of Phaistos lies about 11 km to the north-east, on a low hill above the Messara plain, and the villa of Agia Triada stands a short distance beyond it. The market town of Mires, the hub of the plain, is about 12 km inland. This places Matala inside the archaeological heart of southern Crete rather than in an isolated pocket of coast.
How do you get from Chania to Matala?
Drive east on the A90 national road to Heraklion, then turn south and cross the island through the Messara plain via Mires to reach Matala, a trip of about 2.5 to 3 hours. The KTEL bus runs Chania to Heraklion and then Heraklion to Matala. A car suits the south coast best.
The driving route splits into two clear stages. The first stage follows the A90, the north-coast national road, east from Chania past Georgioupoli and Rethymno to the outskirts of Heraklion. This is fast, dual-carriageway motoring for about 130 km along the shore. The second stage leaves the coast near Heraklion and heads inland and south, climbing to Agia Varvara, then descending onto the Messara plain and running through Mires to Matala on the coast.
By public transport the journey uses two KTEL bus legs. The first leg links the Chania KTEL terminal with the Heraklion KTEL terminal on the coastal highway. The second leg departs Heraklion for Matala, crossing the island to the south. The two networks meet at Heraklion, so every bus passenger changes there, and the total road time on the bus runs longer than the drive because of stops and the transfer.
A private transfer or a hire car removes the change at Heraklion and reaches Matala in a single run. The south coast has thin bus coverage compared with the north, and the final approach to Matala threads through small plain-side towns. Driving keeps the whole route under one wheel and opens the side trips to Phaistos, Agia Triada and the Messara villages that lie a few kilometres off the direct line.
How long does it take to drive from Chania to Matala?
The drive from Chania to Matala takes about 2.5 to 3 hours over roughly 135 km: fast running on the A90 national road east past Rethymno to Heraklion, then a slower inland road south through Agia Varvara and the Messara plain to Mires and Matala.
The first two hours cover the longest distance. From Chania the A90 carries traffic east at highway speed, skirting Georgioupoli bay and passing Rethymno at roughly the halfway mark, about 70 km from Chania. From Rethymno the road continues along the coast to the western edge of Heraklion. This stretch accounts for around 130 km of the total and moves at a steady pace on the widest road on the island.
The inland leg is shorter in distance but slower in speed. South of Heraklion the road climbs to Agia Varvara at about 600 metres, crosses a low pass, then drops onto the Messara plain. The last section runs flat through Mires and the farming villages, then narrows for the final descent to the Matala cove. This 40 to 50 km inland stretch takes close to an hour because of the climb, the town junctions and the single-carriageway road.
Total driving time lands between 2.5 and 3 hours depending on the exact start point in Chania and the traffic around Heraklion. A midday departure clears the Heraklion ring road with least delay. Fuel stops sit along the A90 near Rethymno and around Heraklion, and the Messara plain carries fuel at Mires. Beyond Mires the road runs straight to the coast, and the sandstone cliff of Matala marks the end of the drive.
Can you reach Matala by bus from Chania?
Yes. The KTEL bus runs from Chania to Heraklion in about 2.75 to 3 hours, then a second Heraklion to Matala bus crosses the Messara plain in about 2 hours. The trip is a two-leg journey through Heraklion, so a car or transfer suits a traveller short on time. Check the timetable before travel.
The first leg starts at the Chania KTEL bus station near the old harbour and runs east on the coastal highway to the main Heraklion KTEL terminal at the port. Departures on this trunk route are frequent through the day, and the coach follows the A90 past Rethymno. Journey time on this leg sits at roughly 2.75 to 3 hours, tied to the number of stops the service makes along the coast.
The second leg leaves Heraklion for Matala from the same network, heading south across the island. This coach climbs to Agia Varvara, crosses the Messara plain through Mires, and terminates at Matala by the beach car park. Running time is close to 2 hours, and the daily frequency on this rural route is lower than on the north-coast trunk line, with a handful of departures spread across the day.
Added together, the two legs plus the wait at Heraklion push the door-to-door bus time past 5 hours, well beyond the 2.5 to 3-hour drive. The transfer at Heraklion demands a check of both timetables so the connection lines up, because a missed second leg means a long wait for the next Matala departure. For a group or a family with luggage, a hire car or a booked transfer cuts the time and removes the change.
What are the caves at Matala?
The Matala caves are chambers cut into the sandstone cliff on the north side of the beach. Carved as tombs in the Roman and early-Christian eras, later used as dwellings, they drew travellers who lived in them during the hippie era of the sixties. Today the cliff is a fenced archaeological site with a ticket.
The cliff is a soft, honey-coloured sandstone that cuts easily, and the openings run in tiers across its face. The oldest were hollowed out as burial chambers in the Roman period, with rectangular niches and carved beds inside the rock. In the early-Christian era the same caves served as shelters and hermit cells. Their number and their neat rectangular mouths make the cliff read almost as a carved facade above the sand.
In the hippie era of the sixties and the years after, travellers reached Matala overland and settled in the empty caves, living rent-free in the cliff above the beach. The village became a fixed point on the trail across the eastern Mediterranean, and the caves filled with a floating community. The Canadian songwriter Joni Mitchell stayed at Matala and wrote of the place and its beach in her song “Carey”, fixing the village in the record of that decade.
The cliff now stands behind a fence as a protected archaeological site, entered on a ticket during opening hours. Steps and paths lead up among the lower chambers, and the openings give a clear view down over the cove and the bay. The soft rock carries the marks of the tombs, the later dwellings and the names cut by the travellers, layered on a single face of stone above the sand.
What is Matala beach and Red Beach?
Matala beach is the main sandy strand in the cove below the caves, with shallow clear water, sunbeds and tavernas along the front. Red Beach is a red-sand cove reached on foot over the headland, about a 20-minute walk. The sunset falls straight over the bay, and the caves light up at dusk.
The main beach fills the floor of the cove, a curve of coarse pale sand between the cliff of caves and the southern headland. The water shelves gently and stays clear over a sand-and-pebble bed, and rows of sunbeds and umbrellas cover the front in season. A line of tavernas and cafes runs along the back of the beach at the edge of the village, so food, shade and the sand sit within a few steps of one another.
Red Beach lies over the southern headland, out of sight of the main cove. The path climbs the ridge behind the village and drops to the far side, a walk of about 20 minutes on foot over rock and scrub. The cove takes its name from the red-tinged sand and the reddish stone of its cliffs. There is no road in, so the walk keeps the beach quieter than the main strand, and walkers carry their own water and shade.
Matala faces due west into the Libyan Sea, so the sun sets straight over the mouth of the bay and drops into open water. The cliff of caves catches the last light and glows against the darkening rock, and lamps pick out the openings at dusk. The tavernas along the front fill for the sunset hour, and the flat water of the sheltered cove holds the colour of the sky over the bay.
What is the history of Matala?
Matala served as the harbour of Phaistos and Gortyn, worked as a Roman port, and holds tombs cut into its sandstone cliffs during the Roman and early-Christian eras. In the sixties and seventies travellers lived in those caves, turning the village into a hippie landmark.
The bay opens onto the Libyan Sea on the south coast of Crete, and its sheltered water made it the sea gate for the Messara plain. Ships unloaded here for Phaistos, the Minoan palace 11 km inland, and later for Gortyn, the Roman capital of Crete. The Romans widened the port, moored grain and wine vessels in the cove, and cut chambers into the soft rock of the north cliff as burial tombs. Early Christians reused the same chambers, and the honeycomb of hollows that draws visitors today began as a Roman and Byzantine necropolis.
The modern chapter of Matala began when travellers arrived overland from northern Europe and North America and settled in the empty cliff caves. They lit fires on the beach, painted the rock, and built a barter economy with the fishing families of the village. Joni Mitchell stayed among them and wrote the song “Carey” about a character she met on the sand, fixing the name of Matala into folk music and pulling a new wave of visitors toward the bay. The authorities cleared the caves of permanent residents, fenced the necropolis, and the site now opens as an archaeological monument with a ticket and set hours.
The village keeps that heritage alive through the Matala Beach Festival, a free three-day music event held on the sand each summer that draws crowds of 70,000 across its run. Painted flowers and peace symbols mark the walls of the main street, and a large “Matala” sign in rounded letters stands above the beach. Myth threads through the same shore: storytellers place the landing of Zeus here, arriving from Phoenicia in the form of a white bull carrying the princess Europa on his back before walking inland to Gortyn.
What is there to do in Matala?
Swim in the sheltered cove, climb through the cliff caves, walk the coast path to Red Beach, watch the sunset over the Libyan Sea, and eat grilled fish at the waterfront tavernas. Boat trips run along the shore and Phaistos and Kommos sit a short drive north.
The main beach is a 300-metre arc of sand and shingle that shelves gently into clear water, backed by the caves on its northern flank. Sunbeds and umbrellas fill the front row, and the water stays calm enough for children through the flat morning hours. The cave complex opens for a small entry fee, and a marked route lets visitors step inside the Roman tombs, read the carved recesses, and look back across the bay from the mouth of each chamber.
Red Beach lies over the southern headland, reached by a 20-minute footpath that climbs a ridge of thyme and rock before dropping to a cove of reddish sand. The walk rewards the effort with a quieter strand and deep swimming water. Back in the village, the painted main street runs from the car park to the sea, its walls covered in flowers, faces and slogans that echo the hippie decades, and small shops sell handmade jewellery and Cretan herbs along its length.
The sunset is the fixed ritual of Matala. Crowds gather on the rocks below the caves as the sun drops into the Libyan Sea, and the sandstone glows orange in the last light. Boat operators run coastal trips from the jetty to hidden beaches such as Vathi and the offshore inlets, and the flat Messara road makes Matala a relaxed base for the ancient sites inland. Explore the wider region through our guide to day trips from Chania, which sets Matala among the long-range excursions across the island.
What ancient sites are near Matala?
The Minoan palace of Phaistos stands 11 km north, Gortyn the Roman capital of Crete lies 15 km northeast, the Minoan harbour town of Kommos sits 2 km up the beach, and the villa of Agia Triada rests 3 km from Phaistos, forming a dense archaeological cluster on the Messara plain.
Phaistos is the second palace of Minoan Crete after Knossos, built on a ridge above the Messara with a grand staircase of twelve wide steps rising to the west court. Its rooms open to views of the plain and Mount Psiloritis, and the site gave up the Phaistos Disc, a fired clay disc stamped with 241 signs in a spiral that remains undeciphered and now sits in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. The palace charges an entry fee and opens through the day.
Gortyn spread across the plain as the capital of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica, and its ruins line both sides of the road. The Gortyn Law Code, carved into a stone wall in the archaic Doric dialect, runs across twelve columns and stands as the oldest law code of Europe preserved in full. Beside it rise the arches of the basilica of Agios Titos, the church of the first bishop of Crete, and the odeon and Roman theatre spread through the olive groves around them.
Kommos worked as the seaport of Phaistos and Agia Triada, and its excavated streets, warehouses and ship-sheds sit right behind the sand of Kommos beach, a 2 km walk from Matala. Agia Triada, a royal villa 3 km west of Phaistos, produced painted sarcophagi and carved stone vases that rank among the finest Minoan finds. The four sites cover a Bronze Age palace, a royal villa, a working harbour and a Roman city inside a 15 km radius, and they turn a Matala stay into a tour of Cretan history from the Minoans to Rome. Anchor the trip with our base guide to Chania before crossing the island.
When is the best time to visit Matala?
Late spring to early autumn brings hot, dry days to the south coast, with sea temperatures around 24\u00b0C in high summer. Visit the caves early or late to dodge the midday heat, catch the sunset in the evening, and reach the beach outside the July and August peak for calmer sand.
Matala faces the Libyan Sea, the warmest water around Crete, and the south coast runs hotter and drier than the north. Daytime highs climb past 30\u00b0C in July and August, and the sandstone cliffs hold the heat, so the caves bake by noon. Arrive at opening time or in the two hours before closing to walk the tombs in shade and take photographs with soft light across the bay.
The Matala Beach Festival fills the sand across three days in June with free concerts, and the village runs at full capacity through that weekend. Rooms fill fast around the festival and again through the school-holiday weeks of late summer, so book ahead for those dates. The shoulder months of May, September and October keep warm sea and long sunshine while thinning the crowds on the beach and the coast path to Red Beach.
The sunset is the signature moment of a Matala day. The village faces due west across open water, and the sun sets into the sea in a clean line with the caves lit gold behind the watching crowd. Plan the evening around it, take a seat on the rocks 30 minutes ahead, and eat afterwards at the tavernas once the light has gone. Reaching the west of the island first is set out in our guide on how to get to Chania.
Where do you stay and eat in Matala?
Matala offers studios, rooms and small hotels through the village and up the hillside, with tavernas along the seafront grilling fresh fish and serving Cretan dishes. The neighbouring villages of Pitsidia 3 km inland and Kalamaki 5 km along the coast add quieter rooms and a relaxed base for the Messara.
Accommodation in the village runs to family studios with kitchenettes, guesthouses and boutique hotels of ten to twenty rooms, most within a five-minute walk of the beach. Places on the hill above the bay trade a short climb for balconies that face the sunset, and prices ease in the shoulder months. The scale stays small: Matala carries no large resorts, and the bohemian character of the hippie decades still shapes the painted walls, the beachfront bars and the unhurried pace.
The seafront tavernas line the road behind the sand and cook the catch of the day, grilled octopus, and Cretan staples such as dakos rusk salad, gamopilafo rice and antikristo lamb roasted by the fire. Tables sit at the water’s edge, and the kitchens pour local wine and raki from the Messara vineyards. Prices track a standard Cretan taverna rather than a resort mark-up, and the sunset seats fill first each evening.
Pitsidia keeps a traditional square with kafeneia under plane trees and sits close enough for a nightly drive to the Matala sunset, while Kalamaki spreads along a two-kilometre beach at the far end of Kommos and draws a slower crowd. Both villages put a visitor within reach of Phaistos, Gortyn and the south-coast beaches, and both work as a calmer alternative to the village centre in the festival weeks. Together the three settlements form a compact base for the Messara and the whole southern shore.
Is Matala good for families?
Matala suits families well. The main beach sits inside a sheltered horseshoe cove with shallow, clear water and a gentle sandy slope, sunbeds and tavernas stand steps from the sand, and the sandstone caves give children an easy, safe adventure within sight of the beach.
The cove faces west and the headlands on each side break the swell, so the morning water stays flat and warm. Parents settle on the front row of sunbeds while young children paddle in water 30 to 50 centimetres deep near the shore. The sand shelves slowly for the first 15 metres before it drops, which keeps the paddling zone wide and readable from a beach towel.
The caves cut into the north cliff sit a two-minute walk from the sand, and the lower row rises barely a metre above the beach. Children climb into the front chambers on foot without a scramble, look out over the bay, and return to the water inside ten minutes. A low fence and a small entry fee control access, and the flat rock terraces in front of the caves double as a shaded picnic spot.
The path to Red Beach climbs 250 metres over a rocky saddle and drops just as steeply on the far side, a 25-minute walk each way in full sun, so families with toddlers or pushchairs stay on the main beach. The village promenade behind the sand runs level and traffic-free, and ice-cream shops, a mini-market and toilets line it, which keeps a day with children within a 200-metre radius.
What is Kommos beach near Matala?
Kommos is a 2-kilometre stretch of open sand a five-minute drive or a 30-minute walk north of Matala. Backed by low dunes and tamarisk trees, it fronts the excavated Minoan harbour town of Kommos, stays wilder and quieter than Matala, and serves as a protected loggerhead-turtle nesting beach.
The beach runs in a long straight line between Matala and Kalamaki, and its width and exposure set it apart from the tight Matala cove. The water deepens faster and the afternoon breeze builds small waves, which draws bodyboarders and walkers rather than paddling toddlers. Golden dunes edge the back of the sand, and a boardwalk crosses them at the southern access point near the archaeological fence.
Behind the central section lies the Minoan site of Kommos, a Bronze Age port that served Phaistos and Agia Triada 4 kilometres inland. Excavated house walls, a monumental civic building and later Greek temple foundations sit on the low rise above the sand, fenced but visible from the beach. The setting ties a swim directly to the harbour that shipped grain and pottery across the Libyan Sea.
Loggerhead turtles nest along Kommos through the warm months, and marked cages protect the egg clutches on the upper sand, so night lights and beach driving stay banned. The northern third carries a handful of sunbeds and a canteen, while the southern two-thirds remain natural with no facilities, which makes Kommos the raw counterpart to organised Matala 2 kilometres to the south.
What boat trips run from Matala?
Small boats leave the Matala jetty through the warm season for the roadless coves east and west along the Libyan Sea, reaching hidden beaches such as Vathi under the Asterousia cliffs, plus fishing trips and evening sunset cruises. A trip runs a relaxed half-day on calm southern water.
The Matala cove shelters a stone jetty at its northern end, and licensed day-boats moor there each morning. Skippers run the coast to beaches that no road reaches, where a 20-minute sail replaces an hour of rough track. The Asterousia mountains fall straight into the sea along this shore, so the boat becomes the only practical way onto the sand at the base of the cliffs.
Vathi and the neighbouring inlets sit inside deep clefts in the rock, with clear turquoise water over a pale seabed and no buildings behind the beach. Boats drop passengers for two or three hours with a return pickup, and swimmers snorkel the rocky edges where the water runs 5 to 8 metres deep and glass-clear. A cool box, water and shade come from the boat, as the coves carry no tavernas.
Fishing runs leave at first light and trail lines for bream and mackerel off the reefs, while sunset cruises push out an hour before dusk to watch the sun drop into the Libyan Sea from open water. The southern coast faces due south with nothing between Matala and North Africa, so the horizon stays flat and the light turns the sandstone cliffs a deep orange from the water.
What is the Matala Beach Festival?
The Matala Beach Festival is a free three-day music event held on the beach each summer. It revives the village’s sixties hippie spirit with Greek and international acts across an open-air stage, draws crowds into the tens of thousands, and fills the cove with camping and a party atmosphere.
The festival grew from Matala’s counterculture history, when travellers lived in the cliff caves and the village became a stop on the overland hippie trail. Organisers stage the free concerts on and around the main beach, with a large sound stage set against the sandstone backdrop and side markets selling food, crafts and drinks along the promenade.
Rock, reggae and Cretan folk acts share the line-up across the three nights, and the music runs from early evening past midnight. The tens of thousands who arrive dwarf the village’s permanent population of a few hundred, so the beach, the promenade and the fields behind fill with tents and vans for the duration.
Accommodation across Matala, Pitsidia and Kalamaki books out weeks ahead of the dates, and parking spills onto the approach roads. Visitors who want the concerts reserve a room early or plan to camp, while travellers after a quiet beach avoid the festival window and pick a different week for a calm swim in the cove.
What villages are near Matala on the Messara?
Pitsidia sits 4 kilometres inland, a traditional village with a plane-shaded square and tavernas. Kalamaki is the quieter beach village 5 kilometres north by Kommos, Sivas and the Odigitria monastery lie in the hills to the south, and Mires is the Messara market town, all set in olive and vine country.
Pitsidia keeps the old character that Matala trades for its beach. Stone houses line narrow lanes around a central square shaded by a large plane tree, family tavernas serve Cretan dishes under the branches, and rooms here run cheaper than the seafront. Beachgoers base themselves in Pitsidia and drive the 4 kilometres down to Matala or Kommos each day.
Kalamaki holds the northern end of Kommos beach, a low-key resort village of rooms and fish tavernas without Matala’s crowds or nightlife. Inland and up the Asterousia foothills, Sivas guards the road to the fortified Odigitria monastery, a working religious house set among terraced olive groves, while the hamlet of Listaros marks the turn toward the roadless south-coast beaches.
Mires anchors the western Messara plain as its market town, with a large weekly street market, banks, a hospital and the main supply shops for the whole district. Around all of these spread the olive groves and vineyards of the Messara, the largest plain in southern Crete, whose oil and wine fill the tavernas of Matala and its neighbours.
How does Matala fit a Crete road trip?
Matala works as a south-coast overnight on a Heraklion-based or west-to-east Crete road trip, paired with the Minoan palace of Phaistos, the Roman capital of Gortyn and the Messara beaches. The drive from Chania runs about 2.5 to 3 hours, too far for a comfortable day trip, so an overnight fits the route better.
From Heraklion, Matala lies 70 kilometres south, a 75-minute drive over the ridge and down onto the Messara plain, which makes it a natural half-day base out of the island’s capital. On a west-to-east crossing, travellers turn south off the north-coast highway near Agioi Deka and fold Matala into the middle of the trip rather than a there-and-back detour.
The stop pairs directly with the region’s headline sites. Phaistos sits 11 kilometres north-east on its ridge above the plain, Gortyn lies 20 kilometres east on the Mires road, and Kommos and Agia Triada fall between them, so a single overnight at Matala covers a swim, the caves and two major archaeological sites inside 24 hours.
The distance from the west is the deciding factor. Chania sits 135 kilometres away, and the return alone eats five hours of driving, so a same-day loop from the west leaves barely time on the beach. Travellers planning day trips from Chania keep Matala as an overnight leg instead, and a base in Chania pairs better with the closer west-coast beaches while the south coast earns its own night on the road.
Is the trip from Chania to Matala worth it?
Yes for the sandstone caves, the sheltered beach, the west-facing sunset and the ancient Messara sites of Phaistos and Gortyn. The trade-off is the 135 km cross-island drive of 2 hours 15 minutes each way, so Matala rewards a stay or a base near Heraklion far more than a same-day return from Chania.
The distance is the deciding factor. Chania sits on the north-west coast and Matala on the south-central shore, and the route runs 135 km along the E75 national road to Heraklion before turning inland across the Messara. A there-and-back day from Chania spends 4 hours 30 minutes on the road for a few hours on the beach, which leaves little time for the caves, Red Beach and the ancient sites that make the journey count.
Matala pays back the effort when it forms part of a longer plan. A night in the village, or a base at Heraklion 68 km away, opens the full cluster: the palace of Phaistos, the Roman city of Gortyn, the harbour of Kommos and the villa of Agia Triada, all inside a 15 km radius, plus the sunset and the festival. Travellers crossing Crete from west to east fold Matala into the route rather than treating it as a Chania day trip.
For a base on the west coast, keep the long southern runs for an overnight and fill the days with the closer coast and gorges set out in our day trips from Chania guide and the wider Chania hub. Matala earns its place on a Crete itinerary through the caves, the beach, the sunset and the Messara antiquities, and it slots best into a stay near Heraklion or a west-to-east crossing rather than a single long dash from the far side of the island.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get from Chania to Matala?
From Chania to Matala, drive east on the A90 national road to Heraklion, then south across the island through Agia Varvara and the Messara plain via Mires, about 135 kilometres in 2.5 to 3 hours. The KTEL bus runs Chania to Heraklion then Heraklion to Matala, a two-leg journey over 5 hours.
How far is Matala from Chania?
Matala lies about 135 kilometres south-east of Chania, on the south coast in the Heraklion region on the Bay of Messara. The drive takes 2.5 to 3 hours: fast national road east to Heraklion, then a slower inland road south across the Messara plain to the coast.
Is the trip from Chania to Matala worth it?
The trip from Chania to Matala rewards visitors with the famous sandstone caves, the sandy beach, Red Beach, the west-facing sunset and the ancient Messara sites of Phaistos and Gortyn. The 135-kilometre cross-island drive is the trade-off, so Matala suits a stay or a Heraklion base over a day trip.