Matala

The cliff at the northern end of Matala's bay is cut with dozens of chambers, carved as tombs in the Roman period and used at various times since as shelters. In the 1960s and early 1970s travellers moved in, and Matala became one of the fixed points of the hippie trail, a period the town now commemorates with a summer festival, painted signs and a beach-front that trades openly on the memory; Joni Mitchell's song Carey was written here. The caves are fenced and ticketed now, visited on a path along the cliff. The bay itself is sand and pebble with clear water, and a short walk over the headland leads to Red Beach, a sheltered cove reached by a rough path.

What you actually see

• The cave cliff - Roman rock-cut tombs honeycombing the rock face.
• The bay - sand and pebble beach with clear water below the caves.
• Red Beach - a cove over the headland, reached on a rough path.
• The 1960s legacy - festival, murals and the town's counterculture branding.

When to go

May, June and September for the beach without the crush; the hippie festival in June fills the town. Sunset from the cliff path is the local ritual.

Honest expectations

The town leans hard on its nostalgia and is thoroughly commercial in season. The caves take twenty minutes to visit and are closed outside opening hours. The path to Red Beach is steep and loose.

Nearby

Phaistos and Gortyn lie inland; Agiofarago gorge is along the coast to the east.