Vatos beach
Vatos is located 18km west of Ierapetra and 3km east of Myrtos in the territory of village Gdohia. It is a small settlement that can accessed through the asphalt road connecting Mirtos to Tertsa. The locals work with banana and vegetable crops in the greenhouses of the area. The village is situated at the exit of a fertile valley, which begins north, at Gdohia.
In front of the hamlet stretches the long beach of Vatos, which extends east to Mirtos, with several separate beaches along its shores. The beach has the characteristic fine grayish pebble of southern Crete and the water is deep. Vatos is not developed and therefore you will not find many people on the beach, except a few locals. In some parts of the coast there are some tamarisk trees. Moreover, west of Vatos, you'll meet the settlement of Kalikovrehtis, where another pebbly beach is formed.
If you get in Vatos on July 27 you will join the feast day of the church of Saint Panteleimon. Moreover, you should visit the nearby Gdohia village, with the narrow streets and the refreshing springs. A tragic story took place in Gdohia in autumn 1943, when 43 people were executed by the Nazis in retaliation for the deaths of two German soldiers in the village of Kato Simi. The village hosts the old chapel of Annunciation with its rare Byzantine icons. Lastly, between the beach and the village archaeologists have found remains of a pre-Minoan settlement.
