Crete Weather
 

I am planning a trip to Crete next year; staying in Chania. I am flexible with timing, but want to make sure that the water is not too cold to swim. How is the end of June and early July? Thank you!

The forecast for this week is sunny & dry, highs around 30C every day.
The water temperature today is 24C

"Too cold to swim" is all relative. I know people who find the Caribbean at 27-28C too cold, and others who enjoy swiming in the North Atlantic whenit's 15C.

To me 24C would feel like a hot bath... ymmv

If you do a google search "Crete weather" you'll get that same info for today....

Thanks J62 - I was looking for personal experiences. I do realize all are different and of course I could search the web. I just read in FB page that someone said that a couple of weeks ago the water was cold, that is why I asked.

Even though the water in the Med should have warmed up by the end of June/July, you cannot legislate for storms or a spell of bad weather affecting water temperatures. All you can do is to look at the averages, decide whether that is warm enough for you, and if you decide to go then cross your fingers that there is no bad weather.

If you can delay your trip until the end of August/beginning of September you will find sea temperatures as warm as they will ever be in the Aegean Sea.

I have gone swimming in natural springs that are 72 degrees constant temperature year round. That is cold. Uncomfortably cold for most people. Few people stay in very long. If you jump in, it's a shock.

No wonder you saw that it was too cold if it's only 75 (24C) now.

Competition swimming pools are at least 77, which is a bit cool.

Anyone who asks Is the Water Cold? should out of courtesy say where they are from ... and where they normally swim ... otherwise it's just guesswork. People from American South seem to want bath-water... those of us who are used to Lakes in the upper midwest, or swimming in Long-Island Sound, find the water off Greek islands just fine any time after about Mid to late May ...

Personal experience - my travel partner and i were on a different island in the mediterranean - same weather and same water temp as Crete. sunny & dry, highs around 30C every day, water temperature 24C.

I was in the water all day - just right. My travel partner wouldnt put a toe in the water - too cold.

same exact weather, different perspective between the 2 of us….

I find competition pools way to warm to swim laps in. OK for a 100m, but not for an hour or two steady.

As J62 said, it's all relative. In Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean hardly ever gets above 69 degrees . . . mostly around 66 in summer. The English Channel at Brighton (where I've been many times in summer) is colder. And the Merced in Yosemite Valley is ice run-off, and about 60 degrees. However, in all of these places, when it's super hot in summer (even in Brighton!), jumping in our of the scorching sun is delightful . . . to me. Again, I'm used to the cold Pacific Ocean.

We were in Crete around the time you mentioned, and felt it was quite warm at 24C, which is about 75 degrees. That was about the same temperature of water we had along the Dalmatian Coast when we were in Croatia last June. Again, it is relative to where you generally swim.

I have no interest in swimming or going into the ocean or any body of water. In October 2018, I spent 2 nights/one full day and most of the day before and the day after, in Chania and Heraklion, on Crete. I could have occupied myself on Crete for 6 whole days. The temperatures were warmer than room temperature. But not super hot. I wrote in my diary that I saw the Knossos site, on October 4th, 2018. This website gives weather data in the last ten years for a lot of places: timeanddate.com
The high temperature was 77 F, at about 12 noon, in Heraklion, on October 4th, 2018.