# What to Pack for Crete: The Six Things That Actually Matter > Sun protection at the dose a health authority actually specifies, why reef-safe means nothing here, the shoulder-season evenings the brochures omit, and the medicines rule that catches people at the airport. - Canonical URL: https://honestcrete.com/guides/what-to-pack-for-crete/ - Author: Neratzia (Honest Crete, Heraklion) - Area: All Crete · Category: Planning - Last field-checked: September 2026 · Updated: 2026-09-09 · Published: 2026-09-09 - How to cite: "Honest Crete — What to Pack for Crete: The Six Things That Actually Matter (field-checked September 2026), https://honestcrete.com/guides/what-to-pack-for-crete/" - About the source: field-checked guides to Crete by two Heraklion-based locals. Prices are hedged ranges in EUR; small businesses are kept anonymous; editorial is never paid for and advertising is clearly labelled. Method: https://honestcrete.com/how-we-check/ --- Most packing advice for a Greek island is a list of things you can buy in the first supermarket you pass. The useful version is shorter and consists of the things that are either regulated, unobtainable locally, or wrong in every brochure. Six of those, checked against the European Commission, the NHS, the Greek National Tourism Organisation, the Region of Crete and the National Observatory of Athens in September 2026. **The honest facts** - **Liquids:** 100 ml containers, one litre in a transparent bag. **Medicines and baby food are exempt.** - **Sunscreen:** minimum **SPF 30 with four-star UVA**, and **6–8 teaspoons** to cover an adult. Reapply **every two hours** and after every swim. - **"Reef-safe" is not a regulatory category** in the EU or Greece. It is a marketing word. - **Power:** standard European two-pin, **230 V / 50 Hz**. - **Tap water:** the Region's own wording is "safe for consumption, however bottled water consumption is recommended". - **Evenings, April and November:** mean minimums around **11–13 °C** on the coast, lower in the mountains. ## Sun protection, at the actual dose The bottle is not the problem; the quantity is. A health authority's specification for an adult body is six to eight teaspoons of sunscreen, applied thirty minutes before going out, again just before, then every two hours and immediately after swimming, towelling or heavy sweating. Almost nobody applies a quarter of that. The recommended minimum is SPF 30 with at least four-star UVA protection, and the advice that matters most is the one that gets ignored: do not rely on sunscreen alone. A wide-brimmed hat, a close-weave long sleeve for the middle of the day, and staying out of the worst hours do more than any factor number. Babies under six months should be kept out of direct strong sunlight entirely. Sunglasses should carry the European standard marking rather than being sold as a novelty. On "reef-safe": there is no EU restriction and no Greek one. EU sunscreens are governed by rules on efficacy and labelling, and ingredient restrictions sit in a separate database that carries nothing on reef protection. A bottle sold here labelled reef-safe may well be a perfectly good sunscreen. It has not passed any test that the words imply. ## The evenings nobody packs for This is the single most common packing error in Crete and it comes from reading only the daytime maximum. Long-term averages published by the National Observatory of Athens, for coastal stations, give the following mean minimums: **April around 12 °C at Heraklion and 11 at Chania**; **May around 15 and 14**; **October around 16 and 15**; **November around 13 and 12**. Those are averages, on the coast, at sea level. A village on the Amari or the Lasithi plateau in April is meaningfully colder, and no mountain station data is published anywhere reachable, so this guide invents no figure for it. What follows practically is a fleece, not a cardigan, for any trip outside June to September — and something waterproof for October and November, which are the wettest months of the four at Chania by a wide margin. If the month is still open, the [month-by-month breakdown](https://honestcrete.com/guides/when-to-visit-north-coast-crete/) is the better place to decide it. ## Medicines, and the airport rule Liquids in hand luggage follow the usual 100 ml containers in a one-litre transparent bag — with an exemption most people do not know about for **medicines and baby food**. Duty-free liquids bought airside are fine provided the sealed security bag with the red border and the receipt stay unopened until your final destination; security may open and re-seal it for a connection. Prescription medicines travel in the original labelled container, with a letter from your doctor stating what they are and how much you are carrying, and with the name matching your passport. That last detail catches people: a prescription in a maiden name and a passport in a married one is a conversation nobody wants at six in the morning. Antibiotics are tightly regulated in Greece and are not an over-the-counter purchase, so bring what you need rather than planning to buy it. For controlled drugs, contact Greece's National Organization for Medicines before you fly. The [pharmacy and EHIC guide](https://honestcrete.com/guides/pharmacies-doctors-and-the-ehic-in-crete/) covers what happens once you are here. ## The small things that earn their space **Reef shoes.** Sea urchins live exactly where you would step off rocks, and every seaside shop on the island sells the shoes that solve it — but wanting them on day one and buying them on day three is the usual sequence. **A refillable bottle.** The Region of Crete's own formulation on tap water is that it is safe to drink and that bottled is recommended, which is a hedge from the authority itself rather than a ringing endorsement. Municipal utilities in the towns test to the statutory chemical and microbiological standard. No official source makes an island-wide claim, and nothing published covers the small settlements or the far south. Fill up in town, buy bottled in the villages if you would rather, and either way carry more than you think on any walk. **A power bank.** Not for the phone battery so much as for the two things that need it — offline maps in a place with no published coverage map, and the emergency alerts that arrive on a phone that has to still be alive. **The honest downside** Two of the sources here disagree with themselves. The national tourism organisation says 230 volts and the Region of Crete says 220, which changes nothing in practice but is a fair warning about how much of this is published casually. And the climate tables carry no stated averaging period, and the Heraklion rainfall column does not add up to its own annual total — so the temperature figures are used here, consistent across both stations, and the Heraklion rainfall is left out entirely rather than repeating a number that is visibly wrong. **Worth reading if:** you are travelling outside high summer, taking prescription medicine, or have ever bought sunscreen labelled reef-safe on purpose. **Skip it if:** it is July, you are on the coast, and you own a hat. *Disclosure:* The rules and figures above were checked against the official sources named — the European Commission's hand-luggage guidance, the NHS sun-safety page, the European Commission's cosmetics pages, the Greek National Tourism Organisation, the Region of Crete and the National Observatory of Athens climate tables — for the date shown at the top of this guide. It is a check of published sources, not a site visit, and it is not medical advice. No brand or product is named or recommended. Nobody pays to be featured in a guide — no business, no sponsor, no paid mention, ever. Adverts, where they appear, are labelled as adverts. ## Quick answers **What sunscreen should I take to Crete?** At least SPF 30 with at least four-star UVA protection, and enough of it. The NHS specifies six to eight teaspoons to cover an adult body, applied thirty minutes before going out, again just before, then every two hours and immediately after swimming or towelling. Under-application, not the wrong bottle, is the usual failure. **Is reef-safe sunscreen required in Greece?** No. Neither the EU nor Greece restricts sunscreen ingredients on reef-protection grounds. EU sunscreens are regulated for efficacy and labelling, and the ingredient rules sit in a separate database with no reef provisions. Reef-safe on a bottle sold in Greece is a marketing claim, not a regulatory category. **What plug do I need for Crete?** Standard European two-pin, on 230 volts at 50 hertz. Two Greek public bodies publish slightly different voltage figures — 230 and 220 — but for any modern appliance the practical answer is the same and no converter is needed from elsewhere in Europe. **Can I drink the tap water in Crete?** The Region of Crete's own wording is that it is safe for consumption but that bottled water is recommended, which is a hedge from the authority itself. Municipal utilities test to the statutory standard in the towns. No official source makes an island-wide claim, and small settlements are not covered by anything published. **How cold does Crete get in the evening in spring and autumn?** Colder than people pack for. Long-term averages give April mean minimums around 12 degrees at Heraklion and 11 at Chania, and November around 13 and 12. That is a fleece rather than a cardigan, and mountain villages sit well below the coastal figures these tables record. **Can I bring my prescription medicines to Greece?** Yes, in the original labelled container, with a letter from your doctor stating the medicine and quantity, and with the name on the prescription matching your passport. Medicines and baby food are exempt from the 100ml hand-luggage limit. For controlled drugs, contact Greece's National Organization for Medicines before travelling.