When to go

Reading sea-temperature tables without fooling yourself

Updated 2026-11-14

Seasonal pages on this site use monthly tables for one reference town per region. That is a deliberate limit. A single coastal town cannot speak for a whole country, and even neighbouring beaches can differ with exposure and wind.

Three habits that help

• Treat the table as typical conditions, not a forecast. A cool week in July still happens.
• Check the wind as well as the water. Crete's northwest meltemi is reported to blow from mid-May to mid-September, which makes some exposed beaches rough in peak summer even when the sea is warm.
• Note which town the table describes. Heraklion's sea does not tell you about the Aegean islands far to the north.

What 'swim months' means here

Our swim-month lists are derived from the monthly tables, roughly 22 C and above, combined with the window stated by the source. They show when the sea is typically comfortable, not when a beach is staffed, open or uncrowded. Crowd information is left blank wherever no source covers it.

Start with the When to go page for your month and then open the destination page for beaches in that region.