Crete · With kids

Pink-tinged sand and ankle-deep water for a hundred metres, ninety minutes west of Chania. Go early — the car park fills by ten.

Twenty minutes from Heraklion, restored in places to full colour. Hire a guide or it is rubble; an hour is plenty for children.

Mediterranean tanks in a cool, dark hall east of Heraklion — the reliable rainy-day and forty-degree-day answer, from about age three.

Built into a hillside above Heraklion, with a shallow zone for small children and enough slides to fill a whole day.

The island is longer than it looks. Drive early, swim, retreat indoors from two to five, eat at eight — and book child seats when reserving the car.