Mount Ida, which Cretans call Psiloritis, stands in the middle of Crete, between the White Mountains to the west and Mount Dikti to the east. Its summit, Timios Stavros, reaches 2,456 metres and is the highest point of the island. The mountain lies in the regional units of Rethymno and Heraklion. To the south it drops to the Messara plain, and to the west to the Amari valley.

The rock is mostly limestone, and water has cut caves and gorges into it. On the east side, at about 1,400 metres, lies the Nida plateau, a flat grazing ground closed in by peaks. The whole mountain and its foothills form the Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark, an area of about 1,160 square kilometres that has been a geopark since 2001. Its rocks include fossils of sea animals and large folds that can be seen on the slopes.

The main activity on Psiloritis is the walk to the summit. The shortest route starts at Lakkos Migerou, at about 1,700 metres on the north side, where a paved road ends at a small refuge. A well-marked path of about 3 kilometres climbs 750 metres to the top. The route from the Nida plateau, on the east side, follows the E4 European long-distance path. It takes about four and a half hours up, and parts of the path are hard to see. A third route starts on the west side, at the refuge of Toumbotos Prinos, and takes about three hours.

On the south side, an easier walk goes through the Rouvas gorge. It starts near the lake of Zaros, a village at the foot of the mountain, and its made path is about 2.7 kilometres long. From the village of Kamares, a steep path of about three and a half hours climbs to the Kamares cave.

The Idaion Cave, also called the Cave of Zeus, opens at about 1,500 metres above the Nida plateau, on the east side of the mountain. In Greek myth, the infant Zeus was hidden and raised here. It was one of the main holy caves of ancient Crete, and people left offerings in it for many centuries. Visitors see the wide entrance and an altar cut from the rock in front of it. The offerings found here, among them bronze shields and objects of ivory and gold, are shown in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion.

The Kamares cave, at about 1,700 metres on the south side, gave its name to Kamares ware, a fine painted Minoan pottery from about 2000 BC that was first found in it. On the high pastures stand mitata, the stone huts of the shepherds. The small chapel of Timios Stavros on the summit is built of stone without mortar.

The forest of Rouvas, on the south side above the village of Zaros, is made of old kermes oaks. Some of these trees are 15 metres tall, with trunks more than a metre thick. Cypress, pine and plane trees grow with them. A fire in 1994 burned part of the forest near its southern entrance. The picnic area of Agios Ioannis, inside the forest, has spring water and is reached by car from the village of Gergeri.

Above the trees the mountain is bare rock and low bushes, grazed by sheep and goats. Griffon vultures nest in colonies on the cliffs, mainly on the side of the Amari valley, and the rare bearded vulture also lives here. The Cretan wildcat survives on the mountain, but it is almost never seen. The Cretan wild goat was hunted out on Psiloritis in the 20th century.