The Archaeological Museum reopened in 2024, after twelve years of renovation, and it is now among the best in Greece. Its collection covers eastern Crete from the Neolithic period to Roman times.

The first room alone is worth the visit. It holds several hundred bronze blades and some 1,600 hand-shaped vessels from the cemetery of Agia Fotia near Sitia — the largest Minoan burial ground ever excavated on the island, made before the potter's wheel reached Crete. After that come finds from Malia, Mochlos and the sunken city of Olous.

Inland, the Minoan town of Gournia is the most completely excavated settlement of its kind anywhere. Its streets, houses and workshops are laid out exactly as they were three and a half thousand years ago, and there is no palace to overshadow them.

Above the village of Kritsa, the Dorian city of Lato sits on a saddle between two hills, with a view down to the bay.

Kritsa itself has Panagia Kera, a small church with three aisles. Its wall paintings, from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, are among the finest Byzantine painting surviving in Crete.

Behind the town the land rises quickly into the Dikti range. This is where the Lasithi plateau lies, together with a network of walking routes through villages that see almost no visitors.

Further east, the Richtis Gorge runs down to the sea near Exo Mouliana. It is about fifty kilometres away, so it is a day trip rather than an afternoon. The walk through it is green and shaded by Cretan standards, and it ends at a twenty-metre waterfall and a beach.

West towards Milatos, a large cave cuts into the hillside above the coast. People remember it less for its geology than for the massacre of villagers who were sheltering there in 1823.

The bay itself is deep and sheltered, and the water off the rocky sections is exceptionally clear.

The town beaches are small and central. Kitroplateia, a few minutes from the lake, and Ammoudi, just north of it, are both sandy, shallow and busy — convenient rather than beautiful. Havania, a little further out, is quieter.

Almyros, one kilometre south, is the longest beach close to the town. It has fine sand and shallow water, and a small river runs into the sea behind it, which keeps the water noticeably cooler.

The best-known beach in the area is Voulisma, also called Golden Beach, twelve kilometres east at Istron. The sand is genuinely fine and the water is turquoise, and it is full through July and August. Come early or go somewhere else.

Boats leave the harbour every day for Spinalonga, the Venetian island fortress that was a leper colony until 1957. On the way they usually stop at the sunken remains of Olous, off Elounda.

Diving centres work from the town, on the reefs and drop-offs of Mirabello Bay. Sailing charters use Agios Nikolaos as a base for the eastern coast, and the marina is one of the few full-service ones on the island.

Inland, horseback riding stables run half-day trips through olive groves and along the coast.

Eastern Crete eats what it grows, and the staples are the ones the whole island is known for: olive oil in quantity, dakos — barley rusk soaked and topped with tomato and mizithra — snails, wild greens, and slow-cooked goat or lamb.

The tavernas around the lake and along the harbour are the most visible and the most touristic. Better cooking is usually a street or two back, or in the villages inland. Kritsa and the villages of the Lasithi plateau are worth the drive for lunch alone.

Raki arrives at the end of every meal, without being ordered and without appearing on the bill. The local wine is improving, and there are small producers in the hills worth looking for.