Agios Nikolaos is well-placed for exploring eastern Crete. The Lassithi Plateau, a high mountain plain studded with windmills and villages, is about 45 minutes by car to the southwest and contains the Diktaion Cave — the mythological birthplace of Zeus. The Minoan palace of Zakros in far eastern Crete is a two-hour drive but one of the least visited major Minoan sites, set dramatically in a gorge above the sea.
The island of Spinalonga, a Venetian fortress island that served as Greece's last active leper colony until 1957, is reached by short boat trips from the nearby resort of Elounda (12 km northwest). Victoria Hislop's novel The Island is set there and has sent a wave of literary tourists to the area.
Boat excursions from Agios Nikolaos harbour also reach the small islands of the Mirabello Bay, and some continue to Spinalonga or to quiet coves along the coast.