Visiting the Greek island of Crete

We are off to Crete next week for the first time and are wondering if anyone can recommend places to go and things to see?
We would prefer to experience some of the Greek culture and hospitality, preferably away from the hoards of tourists...

I have gathered a lot of information using Google and guides, but was wondering what recommendations other TT members
may have...

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

Where on Crete will you be staying? There are the Venezian style cities on the north side and the Samaria gorge on the south, not to forget the palm-studded sandy beach Vai on the eastern coast. I strongly recommend Knossos, taking public transport to get there.

I'd like some suggestions too! I'm planning to go at the end of July.

Whatever any of you do, take along lots of water to drink. I mean LOTS. It's hot there and shady places are few and far between.

I was with my family in the North, and many said the South is quiter and more like old Crete. I am looking to buy a summer home there and may fly down soon.

Take the day trip boat to Santorini island while you are there. It can be a bit touristy but damn it's nice there. The old built-into-the-cliffside architecture is just awesome.

Unfortunately, the place that the travel agent recommended was "Malia" - we did not have chance to research the resort before booking and since have realised that it is well-known for boozing Brits :-}
Should be a laugh anyway, I guess, but still would like to get away the majority of the time exploring and experiencing the culture...

That gorge is on my list of things to do... looks pretty cool :-)

How long does it take to get to Santorini from Crete? How much does it usually cost?
I quite fancied this but thought it might be a bit far or expensive...

Thanks for the advice :-)

I cannot remember the details, I will check with Blimeygirl later, but I do remember it was not prohibitively expensive and we did it comfortably in a day. Longer would have been nice but it was enough to get the idea.

Blimeygirl forgets the pricing - ca. 30 EUR for the ferry if I remember...? Includes the tour guide and tour bus etc.
I think there is a way to get there without a tour but it might be slower, the boat we were on was fast.
Was very very lovely and worth it though - you can defo do it in a day.

Other than that the mountains are lovely, driving up through them and the small villages is really cool.

And of course the ocean

mmm Malia isnt just boozing Brits it is club 18-30 land! Malia old town (not as big as it sounds) is on one side of the main road and is quieter than the main strip where you will have lots of young boozy brits and PRs trying to get you into bars. There you will find some traditional tavernas etc. Stalis is a resort right next to (or kind of the outskirts of ) Malia that is quieter (or was - these things change so much) should you fancy a calmer evening out!

We hired a jeep and went exploring up into the mountains which I would recommend. Lots of traditional old villages which are lovely to see. Didnt manage to do the gorge but would def do if went back again! The towns of Chania and Rethymnon are worth a visit too and very different to the more touristy resorts.

agreed. most hotels or tourist agencies arrange tours, picking you up at 6 a.m. and taking you down with the bus and bringing you home. do it with a guide cause gorges can be dangerous if there is flash flooding. and yes, water, water, water -- bring it everywhere you go. it was so hot when I went (mid-September too).


there are two ways to do it. the "ferry" way, which takes about 3-4 hours and you are on a love-boat type of ship (with breakfast & lunch, etc.) or you can do the "where-is-my-barf-bag" way with a speedboat/hovercraft in 90 minutes. we did the later, left later than the ferry people and arrived around the same time. it was the worst boat ride of my life. i did not barf, but it was a very uncomfortable, whiplash bouncy kind of ride. the boat could hold maybe 100 folks (or more). at least 10 were puking. luckily the boat was not so full. i had more problems with sore neck afterwards than anything. oh and prepare for a steep hike from the harbor in santorini to the village on top. people rent donkeys (or taxis) for that. we walked. phew.

also, a misconception about Crete is that you will get fresh seafood. unfortunately the sea around Crete is so overfished, you're more than likely to get fish caught near Finland.

i enjoyed the cave tour if "Zeus'" birthplace. I'm not a cave fan though, but it is pretty.

Agree. Well worth a visit. I also played a round of golf there at the new course. Lovely course, but a tad expensive.

We got the fast boat which, yeah, is a bit of a ride. Especially for us as we were not able to be seated together as seat x and seat x+1 were on opposite sides of the boat, pah!

But once there, we went for the touristy bus tour which, despite the whistle stop tour-ness of it, was well worth it as we got to see the main parts of the island without any major hikes or having to fond transportation. If you stay overnight, just hire a moped or something.

Great advice given on this thread already, but I'd go out on a limb and make one more suggestion: drive to the South, to the village of Agios Pavlos. Perched up high on a rock, the inn and its adjacent bungalows are wonderfully removed from mainstream tourism - at least it was that way some 4 years ago. Serene views and quietness, if you're into that, dominate the evening hours, with a bit of Cafe del Mar in the background. It makes you squint hard in hopes of seeing Africa. At the bottom of the rocky shore there is a tiny gulf with green waters adjoined by a secluded beach. I found the hosts to be unbelievably hospitable, and the food delicious. The scent of fresh lemons at the dinner table is surreal.

It was a 2 hr drive from Iraklio, and the road passes through quaint villages where you can shop for more or less kitsch souvenirs.

..and even though with great weather you won't be wanting to spend to much time indoors, the museum in Heraklion really does have some outstanding exhibits, so if you're in the area (maybe combine with the trip to Knossos) it's well worth stopping there for a couple of hours anyway.
The Samaria gorge walk takes you about 4 hours at a cracking pace (just the walk; you have to get there first)...and at this time of year you may want to take it slower.
Definitely Chania and Rethymnon townships are both lovely.

There's an excavated Minoan palace at Malia that's worth a visit.

We also did Knossos (the most Disneyland-esque excavation) and Phaistos.

The Minoan museum in Heraklion is the highlight if you're into archaeology. You won't find anything like it anywhere else in the world as the natives don't like Minoan artefacts leaving the island and even formed a blockade one time to prevent stuff being shipped out for a "wandering exhibition".

We wanted to do the Samaria Gorge, but there was a major screw-up between the organisers and the taxi driver, who took us up to the main road to wait for the bus instead of the bus depot. Ah well, next time, eh?

I'll second (or third) Santorini for a visit. We did a full week there (on a separate holiday) and would love to go back. There's an excellent excavation going on there (planned to be completed in about a hundred years) of a town that was buried when the island (which is basically the remains of a huge volcano, the cliffs are the edge of the caldera) "blew up" several thousand years ago.

I was there a few years ago with my wife for my first 'beach' holiday. It was a fantastic experience; we stayed near Chania (pronounced "Hania") on the advice of a friend who had spent a week there, and a week near Heraklion. I can definitely recommend staying in the west of the island (Chania or Rethymnon) and avoiding the east (Heraklion and eastward) which was full of ugly tourist traps and drunk partygoers, unless that's your scene. Some of our highlights:
- Chania and Rethymnon are beautiful mediaeval towns and worth exploring the narrow streets
- We did an organized mountain bike tour from Chania through the hills and olive groves (fine for beginner riders) which stops at one of the few restaurants serving fresh fish (as someone mentioned earlier, fresh fish is rare there, the waters have been bomb-fished out!)
- Samaria Gorge - well worth the early start, bring lots of water with you
- watching the sunset from Falassarna beach (west coast)
- taking a Jeep 4x4 to visit Gramvousa and the beach at Balos (check out the high res sat image on google maps/earth) and the various visitor pics

Hope you enjoy your trip!

Just wanna say thanks for all the recommendations - can't wait! :-)

One last tip... get yourself a reliable map, and don't be surprised if even the most reliable one is wrong! We had problems with that when we were there- had a pile of maps but still ended up lost because of mismarked roads or roads that didn't exist on the maps. We often saw other people driving in circles while lost as well.

We went to both Santorini and Crete last May, and they didn't seem to have the ferry any more, just the (huge) fast cat. Takes about 2 hours and is very civilised, especially if you are not in cattle class, which was full to overflowing. Wasn't that expensive, either.


Phew because of the hill or the smell of the donkeys?
Us lazybones walked down and got the cable car up. We were already knackered walking around the caldera in 30deg+.

Take a day trip to Spinalonga, a small Island just off of the bay of Elounda. It was, until the 50's a leper colony. (sounds great right??) Actually it gives a very interesting insight into the lives of people who once diagnosed, were basically dumped onto this Island. You learn how they made the best of it and actually had a thriving community. Boats travel a few times a day from Agios Nikolaous which is a charming fishing village and should be avoided at night unless you are partial to clubs full of drunk,vomiting, British people in football shirts.

Also bear in mind in July it may reach the high 30's- low 40's celcius ...Sunscreen, sunscreen sunscreen!!!

Read this book.
The Island by Victoria Hislop

I must say, the resort of "Malia" was as I anticipated and worse! If you are the type that likes being drunk around the clock, who doesn't want to experience Greek/Cretan culture, then that's your place.

Firstly, our hotel "Phaedra Beach" should be avoided at all costs! Our travel agent said that we could decide when we arrive if we want air conditioning or not (the broschure also says this). We arrived to find that we had one of the 5% of the rooms that had absolutely no air conditioning and no possibility of having any - this was a big minus with temperatures of 44 degress daytime and 30 degrees at night!! We spoke to the reception but they said that there was no possibility of changing rooms. They have a new complex of very nice rooms but they told me that they were financed by another tour operator and that we could not use them.

Food in the hotel was pretty poor, with cheap nasty sausage and chips (among other crap) for breakfast. Evening buffet was equally poor with mostly carbs (one evening we had lamb which tasted a little off - this was the night when a lot of meat appeared on the menu, which was about the time when the whole of Greece was having problems with fridges... I reckon they bought it in cheap to use quickly!). I will never ever go half-board again.

They said "half board" but I think they meant "half bored" because there were a lot of events organised, but badly organised. No animation of the holiday makers. The only people that seemed to be having a good time were very young kids. Many of the events you had to pay an extortionate amount extra to take part. (We didn't want to stay every night in the hotel anyway, but on the odd occasion you don't feel like doing much and just want to chill and would have been great to have something decent on in the hotel).

We had a huge half-dead cockroach outside our room, which stayed there for more than a day without being cleared away - he was, however, very friendly and waved to us every time we came out of our room :-)

The last straw was when we wanted to get a coffee - we paid EUR 2.60 for a cup of dirty water that didn't smell or look like coffee - even normal filter coffee should taste and look better than this! I took the coffee to the manager and complained. We spoke with him for an hour - he seemed friendly and said he would address the cleaning issue and would arrange for us to view another room the next day.

When we looked at the room, it was worse than the one we had before!! It had dirty white walls, no wardrobe for our clothes, furniture cheap and nasty, and a view of the car park!!! (it did have air conditioning though!). Needless to say, we did not accept this room.

I went to the manager again and asked for the contact details of the hotel. I told them that I was a freelance journalist and that if they did not rectify the situation ASAP, I would write a bad review of their hotel and send them a copy. They asked which publications, of which I reeled off a few known British and German publications. She then looked nervous and said that she would arrange another room for us.

The next day, to our amazement, we were offered a pretty decent room - the standard of which you normally expect of a 3 star hotel. (The other room was basic and what you would normally expect of Greece, and we would have accepted the room had it not been unbearably hot! After all, we intended on spending every day out sightseeing and didn't need luxury...)

The location of the hotel was also not ideal - we had to walk 20 minutes in the baking hot sun just to get to the nearest sign of civilisation (which was the party town full of British tourists and English breakfasts). There was a very nice beach around the corner from the hotel though, which tended to be mostly Greeks in the evening. There was also a nice taverna where very few tourists went at night, where they had freshly grilled meat and beer glasses chilled in the freezer.

Finding typical Cretan food and hospitality was difficult. We did find a nice Kafeneio (Café) which was very friendly and they gave customers lots of olives, cucumber, tomatoes with every Raki. They also did good Frappé (iced coffee). The owner also had a Greek nightclub next door, which was the only one in Malia. There, we were also treated to snacks of fresh fruit, vegetables and nuts with our booze. The music was also great.

We did find a restaurant that was recommended to us, which had all signs only in Greek (which possibly keeps many tourists away) and the waiter was extremely polite and friendly and had the patience to explain what dishes they had that day in your own language. Food here was also very nice! I think the place was called Myra and was in the old part of Malia.

The best thing that we did was to rent a car for the majority of the holiday and drive the length and breadth of the island!! We drove 1000KM+ in the space of 6 days and took in the sights of Chania, Agios Giorgios, Rethymnon, Heraklion, as well as the various ruins (although it was really unbearable walking around ruins in temperatures of 44 degrees, and probably impossible and dangerous to walk 8 hours in the Samaria Gorge).

We drove up the mountains to remote villages, had some nice food by the 4000yo tree at Krasi. We bought some really great Raki from an old man there. We saw farmers riding donkeys late in the evening with their crops, as well as wild mountain goats wandering carefree along the mountain roads... (the sort of things you see on postcards and that I didn't think I would necessarily see). I didn't know that goats can take a dump and run simultaneously until I went to Crete! :-)

We went for a day trip to Santorini, but it was really a little short with only 5 hours until the return CAT. Anyone thinking of going should really stay overnight at least. We spent a lot of time walking around trying to decide which restaurant would be good to eat in. One restaurant had "Kamakis" waiting outside trying to encourage you inside. Normally I would ignore these people and see those places as being desperate. Good restaurants normally do not have to resort to these tactics. The were, however, persuasive, giving us free samples of meat to try and offering us free beers. We agreed to look at the menu. It seemed okay and so we thought of possibly staying. Another "Kamaki" then took the menus and suggested we sit. We sat and thought "we can pay for the beers anyway, even if we decide not to stay". In the flash of an eye, he re-appeared with bread!!!

At this point we told him that we did not say that we were staying and just wanted to look at the menu. He was then furious and we said that we would leave and that he should keep the beers. On the way out, he said to me "you know what we say in Greek? "Agami sou!" ("fuck you!"). I was totally shocked and used every offensive Greek phrase that I had learnt in response, which kinda surprised him too :-) The other guy then tried to calm him down.

Santorini is a *must* though, and is absolutely beautiful!

The last day I stood on a bloody sea urchin, which I can tell you, bloody hurts!! I recommend that anyone visiting Crete should invest in a good pair of flip flops for walking in the sea. I read a lot on the Net recommending people use them, but I thought that it would never happen to me... :-) The beach was very sandy and very few rocks, but on this day it was very windy with waves over a metre high and I think it brought some of these buggers in...

If this happens to you, it is recommended to have a pair of tweezers, a needle, a lighter, some olive oil and urine available. Place olive oil on the affected area and leave 1/2 n hour - this should help the spines to come out. Sterilize the needle with a lighter, then poke around until you find the spines. Remove gently with the tweezers (if you grip too hard, they may crumble and be more difficult to remove). Apparently, the fishermen suggest that you then urinate on your feet to stop it from going septic or getting infected... you could either do this yourself or get a friend to do it! ;-) Any other spines will tend to work their way out eventually... (I found some a week later after having a bit of a painful week walking).

Another point to note is that the party town of Malia is lined with bars and club all fighting for customers. They all have PR people on the streets trying to tempt you in with "2 for 1", "3 for 1", "4 for 1", "4 for 1 and a shot" offers. These offers are generally too good to be true!

We went out late on the evening to take part in this a couple of nights and they assumed we were drunk. I took a sip from every one of my 4 drinks and realised that only one had alcohol in it. They try to con people by filling it with ice or soft drinks. We asked for neat Vodka, which they could not believe and were not too happy about. I later realised why they were unhappy, because this way they could not con us... Most of the spirits are cheap no-name brands and beer often watered down (unless I am too used to stronger beer in Munich and it tasted watered down :-)

I would suggest going for bottles beers or spirits neat, or ask for the mixers separate. Also order spirits such as Sambuca of which they do not have cheap versions :-)

Be prepared for bad hangovers if you are over 30! :-)