r/cretetravel

I am visiting in a couple of weeks in May and will be staying in Chania with access to a rental car for the duration of our trip. I’ve seen plenty of other threads recommend taking the buses from Chania to the start of the gorge. Sounds like it would be too long of a day to park there, do the hike, ferry out, and bus back to the parked rental.

My questions:

1. is this the case even if you are very early to the park? How early can one enter the park?

2. if a bus is the better option, is that something that must/can be booked ahead of time? On the KTEL website, I am not seeing any available tickets from Chania to either Xyloskalo or Omalos which appear to the be the two nearest stops to the park.

I really appreciate any assistance and apologize if this is asked a lot. Thanks :)

Visiting Crete and I’m not much of a drinker anymore (u take my health very seriously). Is it rude to decline an offer of raki?

i stayed alone in chania for a few (beautiful) days and was never offered raki. did i do something wrong?

Hi all,

Looking to spend 2 weeks in Crete in August. Doubting between 1 week SirBnB and one week Catamaran, or 2 weeks driving around the island.

Where can one find good recommendations for places to stay and possible itineraries, browsing this sub just reveals an overload of into and personal preferences.

Thanks!

/edit

Forgot to add, we are moderately active, but interested in beach and hikes. 2 adults + 2 kids. We have friends joining us for 1 week (2 adults and 3 kids) second week in regards to the charter.

Traveling to Athens and Crete with a couple friends the week after next. How does this itinerary for Crete look? Thank you in advance for any helpful feedback!

5/6: Fly into Chania, land 9AM. Walk around old town and the harbor. Agii Apostoli beach if feeling it.

5/7: Rent car in morning. Drive to Almyrida and rent private boat- cruise along apokoronas coast, stop at hidden coves, jump in

5/8: Samaria Gorge via bus

5/9: Drive to Elfanoisi beach

5/10: Drive to Heraklion in morning to drop one friend off at airport. Then slowly make way back down to rethimno to base for rest of trip. Stop in Bali for swimming and lunch.

5/11: Drive to South Coast- Preveli beach

5/12: Chill day in Rethimno- beach, old town

5/13: Fly out of Heraklion

After much back and forth, i finally bought my plane tickets.

Fkying into Heraklion and Flying out of Chania.

--

Day 1

ARRIVE IN CRETE > DRIVE TO AGIOS NIKOLAOS

NIGHT IN MINOS BEACH ART HOTEL

Day 2

DAY/NIGHT IN MINOS BEACH ART HOTEL

Day 3

DAY/NIGHT IN MINOS BEACH ART HOTEL

Day 4

DAY/NIGHT IN MINOS BEACH ART HOTEL

Day 5

DRIVE TO CHANIA

NIGHT IN CHANIA (Domus Renier Boutique Hotel Chania)

Day 6

DAY/NIGHT IN CHANIA (Domus Renier Boutique Hotel Chania)

Balos Beach

Day 7

DAY/NIGHT IN CHANIA (Domus Renier Boutique Hotel Chania)

Samaria Gorge Hike

Day 8

DAY/NIGHT IN CHANIA (Domus Renier Boutique Hotel Chania)

Elafonissi

Day 9

DAY/NIGHT IN CHANIA (Domus Renier Boutique Hotel Chania)

Boat rental in Hora Sfakion & Preveli

Day 10

DAY/NIGHT IN CHANIA (Domus Renier Boutique Hotel Chania)

Stay around chania - Visit Seitan litania

Day 11

FLY TO ATHENS

NIGHT IN ATHENS

---

Let me know your thoughts? Wife wanted a calm start to the trip so figured minos beach art hotel would be the pace we need to start 3 full days around there then head west for 6 nights.

Thank you!

Hello everyone, me and my husband are coming to crete on the last week of May. The main idea of our trip is to relax at the hotel (minoa palace & resort) but we would also like to visit some great places.

How is the puplic transport in crete? For example if i would like to travel from platanias to Preveli beach, is that possible without rental car? Is there ubers in crete?

We have to possiblityof renting bikes from our hotel. Are there any nice places/smaller beaches in/around platanias that could be reached by bicyckle in max. 15 km radius?

I have heard that the Samaria gorge is not exactly for a beginners route (my husband has a bad hip, but other than that we are relatively okay shape) but are there any other shorter or easier routes, that would show us the similar landscape of crete?

Another thing, my husband is a fisher, so have tou got any recommadations for a half a day / full day fishing trips, where i could possibly enjoy more of the being on a boat part? 😀

Thank you for your help, cant wait for our trip!

Planning to spend 9 days/nights in Crete in late Sept with my partner (will visit Athens, Naxos and Koufonisia befor Crete). Likely arriving and departing from Heraklion.

We are mid 30’s, super active, want to avoid overly touristed areas, looking for great hikes, beaches, and spots to relax and explore.

We plan to rent a car and have lots we want to see, but at the same time don’t want to feel rushed, or that we are spending too much time driving. Thinking of staying in the below 3 areas, so that we are not backtracking too much and can do short day trips. Would be great to get some tips on what to include/exclude, whether this sounds doable for 9 days.

rough plan:

Nights 1-3: Agios Nikolaus area- stay in Kritsa. Hikes and beaches, Richtis gorge, maybe Knossos/ archeology museum?

Nights 4-6: Matala area, check out remote beaches and chill, maybe a hike on Mount Ida

Nights 7-9: Chania town, Samaria gorge, more beaches!

Travelling for a week end of April into May. Staying near Agia Marina in a hotel (just breakfast included). It’s a full itinerary of exploring mostly the west of Crete (west/north west/south west), including eating out around 3+ times in the mountains.

I am wondering if anyone here has ever driven from Heraklion to Arvi before. For context, we are a group that will be renting cars to drive to our villa in Arvi. Our host has advised that the drive is a bit dangerous near the end, since there is a descent down the mountains. We are wondering if this is indeed the case, because we are also suspicious he may be trying to get us to buy his car services.

day 1 (west coast)

• wake up in Kissamos, rent car
• drive scenic coastline down
  • (skip Balos? :( i heard rental cars aren't allowed & we are doing other beaches like Preveli & Seitan - how does Balos compare?)
  • Voulolimni beach
  • Elafonissi pink beach
  • kedrodasos beach
• sunset & dinner at Falasarna Beach
• drive to Chania to sleep

day 2 - Chania / 3pm cooking class

• wake up in Chania
• explore until 3pm - evening cooking class excursion until 11pm
• sleep in Chania

day 3 - Samaria Gorge

• wake up 6am, buy bus & ferry tix in advance?
• hike, return to parking lot around 8pm
• eat dinner & sleep in Chania

day 4 - Chania during day, Plakias to sleep

• wake up Chania
• afternoon
  • Seitan Limania Beach
  • Holy Trinity Tzagaróli Monastery (Agia Triada Monastery) - optional
  • Katholiko Bay
• explore Chania old town & dinner
• drive to Plakias at night to sleep

day 5 - Plakias/preveli/Rethymno

• wake up Plakias - 8am
• Kourtaliotiko Gorge - 2 hrs (arrive around 9am)
• lunch in Plakias - 12pm
• preveli beach - 3 hrs? (leave 3pm?)
• drive 1 hr to Rethymno, dinner - 4 hrs
• leave Reythmno - 7pm (1 hr to Chania)
• arrive port 8pm & drop off car rental
• ferry 9pm

---

any advice appreciated!

• my main concern is day 5. is that enough time? i know it is a little packed
  • how many hours to spend in Rethymnos
• we are still looking for rental car options to pickup in Kissamos and drop off at Port of Souda, but not sure if they are usually on time for the dropoff or do we need more time between dropoff and ferry (only accounted 1 hr between them so far)

its 5 days, not 6 days, my bad!

Hi everyone

I have been feeling a bit anxious since I just moved here to work. I have only one day off, I spend most all my time with my coworkers and idk how to make friends. I met a guy on Tinder but it seems like it didn't work.

It's a hard process of living in an island but I would like to make some network while I am here...

Any tips?

I got my day off to Chania tomorrow if someone is willing to have a coffee or take a walk let me know :)

It is raining. I need some padel. Help?

Also open to suggestions on things to to tomorrow since it will rain again. Thanks.