Crete

Highlights

Beaches

Sights

Hiking / trails

Suggested 5-day itinerary

Where to stay in Crete

Crete is roughly 260 kilometres end to end. That single fact should shape the whole trip: you cannot see the island from one base, and the most common mistake is trying. Pick a region, or split your stay between two.

• Chania — the prettiest town on the island, built around a Venetian harbour with the old lighthouse at its mouth. The base for the west: Samaria, Balos, Elafonisi and Falassarna. Also the most charming place to simply walk around in the evening.
• Rethymno — a smaller Venetian old town with a long sandy beach starting where the town ends, which Chania does not have. Cheaper than Chania and central enough to reach both ends of the island on day trips, if long ones.
• Heraklion — the capital, the main airport and the main port. Not a beautiful city, but it puts you next to Knossos and the Archaeological Museum, which holds the actual Minoan finds and is the best museum in Greece outside Athens.
• Agios Nikolaos and Elounda — the east. Calmer water, the resort end of Crete, and the boats to Spinalonga. Elounda is where the expensive hotels are.
• The south coast — Plakias, Matala, Loutro, Sfakia and Agios Pavlos. Warmer sea, wilder landscape, far fewer people, and slow mountain roads to get there. Loutro has no road at all and is reached by boat.
• Inland villages — the cheapest option by a distance, cooler in August, and the version of Crete where the tavernas are full of people who live there. You will drive to every beach.

A practical split that works for a week: three or four nights in Chania for the west, then three in Rethymno or Heraklion for the centre. Two bases, one drive between them, and you actually see the island.

Read the guide: where to stay in Greece →

The beaches, and how far they really are

Crete has the most famous beaches in Greece and the longest drives to reach them. The distances below are the part most guides leave out.

• Elafonisi — the pink-tinged sand in the far southwest. Genuinely beautiful and genuinely far: roughly two hours each way from Chania on winding road, and packed by midday in season. Go early or do not go.
• Balos — a lagoon on the northwest tip. Reached either by boat from Kissamos or by a rough unpaved track followed by a walk down. Standard rental contracts often exclude that track, so check yours before driving it.
• Falassarna — long, sandy and west-facing, which makes it the sunset beach. Much easier to reach than the other two.
• Preveli — a palm-lined river meeting the sea on the south coast, below a steep descent.
• Vai — a natural palm forest behind the sand at the far eastern end of the island, and a very long way from anywhere in the west.
• Matala — the caves in the cliff, carved in antiquity and lived in by the counterculture of the sixties. South coast, with an easy sandy beach in front.
• Seitan Limania — a dramatic narrow inlet near Chania, reached by a steep scramble. Small, and the parking situation is genuinely difficult in season.
• Agios Pavlos and Triopetra — the quiet south, with dunes and almost nobody.

Knossos, the Minoans and what to see

• Knossos — the great Minoan palace outside Heraklion, and the most visited site on Crete. Worth knowing before you go: much of what you see was reconstructed in concrete by Arthur Evans in the early twentieth century, and archaeologists still argue about how much of it is right. It is still remarkable, but it is an interpretation as much as a ruin.
• The Heraklion Archaeological Museum — where the actual finds are, including the frescoes whose copies you see at Knossos. Many people rate it above the site itself. If you only do one, some would argue for this.
• Phaistos — the second Minoan palace, in the south, unreconstructed and far quieter. What Knossos would look like without Evans.
• Spinalonga — a fortified islet off Elounda that served as a leper colony until 1957, within living memory. Boats from Elounda and Plaka.
• Arkadi Monastery — the site of the 1866 explosion during the uprising against Ottoman rule, and a national symbol.
• Chania and Rethymno old towns — Venetian harbours, Ottoman minarets and lanes that reward getting lost.

The gorges

• Samaria — sixteen kilometres downhill through the White Mountains, one of the longest gorges in Europe. It runs roughly May to October and is strictly one-way: you walk down, come out at Agia Roumeli on the south coast, and take a boat and then a bus back. That logistics chain is the part people underestimate. It takes most of a day and it is hard on the knees, not the lungs.
• Imbros — eight kilometres, far gentler, and the sensible alternative if Samaria sounds like too much.
• Agia Irini and Aradena — quieter still, with Aradena crossed by a bridge people bungee jump from.

Getting there and how long to stay

• Flights — Heraklion and Chania both take direct international flights through the season, plus year-round domestic. Choose the airport by which end of the island you are staying, because they are two and a half hours apart.
• Ferry from Piraeus — overnight services to both Heraklion and Souda, the port for Chania. A cabin on the night boat is a genuinely good way to arrive.
• Getting around — hire a car, without hesitation. The north coast highway runs the length of the island and is fast; the south is slow mountain road, and that is where the distances bite.
• Four days is enough for one region and no more. A week works with two bases. Ten days or more is when Crete starts to make sense as one trip rather than several.

Useful tips

• Samaria Gorge requires comfortable shoes and water
• Rent a car — the sights are spread out
• The Egyptian Lighthouse is one of the oldest in the world, 21m tall

Where it is