Crete Advice without a car?
February 1, 2025 2:51 AM Subscribe
In June I need to go to Athens for work and am thinking about taking a long weekend in Crete on the back of the trip, mostly to see the sites. I do not care to drive in Greece so I'm looking for the following advice:
Which airport in Crete would be the best for car less exploration?
Can you suggest a 3-4 day itinerary?
Can you recommend tour companies who can accommodate solo travelers? Or historical tours?
Are there particular restaurants or things you would recommend?
Thanks in advance!
Which airport in Crete would be the best for car less exploration?
Can you suggest a 3-4 day itinerary?
Can you recommend tour companies who can accommodate solo travelers? Or historical tours?
Are there particular restaurants or things you would recommend?
Thanks in advance!
What are "the sites" that you have in mind? Things in Crete are generally more distant from one another. See the bus systems KTEL Chania-Rethymnon and KTEL Heraklion-Lassithi.
A good non-Crete option is to do a tour of Mycenae, Nafplio and Epidavros, another of Corinth and Acrocorinth, a tour of Delphi, and maybe a tour of nearby islands like Hydra and Spetses. Some of these will appear in different combinations. Most of those places are easily reached by public transport too, but the comninations might be more difficult.
posted by melamakarona at 5:39 AM on February 2
A good non-Crete option is to do a tour of Mycenae, Nafplio and Epidavros, another of Corinth and Acrocorinth, a tour of Delphi, and maybe a tour of nearby islands like Hydra and Spetses. Some of these will appear in different combinations. Most of those places are easily reached by public transport too, but the comninations might be more difficult.
posted by melamakarona at 5:39 AM on February 2
Response by poster: I'm looking primarily for historical ancient sites, not beaches and my experiences driving in Greece have really not been good.
I am in Greece regularly, so have seen all of the non-Crete sites you have mentioned @melamakarona, but thanks!
posted by frumiousb at 11:30 PM on February 2
I am in Greece regularly, so have seen all of the non-Crete sites you have mentioned @melamakarona, but thanks!
posted by frumiousb at 11:30 PM on February 2
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I have only visited Crete unguided, but I have always had the e-book version of whatever Rough Guide to Crete or Greece was newest at the time on my phone, and found this allowed for well-informed self-guiding without needing to follow the time constraints of anyone else. Your accommodation will definitely be able to recommend a guided experience for anything you might think of, though, from agrotourism farm visits to speedboat tours of offshore islands, and it is worth asking, since much of rural Crete and even much of the coasts away from the resorts are empty of tourists on package tours, but still full of interesting things to see.
The airports at both Heraklion and Chania are both connected to their respective town centers by cheap, frequent and comfortable buses. Chania’s bus service is here and Heraklion’s is here. (I haven’t been as far east as Sitia but I know there are, at least, taxis at their airport.) All the island’s airports are much, much closer to town than Athens’ airport is; Heraklion’s is probably walkable to the old town. For such a short trip, I think you should fly; the ferry seems like a lot of wasted time and flying can often be much cheaper if you book this far in advance, especially given how competitive the Athens-Chania/Heraklion routes are.
I’m not sure whether by “the sights” you mean actual tourist destinations, like the reconstructed ruins at Knossos and the stunning beach at Elafonisi, or the general charms and historical townscapes of Chania and Rethymno (in my opinion, Heraklion is much more of a city and isn’t nearly as pretty as either one). Crete’s history involves a lot of time under Venetian control compared to much of the rest of Greece, so that fact is often more legible in the architecture of the towns on the north coast than on the mainland or in the island’s villages.
But assuming you wanted a mix of delightful walkable towns and natural landscapes — and assuming June is warm enough for you to swim — you could do something like this:
On day 1, fly down from Athens to Chania in the morning, get the bus into town (and check the schedule for buses back to the airport, buying your ticket for the departure you want when you arrive, since June can be busy), drop your bag at your hotel, and wander around Chania’s very pretty old town and harbor. There aren’t really Acropolis-level sights here, but the lanes are quiet and reward the visitor who takes it slow. The city is full of places to eat, of course, but I have had better food (and enjoyed more shade) in the restaurants in the backstreets and around the square at Plateia 1821 than right at the edge of the harbor (though I’ve never had even a mediocre meal anywhere in Greece when I have asked what looked good or was in season). The place with seafoam green shutters on the north side of Plateia 1821 is a friendly and informal spot for lunch; I also enjoyed a nice seafood-focused dinner at To Maridaki, a little further south on Daskalogianni. The new archaeological museum has an amazing terrace (and good exhibits, too, of course).
Make day 2 your beach day. The quickest option if you are short of time is to take an hour’s walk west of Chania’s old town, through Nea Chora and then along a pretty well-marked trail (you’ll probably want to cross-reference with OpenStreetMap, though, as you walk; Google Maps doesn’t do pedestrian directions that well in Greece, I find) to the Blue Flag “Krissi Akti” or “Golden Beach”, with calm-enough water for a placid swim even on a breezy day, with a few bars, showers, toilets and changing huts right on the sand. For a more scenic trip, though, get the KTEL bus to the southwest tip of the island and spend the day at Elafonisi. It’s a bit of a journey and there’s no town nearby, but it’s easily one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to. It’s utterly shade-less, though, and quite windswept, so you’ll want a sun-management situation; perhaps your accommodation can loan you a beach umbrella? Closer to Chania are the (also lovely!) beaches at Falasarna, which are also surrounded by the ruins of a harbor from ancient times; though I’ve never been there by bus, it’s on the way to Elafonisi, which makes me think there must be a way to get there with KTEL.
On day 3, you could spend the morning cafe-hopping in Chania and then get the 70-minutes-or-so bus to Rethymno, to me the prettiest town (that isn’t Chania) on the whole island. The archaeological museum is really a gem, with the right balance of beautiful artefacts and well-written explanations. The Venetian fortress dominates the town on a hill, giving you some excellent views, and at night, the main square really comes alive. I try to have dinner at Asikiko at Emmanuel Bernardo 13, just north of the square, whenever I am in town. Maybe stay the night? A little outside town to the southeast — I think you’d need a car for this but maybe contact them and ask? — you’ll find both Taverna-Biofarm Armos and Agreco Farms, two agrotourism destinations that also have restaurants and good views.
If you have time on your fourth day, be sure to squeeze in a supermarket visit in Chania or Rethymno for all the herbal tisanes, olive oils, honeys, jams, soaps and, of course, oregano potato chips (truly a Greek snack icon) you can fit into your suitcase at much more reasonable prices and with a much wider variety than at the small tourist shops. I found all of these things at the shiny modern Sklavenitis at the south end of Pireos street in Chania just outside the southwest tip of the old town moat (!), as well as at the slightly more rustic-feeling SYN.KA at the southwest corner of Plateia 1866 near the crossing with Kidonias street, a few blocks into the newer part of town outside the walls.
A final note: while you said you weren’t interested in driving in Greece, if you don’t do a beach day, you might find a one-day car rental from a local scratch-and-dent/rent-a-wreck place (or even from your accommodation?) in Rethymno rewarding: over a long summer’s day, you could slowly loop down on rural roads to the south coast via the Askifou War Museum and Imbros Gorge, have lunch in Hora Sfakion, stop by the beach and castle at Frangokastello, and then head north up the astounding road through Kallikratis Gorge past the pretty village of Asi Gonia and the ancient cemetery at Lappa. With a small-enough vehicle — there are a lot of rental-car places offering cosmetically-impaired Suzuki Jimnys, Renault Twingos and Hyundai i10s, for example — rented from a place that is open to the idea that no car is going to remain perfectly pristine on Crete for long, maybe this would be an option for you even if driving in central Athens would not be. Notably, the routes south are also way less busy than the more urban and developed north coast, let alone anywhere on the mainland. You’d want a working mobile phone while on the road, though, which may be something you’d have anyway, and something like the OSMAnd app downloaded so you’d have offline directions for when you lose signal in the canyons.
Crete is different from any other Greek island given its population and size and its traditions, foods and culture are still accessible even with tourism being such a big part of the economy. June is also a great time to go. Have a wonderful trip!
posted by mdonley at 7:03 AM on February 1 [13 favorites]