We went on holiday to The Greek Island of Crete in April 2001,
somewhat wary of going to such a large island since we normally prefer the
smaller Greek Islands such as Samos or Skiathos, however actually getting to and finding
accommodation in early April on many Greek Islands is somewhat difficult since many are closed.
Although we had a two weeks for our Crete Holiday and
concentrated on the island's Western side, in fact even this was too large an area
to get to know very well in such a short time. The gorges and ravines are
spectacular (we took loads of photos) and in fact we thought Crete had some of the best scenery we
have ever walked, hiked, photographed and/or driven through.
As it seems is always the case on Greek Islands, the
tavernas all offered good and plentiful food at very reasonable prices -
even lots of different vegetables were on the menu,
and of course the normal Greek island type of friendliness was ever
present.
We did find the beaches we came across to be a little disappointing because we like small cove type
beaches - however it is fair to say that there is a massive beach (12km) along
Rethymnon (near where we were staying) and also April is not exactly the best
time of year to judge any beaches.
The beach we used mostly (firstly because it was just a small beach which we like
rather than big beaches and secondly as it was ok for nude sunbathing and swimming) was
located at Damioni. Damioni Beach is reached from Rethimnon by heading due south across the narrow part of the
island. Actually this was also the only naturist beach we could find in the Western area in fact though we were on Crete really
for walking and hiking so we did not try too hard to find other nudist beaches.
The other picture on the right is of Falasarna Beach Sheep.
We were unable to take the walk through the Samaria
Gorge because of weather (sea) conditions which was a disappointment but
we did walk the Prassanos Gorge - seemingly not many people walk this
rugged and spectacular gorge - its well worth the effort but you need to
ensure weather conditions are ok i.e. no heavy rain either imminent or
having occurred in the previous couple of days since it could be quite
dangerous. We also hiked through the Imbros Gorge - this is well used and
a very easy walk i.e. not difficult at all especially compard with the
Prassonos Gorge mentioned above.
The photo on the right is Palm Beach - a really unusual and scenic spot - we went there on a
hiking trip which is described via the walks pages link above.
Rethymno is typical of large island towns, with the usual traffic chaos and lack of road signs etc. it's long promenade and the harbour are fine to wander around and the inner harbour is saturated with tavernas and bars - mostly used by tourists. The older part of the town is more interesting to look around - also of course the fortress is easy walking and not hard to spot - it dominates the town and can be seen from miles away.
You can walk to the fortress from the inner harbour,
just follow the coast road round and up until you see the entrance. It
does not cost very much to go into the fortress and once in there are
plenty of bits to see and photograph - also you get pretty good views of
the town below.
We stayed about 4kms outside of Rethymnon at a place
called Platanias, and found the tavernas here much better than
those in Rethymnon, both for quality, quantity, price and the friendliness
of the taverna staff/owners.
If you travel west from Rethymnon you follow alongside
almost constant sandy beaches until you get to the small fishing village
of Georgioupoli. The causeway shown in our picture goes out 10
miles into the sea (only kidding), however walk along this causeway to
visit the small church at the end and get views of Georgioupoli's small
beach and harbour either side. There is a very large village square and we
found this very pleasant for a stop and a coffee.
Inland from Georgioupoli you find Crete's only
freshwater lake at Kournas - very popular even in April with coach trips
and tours etc. You cannot walk right round the lake but if you park near
where the paddle boats were for hire, you can go anti-clockwise round the
lake and get to the hills seen the other side - a track will take you up
into the hills so far before it becomes a very very steep path which will
allow you to continue up over the hills to Alikampos (a climb of 1650
feet).
We stopped off at Kolimbari, a small fishing village to
the west of Chania and had a look round. We also took a quite narrow road
up into the mountains passing the Moni Gonia and then made a circular
drive round and back to Kolimbari - well worthwhile for the views and
scenery.
Talking of interesting drives, try taking a drive up to
Polirinia. You start off by leaving the main road just before you enter
Kissamou - the small pot-holed road goes off to the left but is quite easy
to spot. The road is quite narrow and wanders around as it makes it's way
up to Polirinia - once you get there you can park by the taverna - it's
not worth or even very possible to drive right in as you will see once you
have a walk around. Our trip was somewhat curtailed by a heavy hail and
thunder storm ( hence no pictures since it also went nearly pitch black
and we thought our car was going off for a trip on it's own because of the
high winds) generated by the nearby high hills so perhaps it's worth
doing this on an uncloudy day.
On our way from Polirinia to our next intended stop
off Falasarna) we wanted to have lunch but there seemed a distinct lack of
tavernas - we eventually found only one which was at Platanos, whose
taverna can be found immediately after you turn right off the main road
towards Falasarna.
Falasarna is located in very much a farming area, the tiny port only had a few fishing boats - however it does have a very
long sandy beach.
There are also considerable numbers of sheep wandering
about everywhere (see the photo at the top of this page) plus a considerable amount of sheep poo to go with them.
Crete Pages on our Site
Beach Photos
Crete Walks
Crete Sightseeing - Drives
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External Links on Crete
Crete by Greeka
West Crete Greece Travel Guide from Greek Island Postcards