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10 day Crete itinerary advice

Hello,

We will be spending about 2 weeks in Greece and were originally planning on splitting the time between Naxos, Santorini and Peloponnese. That turned into a definite struggle as we ended up needing 2 weeks for Peloponnese alone. So, we went back to the drawing board and are considering focusing instead on Crete. Although by no means a substitute for Naxos/Peloponnese, it seems to have much of what attracts us to those 2 places. And we really want to cap the trip off with 2-3 days in Santorini just to see it.

So I’m looking for some feedback on the 10 full days we will have in Crete. We are currently planning to be there in early/mid May, although we likely have some flexibility in the days.

Day 1 – arrive Chania by air from USA via Athens late in day. Overnight Chania
Day 2 – relax, recover and explore Chania. Overnight Chania
Day 3 – buffer day for Chania. Potentially day tour to Elafonissi Beach or Akrotiri Peninsula sights (Seitan Limania and Agia Triada Tzagaroli) or spend more time relaxing in Chania. Overnight Chania
Day 4 – PU car very early and drive to Kissamos to get day boat tour to Bolas Beach. Return to Kissamos in time hopefully to catch sunset at Falasarna Beach. Overnight Chania
Day 5 – Here’s where it gets interesting. Early AM departure for Hora Sfakion (HS). Although a bit out of the way, perhaps detour to Preveli Monastary and beach enroute. Park car in HS and take afternoon boat to Agio Roumeli (AR) and overnight there. I know boat schedules aren’t available yet, but is a late afternoon boat likely?
Day 6 – Visit Samaria Gorge the lazy way. Start early and walk up as far as comfortable and return to AR. Grab bags and take (early?) afternoon boat to Loutro and spend the afternoon and night there. Again, any guidance on boat schedules AR-Loutro?
Day 7 – Morning boat (if available) Loutro to HS. Pick up car and drive to Rethymno. Spend the rest of the day relaxing and visiting the town. Overnight Rethymno
Day 8 – relax around Rethymno; take a food/wine tour and/or cooking class. Overnight Rethymno
Day 9 – an early start with a drive to the Arkadi Monastery followed by a drive around the Amari Loop and ending around Archanes. Overnight Archanes (or maybe a farm stay in the area?)
Day 10 – potential day trip from Archanes to visit Agios Nikolaos/Elounda and/or Lasithi Plateau. Overnight Archanes
Day 11 – AM visit to Knossos followed by afternoon visit to Archeology Museum in Heraklion. Overnight Heraklion
Day 12 – early boat Heraklion to Santorini

Main questions:
1. To the seasoned experts, does this seem doable?
2. Is the Samaria Gorge visit as planned feasible? If not, we’ll likely just do it as a “typical” day trip from Chania and suffer through the knee pain and unfortunately miss out on Loutro
3. Is there safe parking for a couple days in Hora Sfakion near the boat terminal?
4. Do the boat tours to Bolas from Kissamos finish up in time to make it to Falasarna Beach by car by sunset (around 8pm)?
5. We want a “rest” day around Day 8/9. Any opinions on whether it is best to do that from Rethymno or from Archenes? We’d like to experience small-town rural atmosphere, so maybe Archenes would be better. But then we also want to have access to activities such as food/wine tour or cooking class, so maybe Rethymno?

Thank you so much!!

Posted by
2461 posts

A couple comments:

  1. We took a late afternoon ferry from Hora Sfakion to Agio Roumeli so that part should work. We took a 2:00 pm bus from Chania to Hora Skakion so guessing about 4 or 4:30 for ferry.
  2. The part that won't work is your idea of early afternoon ferry to Loutro. The ferry boats arrive at 5:30 pm-one going to Hora Sfakion, stopping at Loutro along the way and the other towards Sougia.
  3. There is a morning about 10 or 11 as I recall boat from Loutro to Hora Sfakion. I think there also are taxi boats that do that route if ferry doesn't work.
  4. See my notes in trip report about doing Amari loop. Some did not work well.
  5. We liked Archanes a lot.
  6. We didn't have a car when we went to the coast but our son and his girlfriend did. They parked and left car and explored coast for three or four days so seems can park Ok.
  7. We noticed that boat tours left Balos about 3 pm so theoretically could make it to Falasarna Beach. We had intended to go (we rented a jeep so had more flexibility) but decided we were too tired to navigate. Our son and his girl friend went to Elafonissi Beach (from Kissamos though) and stopped on way back and sent us beautiful pictures.
Posted by
1350 posts

You will be covering a lot of territory with this plan. I think you will be surprised at how different and tiring driving in Crete is.

Having said that the plan should work.
I would not do the drive to the east Elounda, Ag Nick. Perhaps find somewhere else to relax a bit.

There are water taxis from Loutro to Hora Sfakion so you should not have a problem with that transfer. There is parking at Hora Sfakion. It used to be free but I think you have to pay now.

For the Sameria gorge from the bottom I would suggest that you take the shuttle up to the gate. Its 3km to the gate on a slight incline up. When you hike back from the Gorge you will have a chance to see everything on that section of the path. That 3km you saved in the morning will give you extra energy on the way back.

The day you want the sunset views from Falasarna is probably not a great plan. You certainly can get there in time for the sunset however you will have just spent 6 or 7 hours in the Greek sun when you visit Gramvossa and Balos lagoon. You might even hike up to the pirate fortress at Gramvossa. You are going to be more tired than you anticipate. I would not want to do the drive back to Chania that evening.

Here are some images of your plan.
Return to Chania 2022 https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72177720299646015
Gramvousa,Balos and Elafonissi https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157698932695812
Samaria Gorge from the bottom https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157670610409530
Crete Libyan Sea villages https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157645487373222
Rethymnon https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157654700502270

Posted by
24 posts

Hi all,

Thanks so much for the excellent feedback. And Beth FL, it is uncanny how much overlap there is with our trips!

As expected, the tricky part is the southwest coast and the visit to Samaria gorge, but it sounds like if public boats don’t work with our schedule, water taxis could be an option. And thanks for the assurances of the ability to park for a couple of days in Chora Sfakion.

On further thought, we might tackle Samaria from the other side and spend time in Sourgia instead of Loutro.

I agree it is probably wise to pair things down some to limit distances, so dropping a Elounda and saving it for the next trip makes sense. And likely will just make a couple of stops in the Amari area based on Beth’s feedback.

Updated plan -

Day 1 - arrive Chania
Day 2 - Chania
Day 3 - pick up car and drive to Kissamos for boat tour to Bolas. Return to Chania for overnight
Day 4 - drive to Elafonissi early and then to Sougia for overnight
Day 5 - AM boat to Agia Roumeli and hike Samaria from below. I see boat operates year round with departure from Sougia at 915 am and returns at 515 pm. Hopefully this would give us enough time at the gorge. Overnight Saugia
Day 6 - spend day in Sougia doing some hikes or just relaxing
Day 7 - drive to Rethymno. Spent day visiting town. Overnight Rethymno
Day 8 - day in Rethymno. Wine/food tour or cooking class maybe. Overnight Rethymno.
Day 9 - drive to Archanes via Arkadi Monastary and a few stops around Amari (Fourfouras) that are not out of the way. Possible stop in Zaros. Overnight Archanes.
Day 10 - relax around Archanes. Wine/food tour maybe. Overnight Archanes
Day 11 - Knossos and archaeological museum. Overnight Heraklion
Day 12 Am to Santorini

I guess one final question would be if in May it would be necessary to book the boat tour out of Kissamos in advance, or can we show up at the dock in the morning for a same day trip?

thanks again!!

Posted by
1350 posts

I think you will be happy with your trip now, good modifications.
Great choice to head to Sougia. We go there almost every trip to Crete. Its small with several modest hotels. It is also popular so you need to start looking for a hotel pretty quickly. We have our hotel booked there for September next year.

While the beach is not the best, its location is outstanding. If you head to the left facing the sea, walk past the dry river and there is another beach there. At the far end of the beach there are rock formations for jumping and sea caves. The ruins of Ancient Syia are just behind this beach. Not much remains but it was a Roman settlement.
You can also hike or take the water taxi to Ancient Lissos just around the headland from Sougia. Lots of ruins there.

Sougia is blessed with three excellent tavernas.
Rebetiko Taverna just up the hill on the main road is very popular. We generally eat there twice on a 4 night stay.
Polyformos is further up the hill and has a big meat grill.

Anchorage is the first taverna of the 3 about 100 meters up the hill from the beach. Their stuffed mushrooms are amazing. Be sure to check with them to make sure they are on that days menu.

The ferry will get you to Agia Roumelli around 10. You will have lots of time to explore the lower part of the Gorge before the return ferry at 5ish.

We hiked past the iron gates all the way to the last rest stop at Christos. Its a lovely location with a church rest area washrooms and water. We actually got there about 10 minutes before the first group of hikers arrived from the top. I must admit to being a bit naughty . This group was determined to be the first from the top and I sort of neglected to tell them how we got there ahead of them.
They didn't even stop for a rest so they could get to the bottom before us.

You do not have to book ahead for the trip to Gramvossa and Balos lagoon. Just be sure to get to the port early to beat the tourist buses. You can purchase your tickets from the excursion office right at the port.

Here are some images of Sougia. We took the bus but a couple of the videos of the roads will give you an idea why driving in Crete is slower than one might expect.
Chania Sougia and Plakias 2019
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157711266062752

Just an aside the beach area at Plakias is a great stop. If you still plan on a stop at Preveli you might want to stop at Plakias.

Here are some images of the ferry trip from Sougia to Agia Roumeli
Ferry trip Libyan Sea https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157653434073393

Sougia https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157696633322660/with/45364786821/

Posted by
11052 posts

We spent two weeks in Crete and left our car parked in Chora Skafion for several nights, no problems at all.

Posted by
24 posts

Thanks again for the awesome advice and pointers!

I am definitely feeling the Sougia vibe so for now we are going ahead full steam with that option. I will most likely come back to the forum with some further questions as we research further. Thanks again for the bounty of feedback!

All the best!
Craig

Posted by
2461 posts

My son and his girlfriend went in May to both Loutro and Sougia and enjoyed them both. However, it seems that it was Sougia that captured their heart; it will be the name of their new dog!

Posted by
24 posts

Wow - that for sure speaks volumes to how special Sougia must be!

One other question. I have started looking into car rentals and am delighted to see that most local companies have auto transmissions available at a reasonable cost and that several include comprehensive insurance covering the car and passengers without deductible. Much better than going with the international chains.

I have sent messages to a couple of companies as I want to confirm that their insurance coverage also includes 3rd party liability in case we cause damage to other property/vehicles or heaven forbid persons. I believe in Greece 3rd party liability is mandatory and is included in all quoted rental prices. Does anyone know if that is the case?

Thanks again,
C