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Best region to stay in Crete

Posted by (Silverdale, WA) on

Hello again Greece travellers!
After many reiterations and plan changes for our upcoming trip to Greece, after weighing much of your advice...
We have decided to stay in 1 main place for the entire trip with 1-3 day excursions from that home base.
It will just be my wife and I (retired healthy active 60 year olds) although you never know if friends or family want to come visit for a week during our trip.
We are planning on renting a house or apartment somewhere on Crete for the entire 4-6 weeks... Mid September through Oct 2024.
So, here comes more questions for you, which region would you choose on Crete that gives the local lifestyle (not touristy) and allows easy access to ferries/travel for our excursions and good local food from stores and restaurants?

I started my Crete research with this great article:
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/where-to-stay-in-crete

Posted by
1455 posts

That article on where to stay in Crete is pretty much right on. Crete is huge so it is a good idea to choose where you want to base yourselves. Choose either west Crete or East Crete and explore the area. Rethymnon is centrally located so you have some options to do some West and east from there.
Your not touristy, want pretty much excludes Chania Rethymnon and Heraklion as they do attract lots of people. Chania and Rethymnon in particular. They are both Venetian era cities with old towns. They are a delight to wander around but can be busy with tourists and locals particularly in the evening.

Heraklion is the main ferry port so if you want to do some day trips being closer to Heraklion makes sense. This May there was a ferry from Rethymnon to Santorini which ran a couple of times a week as I recall.

If it were my choice I would choose Chania and would find accommodation near the old town. That may not be ideal for you though.

Posted by
11606 posts

We spent two weeks in Chania and highly recommend that you stay there.

Posted by
2191 posts

If it were my choice, I’d stay in Chania but with perhaps the last 4-5 days in tiny Sougia, at the wonderful Oceanis hotel which is right on the sea, with a lovely courtyard to relax or read. There are other hotels in Sougia but this has a prime location and very reasonable price. They have several types of rooms, including a two bedroom apartment with balcony & kitchenette which is our favorite.

You won’t need a car there. You could take the bus to Sougia and a bus or taxi back to the Chania airport.

Sougia is a friendly little town with some great walks & hikes, and many wonderful restaurants. And it’s linked by ferry to other towns along the Libyan sea. Highly recommend.

Posted by
16 posts

Sounds like our early thoughts are about right.... based upon more research and your thoughts here... Outside of Chania it is!!

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