For Crete portion of our trip, we plan to arrive in Heraklion (ferry from Santorini) and likely leave from Chania (flight to Athens). Two nights in Heraklion and likely six nights in Chania. We plan to rent a car and looking for areas to stay in Heraklion / Chania or a little outside the city for any attractions/restaurants for breakfast/dinner. Some say they stayed outside Heraklion and can take bus to the city. Are there also similar options for Chania? Also is six nights too much in Chania? In that case would you suggest moving to a third location for three nights? Interested in natural sights, beaches, history, food, simple walks (no Samaria for us). Thank you all.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
6582 posts
We plan on visiting Rethymno so you might check that out. The town itself is said to be more charming than Heraklion.
Posted by
2816 posts
We stayed in Archanes near Heraklion which we really enjoyed. You need a car though. We did drive to Knossos and afterwards left our car parked there and took the bus to Heraklion to the museum.
We spent four nights in Chania which we thought was a nice amount of time. I would stay in the historical section as it is the most charming. Six nights might be too long unless you are making day trips around Chania. We went for example to an olive oil factory and a winery the day we left Chania which certainly could be done as a day trip.
Posted by
OP
California
15 posts
Thank you BethFl. We do plan to rent a car and have to figure out the logistics. We land at the Ferry port in Heraklio with our luggage and need some transportation to go to a place like Archanes. Can we take taxi/bus easily enough? That way we do not need to rent a car right away and drive through Heraklion.
Regarding Chania - we were planning to do some day trips to beaches (Elafonissi, Balos, Falasarna,...), any historical sites nearby, local food tours, etc. Any other suggestions for 2-3 days stay elsewhere?
Also, curious about locations to stay in/around Chania that can be managed with a car. If Chania is like many other cities, I prefer not to drive in/out of city every day for daytrips.
Posted by
2816 posts
I don’t think it is reasonable to stay in archanes without a car. You probably could get a taxi to the town but what then. I would stay in Heraklion if you don’t want to rent a car right away. I actually thought the historical center of Heraklion was quite nice-not as interesting as Chania but far nicer than I expected. You could take a bus easily to Knossos and back. You also could take a bus to Chania and then not rent a car until you needed it. As I said we spent four nights in the historical center of Chania before we rented a car. The bus station in Chania is easy walking distance to the historical district.
We stayed in Kissimos for two nights to visit Balos beach. We didn’t make it to any other beaches on north side of Crete. We had planned to visited Falasarna for sunset but just were too tired the two days we could have so skipped it.