Crete itinerary / Driving and planning help

Samaria Gorge will take a full day.
We were in Chania two weeks and did not accomplish all you are planning.
We did spend two nights in Loutro on south shore.
With only five nights. skip south shore.
Day trip to Elafonisi and Falasarna Beaches possible. I may have missed it but do not think snorkelling is found there. Elafonisi is much more calm so maybe there.
Nothing really special that is found on Crete will be also be found on other islands. Crete only became part of Greece 1913, was independent. It is large so can't compare with other other Greek islands like Santorini which is quite small.

Thanks.

We are going to do the gorge from the south shore and hike in.

When you say skip south shore do you mean Malta or are you say Even loutro

Hiking the Samarian gorge from the bottom ("the easy way") takes more nights. I just did it in May. This is what we did to give you some idea of time involved. We took a 2:00 pm bus from Chania to Hora Safakion. It took two hours and stopped briefly only a couple of times. We then took a ferry (which are coordinated time wise with the buses) to Agia Roumeli where the bottom of the Samarian Gorge is. You can not reach it except by ferry or walking. We spent the night there and hiked the gorge the next day. Then we took a ferry to Sougia where we spent two nights but there was a bus waiting to take people back to Chania. There was a ferry that took people back to Hora Safakion as well that went by Loutro so you could get off there and spend the night. Then the next day you would need to take another ferry back to Hora Safakion.

So at the very least hiking the from the bottom of the gorge will take 2 of your five nights.

You could drive from Hora Safakion to Rethymno and spend some time there on your way to Heraklion. We spent four hours in Rethymno on the way to the Amari Valley. It wasn't enough but we did enjoy it. Parking was easy. But going to Matala means driving back down to the coast and then back up. Way too much to do in one day. This is most you can cram in.

Thurs 25th – arrival 5:35pm

Fri 26th full day – staying 4 nights Spend day in Chania

Sat 27th full day Day trip to Elafonisi beach spend night in Chania. It is about 3 hours each way so more than a full day. You could spend the night near there instead but regardless you have to go back to Chania if you want to go to Chora Skafion (no road along the coast) which is where you need to start from to go to Loutro. If you give up Loutro, you could drive to Sougia instead (about 1.5 hours) and go to Agia Roumeli from there.

Sun 28th full day Drive to Chora Skafion and then ferry to Agia Roumeli
Mon 29th full day Hike Samarian gorge from bottom spend night in Loutro

Tues 30th Full Day take ferry to Chora Skafion, drive to Heraklion via Rethymno. Spend night in Heraklion.

Wed 31st 8 am ferry to Santorini

This would have you spending evening in Loutro but not much else if you want to stop at Rethymno on way to Heraklion.

BethFl - thanks for the Details and helping with day to day. I was definatly thinkig our first day the 26th we would spend the day in Chania.

A few notes onthe Samurai Gorge - we did discuss going the night before and the family didn't want to unpack and pack etc.
The decision was to get up early (like those bus day trips) except drive ourselves.

After researching Ferry schedules at https://anendyk.gr/ below is what we were thinking were our two options:

1. Hora Sfakion: Leave House by 7:30am Take 10:30am Hora Sfakion Ferry to Ag Roumeli Gorge - (1 hour ferry ride) hike and then looks like we would have to take the 17:30pm Ferry back to Sfakion as there is only an 11:30 and then 17:30pm. if we really wanted we wanted to stop in Loutro for just 2 hours we could hop off and get back on at 19:30 hours to Sfakion, but don't know that we would want to do that for just two hours..but maybe.
   other option to return would be a water taxi from Agia Roumeli to Loutro then ferry to Sfakia.....based on when we finish hiking and we won't rush.

2. Sougio: Leave house by 6:30am Take the 9:20 Ferry from ougia to Ag Roumeli (40 minutes ferry ride)
   (I would think we would do this either Sat, Sun - looks to be a 7:40am Ferry but that would be a really early morning! or Mon or

Well, remember that one of the biggest advantage of hiking from the bottom is you get the Samarian gorge to your self for a few hours. You give that up with first itinerary especially. You will have people coming back that will be on the same path. Also by noon it was quite warm in May so I would guess even more so in August or September.

It also depends how far you want to hike. We hiked to the old Samaritan village which was the same length as the entire trail. We did that because my husband has had knee issues and didn’t want to tackle all the stairs from the top. If you go only to Christos, the first rest stop, your plan is more doable. But it is a lot of trouble to just do that.

Maybe do a different hike like the Imbros gorge.

Actually for the reason you said we are leaning toward the 2nd option to get into the hike sooner :-) and just skipping Loutro this trip.

AND same reason we are not hiking from the top - due to hearing it is bad on knees and my brother has had two knee surgeris.

I will look for sure, but I know we want to make it to the Gates and a little furhteer up. I will see where the samarai Village is.
do you know how far that was / how long it took you.

We left our hotel about 8:15 am and got back about 4:30 or 5:00 with time to get an ice cream, get our luggage and board the ferry. We did not hurry and spent probably an hour at Samarian village having lunch. My husband also took a ridiculous number of pictures. It took us two hours to walk between Christos and Samaritan village each way.

Thanks Beth !! Can’t wait

Late to this thread. Here is what the hike of the Sameria Gorge is like from the bottom. Just a suggestion there is now a shuttle that takes you 3km up to the ticket office. Take the shuttle. You can cover the same ground on the way back to Agia Roumelli after the hike.
Samaria Gorge from the bottom https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157670610409530

Thanks Stanbr. REmind me how far up did you hike?

We hiked up to Christos. Its a lovely shady spot for a rest break. Spent 30 minutes resting then the first hikers from the top arrived. They were astounded that we were at Christos before them. Being a bit naughty, we failed to let them know we came up from the bottom. They did not stop to rest, but rushed past announcing they are going to be the first to get to the bottom of the hike. First time I have revealed that little secret.