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Greece itinerary advice

Hello Fellow Travellers,
You continue to be my go to when I'm ready to research and make plans for Europe. This year we are planning last minute which could not be helped, but so thankfully our time opened up that we could go!
Last year we flew to Athens and another flight to Paros, then a ferry to Antiparos for 5 nights. Then we took a ferry to Naxos for another 5 nights, then a ferry to Santorini for 2 nights, then flew back Athens for our last 2 nights.

We loved hiking and running along trails surrounded by water. We loved the food, fresh fish, Naxos potatoes!!!!

We want to go back and I've been reading up on Crete.
Here's our thoughts... our dates are flexible, we will have 14-15 nights on the ground in Greece, not including travel days there and back!
Sept 1st: Fly from T.O to Athens
Sept 2nd - Arrive Athens, fly to Crete (Chania or Herkalon?)
Sept 2-7 - Chania or Herkalon (5 nights)
Sept 7-10 - Herkalon (4 nights)
Sept 11-13th - Sougia 3 nights
Sept 14-15 - Athnes (2 nights)
Sept 16th - fly home to T.O

What would you add or take away? We love to hike, drink coffee, rent a car and drive the islands. We do prefer to only travel to 3 places, so this has us going to 4.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

Accommodations are welcome too. We are happy with clean, family run little hotels for $200CAD night or less.

Thanks for considering your help,
Kelly

Sept

Posted by
2269 posts

Hi Kelly -
If you enjoyed Antiparos, you will love Crete! I think it has much the same feeling.

We first visited Crete in 2022, and since then have returned twice, and will be there again in September. When planning our first visit, I got a lot of help from this forum, so I've linked two trip reports -- from StanBr and BethFL -- that I found very helpful. Also the link for my own first trip report, and one of my pre-trip postings.

There's so much to see on Crete . . . hopefully this will save a little research time and give you some ideas. Feel free to come back with questions.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/greece/return-to-greece-2022-chania

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/report-on-trip-to-crete-delphi-and-meteora

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/crete-without-a-car

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/greece/crete-loutro-and-or-plakias

Posted by
1599 posts

We love visiting Chania. Its old town and harbour area are a real treat. My suggestion would be to fly to Chania. If you can add 2 more days to Chania you will be very happy you took the extra time. There are several day trips you can take from Chania. This year we discovered a great new tour company Wanderlust tours. They have different tours to different parts of Crete. Max number of people is 12.
The order of your plan is a problem. After Chania you need to go to Sougia as it is in the south west with daily KTEL bus service from Chania. Sougia has 3 excellent tavernas, Rebetiko, Anchorage and Polyfimas. There are more tavernas than these 3 but we always make these 3 a priority.
Then return to Chania and make a connection to Heraklion.
Heraklion is a very busy city and for us 3 days is a maximum.
For fun here are some images of your trip.
Chania 2024 https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72177720318408008/
Chania 2022 https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72177720299646015
Wanderlust tours Chania https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72177720318394812
Sougia https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157696633322660/with/45364786821/
Heraklion https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157655935354556