Has anyone used a tour to arrive / return from the Samaria Gorge? We will have a rental car, but obviously only want to go in one direction. We don’t need a guide, per se. I understand that we have to take a ferry, then a bus, and maybe another to return to Hania. We will be there next week so the public bus system seems to be rather limited in mid-October. I would really like to know someone is waiting for us on the beach to ensure our return to Hania. Hoping someone who has done this before can offer some guidance. Thank you in advance!
Posted by
Portland OR
11 posts
We hiked the Samaria Gorge on Oct 2. There were 4 in our party, so we split the cost (150 Euro) of being picked up, with our luggage, in Chania, and dropped off at the gorge trailhead, with our luggage then continuing on to the town of Paleohora, where we would spend the night. The issue with hoping to be met at the beach in Agia Roumeli at the end of the hike is that the only access to that town is by foot or by boat. So someone would need to have taken a ferry from somewhere else to meet you when you finish your hike. This late in the season, be sure you know the ferry schedule out of Agia Roumeli. Our ferry stopped at Sougia, which is accessible by car and bus, so you can get back to Chania.
Relatedly, we found the guidebooks we used (not anything published by Rick Steves) to grossly understate the difficulty of hiking the Samaria Gorge. They stress the steepness and challenge of the initial descent of about 2k or 2m, leaving the impression that the remaining nine miles or so are a piece of cake. Not so. For our group, all in our mid-to late 60s, and one of us having a medical condition that can affect one's balance, there was no let up to having to pick our way around or over river rock and other uneven surfaces. Even for the two of us who are very experienced hikers and in relatively good shape, it was a slog. It took us 8 hours, and we just made it to the minibus that was available 500m past the exit from the national park to take us to the 5:30 ferry.
Along the way, we spoke with at least 6 young national park rangers, who were very solicitous of our safety (and for the first few miles urged us to turn back and hike uphill to the trailhead - no thank you!). There were three rescue donkeys with rangers spread out along the way, a clear indication that hikers sometimes need serious assistance in getting out of the park.
In full disclosure, on the ferry we talked with a guy from Norway who had started the hike at 8:00 a.m. and finished by noon. But there were others on the boat just as worn out as we were. The takeaway is that, while this is a great hike in stunning, changing scenery, everyone who considers doing it should be aware that it's more challenging than the guidebooks lead you to believe.
Posted by
2782 posts
This doesn’t address the logistics question that OP asked but I did want to share what we did. My husband can have trouble on steep descents because of acl tear so we decided to go to Agia Romeli by ferry and spend the night there. We then hiked up going as far as Samaria. It was about 30,000 steps with return but you skip the steepest part. I will agree with previous poster about difficulty. There is little that is just flat hiking-instead you are going from smooth rock to smooth rock. We brought hiking poles and wore hiking shoes which were important for us. We were in early 60s. We did see younger hikers just jumping from rock to rock.