Hi,
I'm hoping to travel to Crete in the next few weeks and am seeking an apartment (for 2) away from busy roads with a sea view plus balcony and located within 10. mins walk to the beach. My budget is £50 -80 per night.
I've already spent about 3 hours on booking.com, trip advisor and airbnb and only fond places close to busy roads.
It would be fantastic if somebody could recommend a place. Thanks, Margaret
Crete is pretty large. Can you narrow down where you are looking for this apartment. We can't make a recommendation without knowing where you intend to be.
Thanks for the quick reply. Rethimno and Plakias look nice and the surrounding areas look good for day trips walking. We want to wake up to the sound of the sea each day rather than lying on the beach . The main requirement is an area which has an attractive beach, walking routes and away from commercialism. Margaret
Since you are from England (you don't say, but you quote y our budget in £) .... and I'm guessing you haven't done a lot of homework yet. Have you looked at a good map of Greece? I love this online one-- click and it gets huuuge: it shows the terrrain as well as ALL roads: http://www.explorecrete.com/crete-maps/images/Crete-eot.png Some things u need to know about Greece:
• Greece is not like Britain, you dont "wake to the sound of the sea" because guess what? there is no surf, thus no sound of waves crashing on a shore. Really (It's because the Med is not big enough to have tides -- any waves are just wind-created).
• Rethymnon has a long beach stretching East from its Old Town, but mainly lined with biggish hotels (take a look on Google). A couple of blocks inland you will have plenty of small 3-story buildings w. balconies, but I don't know about that sea view.
• PLakias is a UK favorite, some package-holiday crowd, mainly too many buildings around a too-small beach.
• Some options on Libyan sea are Paleochora and Sougia. Small villages, hills go up from beach. See a wonderful album of Sougia by that Superb photog Stanbr! https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157653311291723 This one shows a lot of Sougia shots at the end - https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157671590654126/page3/
-- This album has Paleochora at the end https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157632115757899/with/34204115546/
... No busy roads for sure... but may not have groceries for self-cater, and maybe to quiet at night.
With your budget & requirements, maybe best bet would be look far eastern end of Rethymnon beach 1 street inland.
The village of Almyrida, not far from Chania meets most of your criteria. There are rentals on each end of the beach that are off the main road. There are shops for groceries etc and a string of tavernas along the beach. A bus gets you into Chania. A nice crescent beach, quite shallow, and sandy so it warms up quickly and stays warm until late in October. Water shoes are recommended as there are the odd rock and sea urchins lying in wait! crete is a great place but it has become more popular in recent years and even in Oct. beaches were busy.
Thank you both so much. This is really helpful and the tip about shoes for the water good to know. The view of the sea (if no sound or smell) will have to suffice!! I'll start my search again and focus on the smaller areas mentioned.
Almirida does meet many of your criteria; I would advise you also to look at some good tourist photos (search on "google images"). It is something of a UK package-holiday "hive" and the strip of hotels/restaurants right on the beach can look a bit forlorn out of season... but a hill rises right behind the beach, and there are many many accommodations there looking down on the water.
OK now that you have given us some ideas of where you are looking at I might be tempted to look harder at Plakias. Contrary to what Jan has said Plakias beach is at least two kilometers long in a horseshoe shape and that beach is only crowded right at the village. As you go away from the village there are lots of deserted patches.
There is however that dreaded road which separates all the properties from the beach. We are returning to Plakias in September and we have solved that road problem by booking a hotel up the mountainside which gives you a 180 degree view of the village mountains and the sea,
We have stayed at Atlas studios and Camelia Apartments just a bit lower down the road from Atlas. This whole area has several hotels in your price range all with that wonderful view. Once you find these hotels on booking dot com mark the location then look for other hotels in the same area.
As I mentioned they are up the mountainside sojust one problem without a car you have to walk up that hill every time you want to go somewhere. We switched to Camelia because its a bit lower on the hill. This year we are renting a car so the hill won't be a problem.
You can see images of Plakias and surrounding area in this album, Views from Atlas and Camelia are in images 2 to 14
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157665045541263/page1
By the way I see you have also posted on Tripadviser. I won't respond there because it would be the same as I have posted here.
Really (It's because the Med is not big enough to have tides -- any waves are just wind-created).
Hmm, seems the Med does have tides---- https://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/Marseille-France/tides/latest
Maybe not what is normal for the major oceans, but there is some change due to the gravitational effect of the sun and moon
Have you been there, Joe?? All I know is that I've sat on beaches at least 50 times in my 12 trips, and there is no low water or high water , or marks of same. All's I know is what I experience time after time after time. Maybe I shoud have said no Discernible tide ... maybe measured in inches.
When I stayed on a bluff overlooking Falassarna beach in the far west of crete, we could watch waves rolling in .... driven by winds, because the nearest land to the west was SPAIN (900 miles? +++) but on tthe beach itself, there was no difference in water's edge 24/7.
