Crete
Chania in the west, Knossos in the middle, Samaria in the south — and a car in between
- When to go
- October 11° · 8 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€price 3 of 5
- How many days
- 4–5days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 29 km Heraklion · 77 km Chania
- Right now
Crete is Greece's largest island, about 260 kilometres long, with mountains down the middle and gorges running to the south coast — so you don't do it from one base like the smaller islands, but in sections and by car.
Chania, on the western side, is the town worth basing yourself in — a Venetian harbour with a lighthouse, narrow lanes of the old town, and restaurants right on the water. Heraklion, in the middle of the north coast, has Knossos and the archaeological museum, but is a less pleasant place to simply walk around.
From Chania, three big trips take a full day each: Elafonisi in the southwest is about 75 km away, an hour and a half to two hours' drive; for the Balos lagoon in the northwest you drive 40 minutes to Kissamos port, then take an hour's boat ride; and Samaria takes the whole day and a boat back.
Guides for Crete
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Crete in 5 days
→The first day on foot around Chania, the other four behind the wheel: a gorge, a pink beach, a lagoon and Knossos at…
Day trips from Crete
→Samaria and Imbros lead down to different coasts from the same mountains; Balos and Elafonisi are two different beaches…
Where to stay in Crete
→Chania is the one base that covers everything in this plan without packing up halfway through — Heraklion only makes…
What Crete costs
→On Crete a rental car is a daily line item, not a one-off — the bed and the food are similar to the rest of Greece…
Chania beyond the harbour and the market
→A fortress with a naval museum at the harbour mouth, Venetian shipyards turned into exhibition space, and a former…
What to eat in Crete
→Cretan tavernas run à la carte, not off a set menu — dakos, kalitsounia and a shot of raki at the end are what repeats…
The best time to visit Crete
→On Crete the date does not just change the temperature — it changes whether the gorge is even open, and for how long…
Getting around Crete
→Getting to Chania is a flight and a bus; from day two, every stop in this plan wants a car of its own, because public…
Mistakes everyone makes in Crete
→Anyone arriving in Chania thinking Crete is one town like the other Greek islands gets the order wrong — the car, the…
What to see in Crete
The Venetian harbour in Chania
The Venetians built the harbour between 1320 and 1356; the lighthouse at its mouth went up in the late 16th century, and the Egyptians rebuilt it in the 19th in the shape of a minaret.
free
Knossos
The Minoan palace five kilometres south of Heraklion, tied to the legend of the Minotaur and the labyrinth. Part of what you see isn't original: in the early 20th century Arthur Evans partly rebuilt walls and columns in concrete and painted them.
€20 (reduced €10) · booking: recommended in high season
Samaria Gorge
A national park in the White Mountains; the trail starts on the Omalos plateau and descends to the sea at Agia Roumeli. It's open from May to October, with exact dates set each year by the park authority.
€10 · closed off-season (open May–Oct) · booking: no (ticket at the gate)
Elafonisi beach
Pink sand and a shallow lagoon in the island's southwest; you reach the islet across the lagoon by wading.
free, parking €3–5
Chania's old town and market
Narrow lanes behind the harbour, inside the Venetian walls. The Municipal Market (Agora), a cross-shaped building from 1913, has been closed for restoration for years and its reopening keeps slipping — check it's open before you go.
free
Two things you probably did not know
The palace at Knossos has over a thousand rooms linked by corridors in no obvious order, and it is most likely the source of the Greek myth of the labyrinth. The Cretan script Linear A has still not been deciphered.
The Samaria gorge is sixteen kilometres long and three metres wide at its narrowest, with three-hundred-metre walls on either side. You walk it on foot, one way, in five to seven hours.
Ready for Crete?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Crete — day trips or weekends.
Greece
→The north by road, the Cyclades by ferry, Rhodes by air — pick the region first and the island second
Turkey
→Istanbul, then one direction: Cappadocia by plane, Ephesus and Pamukkale by train, or the Lycian coast by bus
Montenegro
→The Bay, the riviera or Ulcinj for the sea, Durmitor for July — choose the coast by its beaches and the north by the month
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Santorini, Monemvasia and Mykonos
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Crete if you have been.
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