Personal diary and advice about travelling the fabulous Crete , this is my 5 days holiday last Easter.
I love travelling and whenever I have time I write a diary, I hope it can be useful if you plan to go there.
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| seaside at Plaka , one of the places I loved most in this holiday picture is copyright howtogeneva.com |
DAY 1 We land in Chania on the Easter Day and we quickly get out the
airport, we only have hand
luggages, more than enough for 5 days holiday, and we easily find the
Europcar employee who accompanies us to take the car we hired, a small Suzuki
that is very cheap and will be very practical and reliable throughout our entire trip.
Our first stop is
Chania, at Porto Veneziano Hotel , booked via Expedia for 163 euros the triple room
with breakfast and parking included, the hotel is located right on the seafront
near the Naval Museum,
Chania is charming and and lively ,
the Easter evening is crowded of locals and tourists hanging in trendy cafes for a drink, the atmosphere is very nice with a beautiful sunset as background.
After having tasted some white Crete wine in one of the
waterfront cafes we have dinner at the
Salis Restaurant ,an elegant place very close to our hotel, we have fish dinner
, it’s good but not spectacular, at least for us , however the atmosphere is
trendy and I would recommend this place ,although it’s not cheap to be Greece.
DAY 2 On the Easter Monday the sky is grey and we are glad to have
seen Chania at the golden sunset light of
the day before. After a good breakfast, we decide to walk on the passage
leading to the lighthouse, crossing very
few tourists and some fishermen; then we want to explore the old part of town ,
it’s beautiful and characteristic, and we get lost in the many narrow streets that have plants
and flowers as ceilings , we enjoy the view of boutique hotels and cafes, and
local craft stores among which I liked one that sells antique prints and
another with crocheted dolls.
Unfortunately main attractions are closed in Chania on that
day so we can’t visit any church or monument and frankly the many souvenir
shops are not worth a stop, so we go back to our hotel to collect our luggage
and continue to our main destination Gouves, 20km east of Heraklion , our base for the rest of the holiday
The road runs along the coast, and it takes us at least an
hour to get to Rethymno where we decide to stop .The city is pretty cute with Venetian palaces and wooden
balconies that we had already saw in Nafplio a few years ago, also here we
slowly walk in the lively city center crossing a crowd of tourists and of course the myriad
of handicraft shops and souvenirs. We aren’t hungry so we decide to grab something
in a nice local pastry shop and we continue to the fortress which unfortunately
is closed, however weather is nice and
the walk is very pleasant.
The hotel where we are directed is the Amirandes part of the Greek
Hotel Chain Grecotel famous for its high standard facilities, we booked it
about two months before on bookgreece.com, a new travel portal that we did not
know and which turned out to be great, in fact we got an unbeatable offer for this
one that is one of the most famous hotel
in the whole Greece.
The hotel is in fact faboulous it seems floating on the sea which it
is surrounded in all its parts in the central structure, it is really a
pleasure to enjoy the sea view sitting in one of the sofas especially at sunset,
unrivaled luxury at affordable price thanks bookgreece.com.
DAY 3 The morning of April 18, the alarm clock sounds early
because we will meet our guide at 9.30
am at the entrance of Knossos , this private guided tour is not cheap but Mrs
Filia Chrissou (filia.chrissou@gmail.com) is very well prepared , professional
and very gentle . The guided tour is s worth the money , because Filia enabled us to fully appreciate the majesty
of this immense archaeological site, beautiful but not ideal to be visited
alone and without preparation
I must say that our visit to Knossos has gone beyond our expectations,
certainly thanks to our guide, but also to the clear sunny day , to the
few tourists, probably the mass tourism will arrive later, and to the colors of
the temples: the purple red and the black that stand in the blue of the clear
sky of April
Time flies and and Mrs Filia suggests to take us to the Heraklion archaeological museum without any extra charge , this is a fabulous surprise , we
discover the wonderful beauties of this truly unforgettable museum, which holds
all the treasures of Minoan art and the originals of what we saw in Knossos.
We now need a break and we point to Heraklion city center ,
which is a five minute walk from the Museum , we have a good gyros in one of
the cafes on the main square, the area is nice, lively with beautiful places , nice
people, nice narrow streets, definitely a must see place.
At our return, almost at the end of a long day the Amirandes
relaxes us with its sophisticated atmosphere and the dreamview , and its great
dinner service, included our package, and live music.
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| the impressive site of Knossos, best to be seen with an expert guide. Picture is copyright howtogeneva.com |
DAY 4 On April 19, the weather forecasts are good and so our
travel plan for Spinalonga and Agios Nikolaos is confirmed. We are not in a
rush and we decide to drive slowly and take the ferry from Plaka, rather than from Elounda, this is a great choice , 'The road
leading to Plaka from Neapoli is extremely scenic and it gives us unforgettable views
Plaka is a small, picturesque village with a crystal blue
water, a handwritten sign indicates free parking and the direction to get the
ferry to Spinalonga, the small ticket barrack is directly on the pier, we wait for the first boat ,
in 10 minutes we are on the island that was the last leper in Europe.
We get off the boat and find a bar with a wonderful sea view
and the ticket office on the opposite side of the pier , there is not too much to see at
the pier and we are here to explore Spinalonga so we pay the ticket and get inside the leper town. The walk through
the fortified and pleasant town offers beautiful views of the crystal clear sea
and the most beautiful gulf we have seen in this holiday.
We decide to walk all the trails, even the one that reaches
the top , it’s difficult to figure out how the atmosphere was when the island
was populated by lepers , now it seems a paradise but it must have been very
different a long time ago… after the walk
we head to the pier to wait for the first boat to arrive at Plaka Although Plaka is a very pretty village definitely
one of the most characteristic places we have seen throughout our holiday, we
decide to leave to Agios Nikolaos because we want to visit the village and return to the hotel in time to enjoy its facilities .
Agios Nikolaos is anice little town, perhaps less beautiful
than I expected, I definitely prefer Rethymno and Chania, however it’s worth a
walk, we admire the lagoon inside the village, very unique and full of fishes
that come to the surface as soon as you throw a crumb of bread in the water,
then we have lunch and we eat the best pita of the whole holiday in a tavern
called the Taverna Karnagio , full of locals and tourists there is a very nice
atmosphere may be because the weather is
gorgeous and the summer is close.
On the way back to our hotel we stop at the monastery of St.
George a place full of peace and serenity.
DAY 5 The next day on April 20th the weather is still OK , however
the sun rays don’t have the strength of the day before and the colors are
faded, the temperature is quite springy compared to the nearly summer of the
day before, we give up on our plan to go to Festo because this would mean another full day
trip on Crete curly roads and we are feeling tired so we decide to enjoy the hotel's amenities and relaxing atmosphere.It's our last full day in this beautiful island.
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| Our hotel the Amirandes Grecotel - a true paradise - picture is copyright of www.howtogeneva.com |
DAY 6 On Friday 21st the weather is even more uncertain and colder
than the previous day, so we take it slowly and we leave at around lunch time
from the Hotel , direction Chania where we will take a plane at 10 p.m. . The man at Agios Nikolaos tourist office had suggested me to visit Kournas Lake, which is not far from the main road , so we decide to
have a stop there .The lake is smaller than I expected but definitely it’s
quite unique , even if the grey sky prevents us from appreciating the blue shades
and the transparency of the water , that we saw in pictures and postcards.
To be honest , if it was summer time, I would not sacrifice
a day at the sea to see this lake, but in this season I enjoy this visit very much , may be because of the pedalo (paddle boat) , the most
popular way to cruise this lake and also
because I had read that the lake is inhabited by a rare type of water turtles , so we decide to go for a turtles photograph safari ....in Greece !
After 2 hours of paddling and exploration, we finally see a turtle and lots of giant red and
white fishes, we enjoy the silence of the place, off the touristic tracks .
Our last day in Crete goes fast with a stop to eat in Chania
in a place not worth remembering , and a visit to the beautiful monastery of
Agia Triada, practically attached to Chania airport, the place is very impressive , it's peaceful and isolated , it's atmosphere is unreal , there is a nice museum and a shop that sells monks'
products which unfortunately we can’t
buy because we can't transport liquids in our hand luggage .
Our unforgettable holiday is over now , on Monday we will be
back at work , bye bye beloved Greece, we will be back soon!
