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CHANIA
- THE LOVELIEST CITY ON CRETE |
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 SEPTEMBER, 2019 |
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Crete is the largest of Greece's islands and is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean. It has a population of around 630,000 people, with most of its population concentrated in its 3 largest cities, Rethymno, Chania, and Heraklion, the largest city and capital of Crete. The island was the center of Minoan civilization for several millennia, starting in the 3rd millennium B.C. During the first 1600 years of the common era, the island was dominated by the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Venetians, and finally in 1669 by the Ottomans, who hung around for over 200 years. Crete achieved independence from the Ottomans in 1898 and became the Cretan State until December, 1913, when it became part of Greece. |  minoan scene |
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| Crete is well known for its friendly inhabitants, beautiful beaches, and mountainous interior, as well as its world famous Minoan ruins. It is one of the most popular island paradises anywhere, and during the summer, it is inundated by tourists from the rest of Europe. In 2018, about 6 million tourists visited the island - that's 10 tourists for every resident. The weather is typically Mediterranean, lots of sun and very little rain for at least 6 months from spring to fall. | ||||||||
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| Below
is a map of Crete. It's
easy to see the 3 largest cities, Heraklion, Chania and Rethymno, as
they are located on the north coast, closest to the mainland of Greece.
We landed at the Heraklion airport, rented a car and drove to Rethymno.
We spent 3 nights in Rethymno, then 3 nights in Chania, and then 3
nights in Heraklion. The airport at Heraklion is a horror show,
although I am told that it used to be even worse. Here
are the latest reviews on Skytrax. There is also an airport near
Chania, but it has far fewer international connections than the airport
of Heraklion. |
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| Below is a
description of where we went, and what we did. |
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| Rethymno is the smallest of the 3 towns we used as
bases, with a population of about
60,000 people. It is known for its fortress, its old Venetian port, and
its old town. As in most of Crete, there are numerous beautiful beaches
not far from the city, as well as many beautiful places to
visit in the mountains south of the city. It's also not far to
the southern coast which has many beautiful beaches to visit. |
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 PALAZZO VECCHIO COURTYARD WITH POOL |
While in Rethymno, we stayed at
a hotel called the Palazzo Vecchio.
This is a very nice hotel.
I selected it because it is close to the Rethymno Fortress (which we did not visit) and the old town of Rethymno, and most important, has its own parking. The hotel is lovely, clean and the staff is very helpful. Breakfast was just fine. On the other hand, we did have some problems with our room, number 208. It is billed as a junior suite, and in addition to the sleeping area there is a kitchenette, which we didn’t need and didn’t use. The kitchenette is reasonably equipped although the equipment didn’t appear very much used. In addition, the shower was unpleasant, as the lightweight shower curtain kept getting sucked into the water flow, and stuck to our bodies – very unpleasant. The worst thing was the Police Station directly across the narrow street, which had strong lights on all night, and was busy all night. It never got quiet. That said, we would still recommend this hotel, and would return to it, although we would not stay in room 208 again. |
10 LOVELY VILLAGES LOCATED NEAR RETHYMNO RETHYMNO TRAVEL GUIDE TOP THINGS TO DO IN RETHYMNO the charms of rethymnon town |
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 RETHYMNO OLD TOWN |
While in Rethymno, we strolled through the old town numerous times, as that was the most direct way to the old Venetian Harbor, and other attractions as well. Our hotel was just about in the shadow of the famous local fortress (Fortezza of Rethymnon) which can be visited, but which is something we did not do. We passed by the Rimondi Fountain, the Guora Gate, and several lovely churches in the old town. In the old Venetian harbor is the Egyptian lighthouse, one of the most famous landmarks of the city. Of course, we ate in several nice restaurants, but due to the sheer number of restaurants we ate in during the trip, all the restaurants are described in a separate section below. |  RETHYMNO OLD VENETIAN HARBOR |
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 PANORMO BEACH |
Outside
the city, we headed south into the mountains to visit the Agia
Irini Monastery,
but the road was closed. There was a scary gravel road which we could
have taken as an alternate route to get there, but caution overcame
curiosity, and we changed our plans on the spot. We drove to Panormo, a
lovely little town on the coast about 20 KM east of Rehtymno. There we
strolled about and had lunch at a local restaurant called Porto
Parasiris, decribed below in the restaurant section. |
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 SPILI |
On our
third day in Rethymno, we drove south through the mountains to Plakias,
a well known beach town on the southern coast. First stop was the
village of Spili, high in the mountains. Spili was a pleasant surprise
and we spent a couple of hours here. It's a delightful little village
and full of stores selling locally made goods. The highlight here was a
store not to be missed which specializes in herbs and exotic soaps made
with fruits and vegetables. The soaps are amazing. |
 SPILI SOAP STORE |
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| After
Spili, we continued south through the beautiful Kourtaliotiko Gorge,
and reached Plakias in time for lunch. As for the gorge, the ride is
beautiful, and the road is quite good, and reasonably safe. As for
Plakias, it's a large beach town, with several beach areas. The beaches
here though are rather narrow and stony. Parking was no problem and we
ate lunch
at a restaurant called Kyma, which was unfortunately, the worst
restaurant we dined at during the trip. More details below . |
 PLAKIAS BEACH |
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On
the way back to Rethymno, my GPS selected the shortest route, which
goes through Kotsifou Canyon, a well known and beautiful canyon, known
for its narrow stone walls, and its narrow and dangerous road, and which I had intended to avoid.
Before
I knew it, we were in the canyon, and it was indeed impressive and
beautiful. We have no pictures, because there is absolutely no place to
stop. On this site, it's called the most beautiful canyon
in Crete. Here is a 5 minute Youtube
video
of the ride. Note that the video is sped up to double speed. It gives a
pretty good idea of the ride, and the most impressive part is in the
first minute. The road was not nearly as bad as I had expected, but I think
that's because we passed no other cars coming in the other direction.
In places, the road is very, very narrow. |
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| Chania
turned out to be our favorite of the 3 cities of Crete. It has
small city charm. It's not as big as the big-city chaos of Heraklion,
or the shabbiness of the smallest town, Rethymno. We enjoyed Rethymno,
but its old town was definitely a bit shabby when compared to Chania's old
town. Chania has a lovely waterfront, a beautiful old Venetian Port
(apparently, every coastal city in Crete has an old Venetian Port), and
a charming old town. The picture at the top of the page will give you a
good view of the Chania harbor, and the picture at the right shows the
old town. |
 CHANIA OLD TOWN |
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 THE VIEW FROM OUR ROOM AT IRIDA |
While
in Chania we stayed at Hotel Irida,
which turned out to be our favorite
hotel of this trip. It’s a lovely modern hotel and our room was one of
the best designed rooms we have ever stayed in. The room had a strange
shape, but one narrow corner was converted into a corner for suitcases,
something we found to be a super idea. The hotel doesn’t really have
its own parking, but there is no problem finding free parking on the
street right in front of, or in back of the hotel. Our only problem in
this room was the refrigerator, which didn't cool very much. In
consideration of this weak refrigerator, the front desk offered us cold
bottles of water anytime we asked. The staff was great and breakfast was fine. The location is in a residential neighborhood about 1 KM from the entrance to the old Venetian Port, and the walk along the shoreline is very pleasant. There is also a beach right very close to the hotel location. |
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 CHANIA OLD VENETIAN HARBOR |
While in
Chania, we visited the "Etz Hahaim Synagogue",
which was a highlight of our visit to Crete. This
Synagogue is the only remaining synagogue of the once vibrant Jewish
community of Crete. The Synagogue dates back to the 15th century, but
was abandoned with the Nazi deportation of the entire Jewish community
during WWII. After the war, it was defiled and partially destroyed. In
1995, a restoration project was started by a Jew born in America, of
Greek heritage, by the name of Nicholas Stavroulakis. Despite an earthquake and
other difficulties, the project was completed in 1999. |
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 A VIEW OF CHANIA |
Today,
the synagogue is a popular tourist attraction in Chania, for Jews and
non-Jews alike. It's
the last remaining building of the Jewish quarter of Chania, and is an
inspiring place to visit. We were given a tour in English by British
born Alex, an interesting lady who is an archeologist by education, and
who is not Jewish, but has become one of the guides at the synagogue,
because of her interest in Jewish culture and history. |
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 ME ON OUR SUNSET CRUISE |
We
strolled
through the old town several times, and visited the old Venetian Harbor
more than once. We even took a "sunset cruise" which was somewhat
comical, but also entertaining. The cruise cost 10 Euros per person,
and lasted an hour. It included a "dive" by a diver under the glass
bottomed boat to feed a school of fish. The fish were the size of
sardines, and the diver was in a wet suit that looked like it was
stolen from Alexander the Great.
However, we enjoyed it, because we just wanted to see Chania from the
seaside, which we did. There are several different boats to choose
from, and they sail several times a day, with different length cruises.
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 CHANIA FROM OUR CRUISE BOAT |
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 CHANIA FISHERMAN |
On
one day while we were in Chania, we drove along the coast to the west.
We drove through Kissamos, and continued on to Falassarna beach, one of the
most famous beaches of Crete. It's a lovely drive, and it is a lovely
beach. A few kilometers north of Falassarna, is Balos Beach,
perhaps the most famous beach in Crete. It is supposed to be
extraordinary, but is difficult to get to and
we decided it was not worth the effort. There is a cruise from
Kissamos, which includes a visit to the island of Gramvousa, and then
Balos. The problem is that the boats leave in the morning around 10 and
return at around 6 in the evening. You can drive there by road, but the
road is
a terrible dirt road, and a 4-wheel drive vehicle is recommended.
There's also a fee to be paid to use this road to get to Balos. |
 FALASSARNA BEACH |
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 MANOUSAKIS WINERY |
While
in Chania, we visited a winery for tasting and lunch. The winery was
the Manousakis
Winery located about a 30 minutes' drive southwest of
Chania. The
winery is lovely, and the wines are very nice. When we arrived, the
staff was very busy with a large and boisterous group who were already
there, and we almost got up and left. It took quite a while until we
were served, but I am glad we waited. The food was delicious, and the
lamb I ate was the best I had in Crete. At the end, we bought a bottle
of wine which we were given as a gift, because of the long wait we
endured. I thought this was a very nice and surprising gesture. |
 LAMB AT MANOUSAKIS WINERY |
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I already decided to put all the numerous restaurants at which we ate at the end in a separate section, but there's one restaurant, I have to mention here, because it's as much a tourist attraction as it is a restaurant. That would be "Thalassino Ageri", a restaurant whose location is hard to believe. It’s on the eastern edge of Chania, literally right at the water's edge, and with a sunset view that’s hard to beat. It’s surrounded by buildings which are either “decrepit and falling apart”, or in the process of total renovation. They have no parking and if you have come in a car, you will have to find a spot on the narrow streets in the surrounding neighborhood. The food is good but not exceptional – tasty home style fish & seafood, and the staff is very entertaining. We had better food at other restaurants, but the setting and ambiance here is incredible. All the tables are set on gravel right on the shore, in some cases with the waves of the Mediterranean literally lapping at your feet. Everyone is there to have fun and enjoy the sunset! It’s an experience not to be missed if you are in Chania, especially if you like unusual restaurants. |
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| I don't
often make videos, but I made an exception with this restaurant. Here is my 19 second video. |
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 MARGARITES |
After
Chania, we drove back east to Heraklion.
The distance is about 150 KM,
which doesn't sound like much, but in Crete the drive takes well over 2
hours.
On the way, we went a bit out of our way to visit Margarites, a village
famous for its pottery and ceramics located in the mountains south of
Rethymno. It turned out to be a pleasant visit and the town is
literally filled with ceramics stores. We also had a pleasant lunch
there at a traditional tavern called Mantalos near the top of the
village. |
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| For our 3
night stay in Heraklion, we stayed in a large and lovely hotel located
right near the main port called Aquila Atlantis.
It was difficult to find and we drove around for several frustrating
minutes in the narrow streets trying to find it. Everybody tried to
help, but nobody could quite tell us how to get there. In the end, we
found it, and we realized how good the location is, just a couple of
minutes’ walk to the old harbor, and a few minutes further into the old
town. The hotel has its own parking, which is small and very limited, but the staff does its best to help you park. If the lot is full, they will double-park your car and take charge of the keys, so they can move the car, if necessary. Breakfast was excellent, with a very wide selection. Our room had a wonderful view of the port. We were told that it was an upgrade, but I didn’t see that it was bigger or more opulent than expected. It was an average room, and the shower was inconvenient to use. However, overall this hotel is excellent, and I would highly recommend it. |
 THE VIEW FROM OUR ROOM AT AQUILA ATLANTIS |
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 EDDIE AND ALISA with the statue of nikos kazantzakis in the village of myrtia |
After
settling in at the hotel, we strolled through the old harbor, and the
old town. and had dinner at a restaurant right on the harbor. On the second day in Heraklion, we took a tour with a local guide called Eddie Hoxhara. Eddie specializes in showing his guests "the real Crete", and we loved our day with him. Eddie took us to places in Crete we would never have gotten to by ourselves, including a family sheep cheese dairy, and picking fresh vegetables in the fields of the Lassithi Plateau. Eddie is knowledgeable, entertaining, and is passionate about showing his guests all about authentic Crete. The tour included a very full lunch at a traditional tavern in the village of Mochos. |
 ON LASSITHO PLATEAU WITH EDDIE |
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| After
lunch, Eddie took us to a beautiful winery called Domaine Paterianaki,
where we had a very pleasant tasting. The winery is totally organic,
with beautiful 360º view of the surrounding mountains and we enjoyed
the tasting in the lovely tasting room. As with the other wineries we
visited in Crete, we enjoyed the white wines more than the reds.
Several sites I have found claim that Crete is the place in Europe with
the longest continuous wine production, going back around 4000 years. Here's an interesting site about wine cultivation
in Crete. |
 AT DOMAINE PATERIANAKI WITH EDDIE |
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 OVERLOOKING THE LASSITHO PLATEAU |
The
following day, we had planned to visit the Knossos
Palace archeological
site, one of the best known Minoan sites on Crete. There's
a lot of controversy regarding the Knossos Palace, because of the
extensive renovations which were done here. Critics claim that it is
more like Disney World than an archeological ruin. In any case, Eddie
recommended we visit the archaeological
museum in Heraklion instead. He
even drove us to Knossos to have a look around (from the outside) to
better help us decide. |
 ON LASSITHO PLATEAU WITH THE CHIEF CHEESEMAKER |
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 AT THE MUSEUM IN HERAKLION |
In
the end, we decided to go to the museum for 2 reasons. The first
reason was that it was a hot day, and walking around the outdoor
Knossos site didn't seem to be a great idea, and secondly, the museum was
about a 2 minute walk from our hotel which made it very convenient to visit.This turned out to be a wonderful
decision, as the museum was one of the highlights of our entire visit
to Crete. The museum is beautiful, well designed, well laid out, and
has an
amazing collection of Minoan artifacts. All the displays had full
descriptions in both Greek and English, and best of all, the air
conditioning worked really well! Here's a very thorough site about the museum. |
 AT THE MUSEUM IN HERAKLION |
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 AT LYRARAKIS WINERY |
After the
museum, we took a ride into the mountains to visit a winery for tasting
and lunch. The winery is called Lyrarakis.
The winery is not small, and they regularly offer tastings and lunch,
which we were required to pay for in advance through their well
organized web site. The winery is set in a beautiful area,
surrounded by vines, and mountains. My GPS made us drive straight
up the mountain to get to the winery, although there was a normal road
to get there. The winery sent several "preparatory" emails before our
visit, and one of them even provided a simple map showing how to get
there without risking life and limb. Unfortunately, I didn't pay it too much attention. |
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| We didn't
particularly enjoy this winery visit; Alisa, because she was still
upset
and shaken by the ride up the side of the mountain, and me because I
found the atmosphere a bit cool and impersonal. We
were served by waitresses who were friendly but a bit hurried and
harried because there was a large group there as well. The wine was
good, but the food was not exceptional. We ordered what was called the "light
lunch". |
 LUNCH AT LYRARAKIS WINERY |
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After
the visit to Lyrarakis, we took a slightly unconventional step.
Although we had rented a car for the entire period of our visit to
Crete, and we had paid for the car through the following morning when
we had a flight home, we drove directly to the airport, returned the
car and took a taxi back to our hotel. We did this because the
Heraklion airport is a horrible experience and renting or returning a
car is akin to the clip to the left. Many reviews of this airport call it
the worst airport in Europe, even though many people say it has
improved over the last few years. The air conditioning doesn't work,
the toilets are filthy and stinky, and the logistics are a mess. In
addition, the rental car agencies are behind the airport (it's merciful
small), and it's necessary to push your luggage up a hill to get to
them. The airport is close to the city, and taxi fare is cheap
(10-15E), so we returned the car, and took a taxi and avoided the
rental car torture. |
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| STELIOS
(Agia Palagia) |
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 THE VIEW AT STELIOS |
Stelios
was the first restaurant we visited during our recent visit to Crete,
and it turned out to be one of the best, if not the best of the entire
trip. It is located overlooking the beach in the small town of Agia
Palagia, where we stopped on the way from Heraklion Airport to
Rethymno. We were served by Costas, apparently part of the owning
family, and I think his mother is the chief cook. We had fish soup, a shrimp platter, and moussaka. Everything was delicious. At the end of the meal, we were served an extravagant platter of fresh fruit, and of course the traditional raki (strong Cretan liquor), which is served at the end of every meal in Crete. Most restaurants serve raki and a dessert whether ordered or not, and don’t charge for it, but this was by far the most beautiful we got at any restaurant, with a beautifully sculptured fresh pineapple. |
 SHRIMP AT STELIOS |
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| ZEPHYROS
(Rethymno) |
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 ZEPHYROS FAMILY TAVERN |
Zephyros
is located on the old port of Rethymno. It is a popular restaurant, and
a reservation is recommended. We arrived with a reservation made by our
hotel for us. Unfortunately, it was made for the previous night.
However, the staff did their best and found us a table, despite the
restaurant being quite full. The service was very friendly, and the food was great. We really enjoyed our dinner here. We had grilled mussels, marinated sardines and fish soup. It’s a restaurant we would gladly return to. |
 BEAUTIFUL MUSSELS AT ZEPHYROS |
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| PORTO PARASIRIS (Panormo) |
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 THE VIEW AT PORTO PARASIRIS |
Parasiris
is located in a small town called Panormo which is about 20 KM east of
Rethymno. It is decorated with hanging and climbing plants, and all
sorts of other stuff hanging from the overhead arbor and ceiling. We
selected this restaurant because its menu looked a little different
than the standard. The menu had lots of different salads which we had
not seen in any other restaurants. We had stuffed grape leaves, grilled
octopus, and “Pandora Salad”, which was delicious and totally different
from standard Greek salad. The portions were generous and the service
was fast and friendly. |
 PANDORA SALAD AT PORTO PARASIRIS |
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| CAVO (Rethymno) |
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 THE INCREDIBLE VIEW OF RETHYMNO AT CAVO |
Cavo
was a highlight of our stay in Rethymno. This is an absolutely
beautiful restaurant in an absolutely beautiful setting, about 2
kilometers from the old port of Rethymno and with a delightful view of
the town. It’s far more elegant than the majority of restaurants in
Crete, and the food was quite good. After our starters of a salad and
sea bass carpaccio, we had a whole red snapper which was carved and
cleaned at our table. The service was excellent, and the entire
experience made for a wonderful evening. |
 SEA BASS CARPACCIO AT CAVO |
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| KYMA (Plakias Beach) |
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We
did not enjoy our lunch at Kyma, which is located right on Plakias
Beach, which is on the southern coast of Crete, about 40 KM
south of Rethymno. The fish soup here was a watered down vegetable soup
with a bit of fish in it – very disappointing. The other dish we had
was “Spekasti”, a grilled pita filled with cheese and spinach. It was
much better than the fish soup, but this restaurant was still a
"clunker". |
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| VENETO (Rethymno) |
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 SINGER SEWING MACHINE TABLE AT VENETO |
Veneto
is part of an upscale hotel in the old town of Rethymno. The restaurant
and the hotel are both beautiful. The restaurant serves modernized
Cretan dishes. It was by far the most elegant restaurant we ate in
during our visit to Crete. The decor was beautiful and original.
Many of the tables were actually old Singer sewing machines (picture to
the left). There is even a full time sommelier who really knows his
stuff and helped us pick a very interesting Greek wine. Unfortunately, the restaurant philosophy didn’t quite work for us. We had sun-dried octopus, sea bass with shrimps, and vine covered lamb. The dishes were good, but not great. The sun-dried octopus was the best dish, but the sea bass with shrimp disappointed. It’s still a good restaurant, I don’t think they improved much on the Cretan classics. Be advised that there is an Italian restaurant by the same name in Chania. As far as I know, there is no connection between them, other than the name. |
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| TO MARIDAKI
(Chania) |
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 TO MARIDAKI not the row of huge pots |
To
Maridaki is a “worker’s restaurant” right in the center of Chania. It
is frequented by locals and tourists alike. The kitchen is open, and
the waiter will take you on a tour of the rows of huge pots with the
day’s specials. Lunch here was an experience. The food was terrific,
and cheap. We had marinated sardines, salad and a seafood with pasta
dish. We really enjoyed this simple, down to earth restaurant. |
 PASTA & SEAFOOD DISH AT TO MARIDAKI |
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| NAIS (Chania) |
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Nais
is a seaside café with a light menu. We were there for a late night
snack, but it’s apparently open all day, We enjoyed the food and the
service. The fried stuffed pastries were very well done and tasty. |
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| MITHOS
TAVERN (Agia Marina) |
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On
the way back from Falassarna Beach in the far west of the island, we
stopped in the little town of Agia Marina (only 10 KM west of Chania)
especially to eat lunch at a well-known and highly recommended taverna
called “Raeti”. The restaurant is supposed to open at 12 noon, but on
this day, they decided to open at 2 PM. We got there at around 1 PM. We
checked around and found a very similar Greek tavern almost directly
across the street, called “Mithos”. Like Raeti, the menu is full of
classic Greek dishes, and like Raeti, it has all kinds of paraphernalia
and decorations hanging from the ceiling, but unlike Raeti, it was
open! They even had a pizza maker making pizza by hand right at the
entrance to the restaurant. The owner welcomed us and we had a lovely meal of fried zucchini balls, a platter of shrimp, and stuffed vegetables. The food was tasty, and the portions were huge. In fact, that would be our main complaint here – the dishes with rice simply had too much on the plate and we didn’t eat even half. So, if you visit Agia Marina for lunch, consider Mithos, and not just Raeti. |
 SHRIMP AT MITHOS |
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| THALASSINO
AGERI - unbelievable restaurant in Chania, described above here. |
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 THE VIEW AT MANTALOS |
MANTALOS (Margarites Village) |
 RABBIT AT MANTALOS |
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| Mantalos is
a family run Greek tavern located in the mountain village of
Margarites. It is at a high point in the village and has a great view.
Alisa had the "deluxe omelet" (it had lots of veggies), and I had
rabbit and potatoes. It was a tasty and pleasant lunch. |
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| PARALIA (Heraklion) | ||||||||
 MARINATED SARDINES AT PARALIA |
Paralia
is located on the seafront of Heraklion, and is well known for its
seafood. We had marinated sardines, snails and fresh tuna.
Unfortunately, the tuna was a bit salty, but the snails were very good.
Snails are very popular in Crete, but this was the only place where I
had them while in Crete. The waiter was very entertaining. |
 SNAILS AT PARALIA |
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| LITHOS
(Mochos Village) |
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 LUNCH AT LITHOS IN MOCHOS |
Lithos is located in the
mountain village of Mochos and we were there for lunch with our guide,
Eddie, who took us there. This is a restaurant he takes his customers
to if they are in the area for lunch, and he is friends with the owner,
Nikolas. The food was delicious, and this is one of the best
traditional Greek taverns we ate at during our visit to Crete.
Our meal was covered in the cost of the tour, so Eddie did the ordering and our table was quickly covered with all kinds of dishes. We had Greek salad, stuffed grape leaves, stuffed vegetables, kalitsounia (fried cheese stuffed pastries), chicken with rice and potatoes, and dessert. The tavern has a large open dining area in front and can handle fairly large groups. We enjoyed lunch here very much. |
 FULL LUNCH TABLE AT LITHOS |
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| XALAVRO (Heraklion) |
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| Xalavro
is a bar restaurant in the old town of Heraklion, and serves different
food than the standard restaurant. The chef, Nikos Kasotakis presents a
fusion of Mediterranean and Asian cuisines. We tried it and liked the
menu and the food. It was definitely a little different. Nikos was
there while we were and we had a pleasant chat. |
 XALAVRO OPEN BAR |
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| A
LITTLE WINE, A LITTLE SEA (Heraklion) |
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 WHOLE RED SNAPPER AT "A LITTLE WINE..." |
This
place is kind of hard to describe, and is as strange as its name, which
in Greek is "Ligo Krasi, Ligo Thalassa". It’s located on the seafront
of Heraklion, and specializes in fish and seafood. The menu is large,
and each dish has a number. With the menu is a sheet with all the
numbers, and the waiter marks off the numbers you ordered. It is noisy, and the wait staff scurry around like crazy, and are sometimes rude and impatient. Our waiter was actually the host and head waiter, and after a few awkward verbal exchanges, we became friends and the service improved. We had marinated sardines, and a good sized broiled red snapper which was delicious. The raki served at the end of the meal was about the best we had at any restaurant in Crete. |
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| THE PEOPLE It's true what they!
"They" say that the Cretan people are super friendly and helpful to visitors. We found this to be 100% true. Also, good English is widely spoken, making it very easy to be a tourist in Crete. |
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| THE BEACHES There are so many beautiful
beaches. We are not really beach people, even considering that we live
in a country on the Mediterranean shore which has plenty of its own
beaches. Sand and sun is just like home for us. The difference in Crete
is that there are so many, and they exist in every direction you can
go. On the other hand, many of the beaches are narrow and stony, but
most are sprawling and lovely.
|
 AGIA MARINA BEACH |
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| THE WEATHER The weather is super. While we
were there, we barely saw a cloud in the sky. Actually it's typical
western Mediterranean weather - many months of little or no rain, and
then rainy months in winter. That's why it's one of the most popular
toruist destinations in Europe.
|
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 CRETAN RUSK |
THE FOOD AND THE
RESTAURANTS The most ubiquitous type of restaurant in Crete (and much of Greece) is the "traditional taverna", which specializes in Greek salad, fish and seafood (on the coast), stuffed vegetables, various lamb dishes, and stuffed fried dough filled with cheese, spinach, or other things. It's fun to eat in these taverns, but it gets a bit boring after a while. There's very little variety in the restaurant selection in Crete. We don't eat in fast food restaurants, but in Crete, we couldn't even if we wanted to, as there are none (at least none that we saw). There are very few Italian restaurants, Asian restaurants, or upscale European restaurants... It's fish and seafood on the coast, and classic traditional taverns, and that's about it. Check out the picture to the left. It is a picture of "rusk", a Cretan specialty. It is intentionally dried bread, which is as dry as a brick, and has to be soaked in some sort of liquid, which in this picture is olive oil. Most of it is inedible, but it is served in all the traditional taverns. Here's a site with some more information on rusks, and which even includes a recipe if you want to make some at home. It was originally made as a long lasting bread for shepherds who lived for long stretches in the mountains. |
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| CRETAN BEACHES (very detailed description of the best beaches on Crete) |
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| WE LOVE CRETE! (a very comprehensive guide for visiting Crete) |
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| 20 SECRET BEACHES AND 3 CANYONS IN CRETE |
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| THE MOST EXOTIC BEACHES OF CRETE |
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| THE TEN MOST BEAUTIFUL VILLAGES OF CRETE |
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| COMPLETELY
CRETE |
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| WINE MAKING IN CRETE |
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| GREEK TOURISM |
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| A QUICK
HISTORY OF CRETE |
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| THE CHEESES OF CRETE |
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| DAVE'S TRAVEL BLOG / CRETE |
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| GREECE
TRAVEL BLOG / CRETE |
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This is a page from our site "Travels with Steve & Alisa". It describes one of the many trips we have made together. We've built these pages not just to describe our trips, but to help other travelers if we can. Please use the information we've provided freely, and let us know if you have any questions we might be able to answer about your own planned trip, or just let us know if we have helped you. Or perhaps you have some information we could add to the site. Visit our home page using the link to the right.
Enjoy
your next
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~Steve & Alisa~
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