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Summer Days in Crete

Crete has been on my destinations list for a long time. Finally, I managed to spend five summer days on the beautiful Greek island and fully enjoyed it. I arrived in Chania somewhere in the afternoon. As soon as I checked in and everthing was in place, I got out to explore the city a bit.

I started with the historic heart of Chania, the Old Town that circles the Old Venetian Harbour. I enjoyed walking on the beautiful winding streets of the beautiful Chania filled with many souvenir shops, cafes and relaxed people.

I made my way to the beautiful old port that dates back to 14th century. It is ringed by a nice promenade along the water lined with many cafes and eateries where they serve fresh seafood dishes.

In the evening, I walked towards the lighthouse, it's a super nice place to witness the sunset and there's also a spot from where you can admire the cityscape, the old port and the old town of the city.

Today I was anxious to go outside the city and explore some of the top attractions of Crete. To do so, I rented a car so that I can move freely without the stress of time. There's also a basu that leaves Chania for Elafonissi Beach and comes back somewhere in the afternoon.

My first destination outside of the city was the famous Elafonissi Beach, known as the pink beach due to the ground shells which have colored the sand into pink. It's a wide sandy beach with shallow turquoise waters. The pink colour of the sand is simply mesmerising. I spent here most of the day, relaxing and propery getting in the holiday mood.

In the evening, I got back to Chania for the night.

On the second full day in Crete, it was time for some action, I prepared for a hiking trail and arranged for a car to take us at the starting point of the trail.

We got to Samaria Gorge Trailhead, the starting point of our hiking trail.

From there, we hiked down through the Samaria Gorge which is about 15 kilometers. Samaria Gorge is a Greek National Park, but it is also part of the world’s biosphere reserve. Most of the hike is going down, but still you have to be in shape a bit and must wear proper boots for the trail. I very much enjoed the hike.

At the end of the trail, we ended up in Agia Roumeli village. It is so fine as it is accesible only by bfooot or by boat. We had enough time to rest, have something to eat at taverna there, but the best part was the swim we took in the sea after the hike, precious.

From the remote village of Agia Roumeli, we took a boat that led us to the point where the car was waiting to take us back to Chania. You can visit the Samaria Gorge also by going there by bus, the olny nasty thing is that il leaves very early in the morning, around 5 or 6.

We returned in Chania at the end of a beautiful and exhausting day.

As we were tired after the previous day, we decided to take the day and enjoy a beautiful beach spot on the island.

We took the rented car and headed to Balos Beach parking point. Be aware that the last 10 km or so are a bit off road! We left the car in the parking, took our luggage for the day and started a short hike.

We arrived at this simply gorgeous beach lagoon with incredible turquise waters. We just relaxed there and spent most of the day on the beach.

And back to Chania at the end of the day.

Before leaving home, we spent some more time in the beautiful city of Chania, wandering on the nice streets, eating fish and having coffee.