How we spent 12 days in Crete, Greece
When we asked our fellow expat friends living in Europe “what is your favorite holiday spot?” Many of them emphatically said “Crete”. So in the summer of 2021, we planned a 12 day trip to this bucket list destination. Here we’ll share some of our tips and experiences to hopefully inspire your visit to Crete.
Getting around
Crete is the largest of the Greece islands with a long and narrow shape. It spans 260km (160 miles) from the western end of the island to the east. By comparison, the Big Island of Hawaii has a maximum width of 122km. Crete is 8,450 km² in area compared to the Big Island at 10,432 km².
Renting a car
The island is famous for its scenic beaches and to explore them fully you ideally should have a rental car. In Europe it can be 2x as expensive to rent an automatic vs a manual, so if you’re comfortable driving a manual that’s what you should get. We got an economy class automatic car and it was the worst of both worlds. More expensive and the shifting was so terrible that it felt like you were riding in a car with a person who just learned how to drive a stick shift. Driving in Greece is not for the faint of heart. The local roads are narrow, often lined with cars parked (likely illegally) on both sides. The highways are one lane each way. So when cars are eager to pass, you’re expected to move over to the right and drive on the shoulder while one or more cars try to pass you at the same time. It doesn’t seem like anyone respects the double lines dividing the two-way traffic. But having a car on the island is the most convenient, since you can easily drive to beaches near and far, as well as swing by a big supermarket to avoid tourist prices.
Travel tip: the cost of sunscreen at a supermarket is half the price compared to the local shops near hotels. We paid for 8 Euros for a bottle at the supermarket.
What if I don’t want to get a car?
It’s possible to explore the top beaches on the island without a car. In that case, I recommend you pick a resort that’s either all inclusive, or close to many restaurants within walking distance. Then you can book day trips to the top beaches and get picked up by a tour bus from your hotel. This will definitely save you the headache of driving in the windy and narrow roads of Crete. There are taxis but no Ubers, so you’ll have to find taxi stands or have your hotel call a taxi for you if you want to go into town.
Where to stay?
The island is so big that it’s a bit overwhelming to decide where to stay. Since we had 12 days on the island, we decided to make several stops.
Chania
Chania, on the northwestern side of the island, is the most popular choice for tourists. If you have 7 days or less on Crete, I recommend you stick to Chania as your base. This is because all the top beaches are more reachable from Chania.
We spent our first six nights in Chania in the area of Kato Stalos, at the Creta Palm Resort. This turned out to be a great choice. The hotel is rated at 4-stars but it’s probably closer to a 3.5 star by US standards. The resort is very family friendly with a great pool and free parking. Our boys spent hours at the pool each day. The food at the resort is not overpriced. You can get a lunch for around 9EUR that includes an entree and a drink. It is surrounded by restaurants and shops within walking distance and you can easily find something that suits your budget. Chania Old Town is easily reachable by car in 15 minutes.
Travel tip: if you want a true 4-star hotel experience in this area, you should filter by 5-stars on travel sites.
Old Town Chania
This historical center of Chania is punctuated by the mid-16th century Venetian-built Fortress overlooking the harbor. In the town there’s the central market and many souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants. Take your time by wandering through the alleys to experience the full charm of the town.
You can certainly choose to stay in one of the hotels in Old Town Chania, but I don’t recommend it if you want the resort experience with a big pool for your kids. There’s also limited parking which will make it tricky if you have a rental car. However, I imagine it might be quite lovely to stay in the Old Town during the off seasons, especially if you get a room overlooking the Harbor.
Travel tip: the central market, most of the stores and souvenir shops are closed on Sundays. Many restaurants however are open.
Agios Nikolaos
We drove 3 hours from Chania to Agios Nikolaos and spent the next four nights at the Candia Park Village. This cliff side resort is also rated at 4-stars but the facilities are much newer and pricier. At this resort, you have a private beach along with water sport activities. The resort is reachable only by a private and secure driveway which means that to get to any restaurant outside of the resort you need to drive. The resort is quite stunning and we would have appreciated it much more if it wasn’t for the fact that 3 out of the 4 days we were there the daytime temperature reached 39 Celsius (102F).
Town of Agios Nikolaos
The town was reachable by car in 10 minutes from our resort and it definitely feels newer and more touristy compared to Chania. There are many of the same souvenir shops selling soaps and olive oils that you’d find in any of the towns on Crete.
Agios Nikolaos centers on the small lake of Lake Voulismeni. Around the lake there are many open air cafes and seafood restaurants. At the time of our visit, it was only possible to dine outdoors, so we typically ate dinner only after sunset when the heat had subsided a bit. In nearby open air bars and nightclubs, it looked like it was only possible to drink while sitting down. Which means that we didn’t see any crowded dance floors even though you could hear the thump of dance music from the next block.
Travel tip: You should make dinner reservations earlier in the day, since many others also have the idea of eating dinner between 8pm — 9pm.
Heraklion
Finally we made a brief one night stop in the capital city of Heraklion. The main reason we chose to stay here was because it’s a 15 min drive to the HER airport. We could have also stayed in Agios Nikolaos one more night and drove about an hour to the HER airport but I also wanted to hit some of the sites near this city.
This is the most city-like place compared to Chania and Agios Nikolaos. We saw a McDonald’s for the first time on the island! I don’t recommend staying here more than one night because the other towns are much more charming. However, Heraklion does have a ton of restaurants, more international cuisine, multiple museums and a gorgeous harbour with their own Venetian fortress.
If you want to take in some culture during your visit in Heraklion, I recommend getting the combo ticket for the Heraklion Archaeological Museum and Minoan Palace of Knossos, which is 20EUR for adults.
I suggest first visiting the Palace of Knossos, then the archaeological museum. The palace is dated from 1600 BC and thus is largely in ruins. Parts of the palace have been reconstructed so you can visualize how the palace might have looked like. When you visit the archaeological museum, you’ll be able to see the actual recovered artifacts such as game boards and pots that help to bring the palace to life in your mind. The visit to the museum made me feel in awe of the fact that we were literally stepping on an island that was occupied by human settlers from more than 3,000 years ago!
Travel tip: I recommend visiting the Palace and the museum at 5pm to avoid the crowds. The line to the museum can be 30 minutes or more, and you have to wait outside in the heat.
Rethimno
On our drive from Chania to Agio Nikolaos, we stopped in the town of Rethimno. This is also a popular choice when you want to stay on the western part of the island and maybe a little cheaper than Chania. It’s about an hour drive east from Chania. While we found the town quite charming and likeable, just keep in mind that it’s further away from the most famous beaches in Crete.
Beaches
When you go to Crete you must go visit their famous beaches. There are usually three that are at the top of any list: 1. Elafonissi, 2. Balos, 3. Falassarna. We ended up visiting two out of these three. One thing we realized is that there are so many beaches to explore but you do need to drive there, or even do a little hiking to reach the beaches. After a long day in the sun, you might not also be keen to spend 1 hour or more in the car to drive back to your hotel. This is something to be aware of when you plan your beach days in Crete. You can rent umbrellas and chairs on most of the popular beaches for 10–15 Euros a day but only if you get there early enough. You might want to consider buying your own umbrella from a supermarket on your first day. They cost around 7 Euros each and you can use it for your entire trip.
Travel tip: many of the beaches can be rocky, so it’s a good idea to bring your water shoes. If you don’t have them, you can buy them there for 7–10 Euros a pair.
1. Elafonissi
Elafonissi is famous for its pink hued sand and crystal clear water. Alas, we decided not to trek to this one because from Chania, it can take up to 2 hours by car to reach this beach. The water is known to be very shallow, only knee high, which is fantastic for families with small children. However, since our boys are older, they would want to be able to swim in the water. If we ever come back to Crete, perhaps we’d do a day trip there by bus.
2. Balos
Balos beach has been hailed as the Maldives in Europe due to its exotic look and turquoise water. There are a few ways of getting to Balos. We chose to book a tour (similar to this one) so we were picked up by a tour bus from our hotel, then travelled for about 1 hour to the Kissamos Port. From there, we boarded a “cruise ship” and travelled by sea to Balos. On the ship, we could buy food, drinks and all the beach essentials such as water shoes and goggles. Once we arrived on Balos, we had about 2.5 hours to enjoy the beach. The beach was visually stunning. There’s plenty of shallow areas for kids and non-swimmers to enjoy. Parts of the beach can be rocky, so water shoes were useful here. There are also beach chairs and umbrellas for rent in case you plan to stay the whole day there.
After Balos, the ship took us to Gramvousa where we enjoyed more beach time. I decided to hike up for 15 minutes to reach the Venetian Fortress, but in retrospect, it was way too hot to enjoy the view and we quickly hiked down to cool off in the water. Note when you get to the beaches, there is a small hut where you can buy snacks and drinks, and not overpriced. But it’s also a good idea to bring your own drinks and food if you don’t want to wait in line and need more variety.
If you don’t take the tour, you have two other options for getting to Balos. You can drive directly to Balos from Chania, which takes over an hour according to Google Maps. However once you arrive you will need to find parking and we heard that could be challenging so you end up having to walk 1km or more to reach the beach. You can also drive directly to Kissamos Port, then buy a ferry ticket to Balos, which we might have preferred so we wouldn’t need to wait for all the various hotel pick ups on the way to the Port.
3. Falassarna
Falassarna beach is located in the northwestern part of Crete. Even though Google Maps might tell you it takes 45 minutes to reach this beach from Chania, in practice, the roads are windy and unfamiliar so it ends up taking closer to 1 hour. This beach boasts wide spread soft golden sand (no water shoes needed) and incredibly crystal clear waters. The water is calm and stays shallow for many meters out, making it very friendly to swim in. You can rent chairs and umbrellas there but you must get there earlier in the day (before 11am) before they run out. There are nearby taverns to enjoy a nice lunch with fresh seafood. This was our boys absolute favorite beach on the trip.
Food
You already know that Greek food is amazing, so here we’ll highlight some of the more unique local dishes we enjoyed on Crete. When we were in Chania, almost every restaurant offered free dessert and raki, a liquor that’s distilled from pomace that’s left over from wine making. However, most restaurants did not offer free dessert in Agios Nikolaos.
Dakos
This classic Crete “salad” consists of chopped tomatoes, crumbled mizithra cheese, served on top of rusk, which is a type of hard, dry bread. It’s served cold which makes it a very refreshing starter on a hot summer day. It reminded us of bruschetta.
Lamb kleftiko
This hearty dish consists of lamb wrapped in parchment with potatoes, onions, tomatoes and peppers. The lamb is slow cooked to tender perfection. The potatoes soak up all the juice
Saganaki
This appetizer is fried cheese sometimes drizzled with honey. Especially when you squirt it with lemon, this dish is delicious and not as heavy as it sounds.
Fresh seafood
There are plenty of restaurants offering fresh seafood and daily catches. Steamed mussels and grilled fish are popular choices as well as octopus and snails.
Travel tip: frozen seafood are labeled with an asterisk (*) on the menu, so pay attention to that if you only want your seafood fresh.
Restaurant recommendations
We went to many restaurants, mostly relying on Google Maps recommendations. Most restaurants offer the local staples that are mentioned above. There were a few misses, but these below are the ones that we wouldn’t mind going back again. Also, don’t forget to spray some bug spray on your legs before dinner as the mosquitoes like to feast on you while you feast.
Chania
- Pita grill — very casual, lots of grilled meat for a low price
- Kostas — casual local place, good for lunch
- Kosmas — lovely restaurant in a garden setting, good for dinner. This was Ricky’s favorite.
- Spiti — modern decor, nice local dishes
- Ellotia — charming setting inside old town Chania.
Agios Nikolaos
- Karnagio — This is like the Cheesecake Factory of Greek restaurants. Big portions, huge menu, and long lines, but overall a very satisfying experience!
- Taverna Diogenis — casual and friendly restaurant, free pool table for customers
- Restaurant Terrasa — gorgeous view, make a reservation for a sunset dinner here
Travel tip: I’d avoid the restaurants directly on the lake in Agios Nikolaos. The food was bit underwhelming although the service was always friendly.
Final tips
After a whirlwind 12 days in Crete, I can’t help but to reflect on what we might have done differently, knowing what we know now. For our family, we value a low stress trip with lots of tasty food, relaxing beach time, sprinkled with some culture. Here’s advice that I would have given myself:
- Stay on one side of the island to reduce driving — After seeing the west and the east side of the island, I very much preferred the more authentic vibe of the Chania side.
- Get a better rental car — Ricky hated our economy grade automatic rental car. We would have felt a lot more secure and safer in a slightly bigger car. But car rental can be pricy, so we would have had to do a bit more research to get a good price.
- Plan out your beach days — I would have loved to see more of the top beaches in Crete, but each day can be an exhausting all day event. So I would have planned our trip around these beach days with days in between to chill at the pool and relax.
- Show up to the airport early — We boarded our flight back home just 15 minutes before our departure time because the Heraklion check in counters were in complete chaos. I would have planned to be there 2 hours before given all the new document requirements due to Covid regulations.
