Cretan Tales
#1
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Cretan Tales
Sorry- wouldn't go because it was too big. Now installing trip report in bits.
After last year’s great success we returned to Crete for a couple of weeks this year.
We arrived early on the 4th October and left late on the 17th.
Flew out with Monarch on a 10.30m flight from Gatwick- 12 of us on an airbus- surreal. The 5 staff still could not make it an OK experience. Tour company had organised a taxi to take us to Paleohora; which was a good move. You really do not want a 4 hour drive at 2 in the morning on the wrong side of the road. You don’t. Take my word for it (even if it did cost £80)
Weather wise this gave us a hot-when-it-wasn’t- overcast week in the South west (warm when it was overcast or tipping down tropical rain) followed by a hot-but-not-too-hot week in the far east.
I was totally knackered on arrival which made the Harbour Apartments in Paleohora an excellent choice. The location, right next to the sea and the jetty from which the ferries leave, meant that I could sit on the big communal terrace reading books and sipping wine and watching the world go by. Strongly recommended. (Booked through Freelance- www.freelance-holidays.co.uk)
I posted a lot about Paleohora last year and have little to add, other than it now has an internet café up the stairs from one of the town’s tavernas, spoilt only by the fact that when the french doors onto the balcony are closed the fug of cigarette smoke is appalling.
Good meals eaten at Corali, Caravello (probably the best in town), Dionysius, Christos and Pandolis(also very good-watch out for wolves on the rooftops when the moon is full!). Cost for two for a meal varied from 5300dms to 6500dms (£10-£12) Except when we had fresh fish which made it a whopping £20/ head or thereby.
Took a dolphin watching trip- no dolphins, a bit choppy, and the smoke from the stack blew back on the outward leg of the trip, all of which condemned me to sitting in the scuppers trying not to couk. My husband enjoyed the cruise tho’.
Incidentally friends (with 2 boys under 10) who were staying at Agia Marina on the tourist strip outside Chania, came for lunch and stayed for 4 days, which says something about both places.
After last year’s great success we returned to Crete for a couple of weeks this year.
We arrived early on the 4th October and left late on the 17th.
Flew out with Monarch on a 10.30m flight from Gatwick- 12 of us on an airbus- surreal. The 5 staff still could not make it an OK experience. Tour company had organised a taxi to take us to Paleohora; which was a good move. You really do not want a 4 hour drive at 2 in the morning on the wrong side of the road. You don’t. Take my word for it (even if it did cost £80)
Weather wise this gave us a hot-when-it-wasn’t- overcast week in the South west (warm when it was overcast or tipping down tropical rain) followed by a hot-but-not-too-hot week in the far east.
I was totally knackered on arrival which made the Harbour Apartments in Paleohora an excellent choice. The location, right next to the sea and the jetty from which the ferries leave, meant that I could sit on the big communal terrace reading books and sipping wine and watching the world go by. Strongly recommended. (Booked through Freelance- www.freelance-holidays.co.uk)
I posted a lot about Paleohora last year and have little to add, other than it now has an internet café up the stairs from one of the town’s tavernas, spoilt only by the fact that when the french doors onto the balcony are closed the fug of cigarette smoke is appalling.
Good meals eaten at Corali, Caravello (probably the best in town), Dionysius, Christos and Pandolis(also very good-watch out for wolves on the rooftops when the moon is full!). Cost for two for a meal varied from 5300dms to 6500dms (£10-£12) Except when we had fresh fish which made it a whopping £20/ head or thereby.
Took a dolphin watching trip- no dolphins, a bit choppy, and the smoke from the stack blew back on the outward leg of the trip, all of which condemned me to sitting in the scuppers trying not to couk. My husband enjoyed the cruise tho’.
Incidentally friends (with 2 boys under 10) who were staying at Agia Marina on the tourist strip outside Chania, came for lunch and stayed for 4 days, which says something about both places.
#2
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Second installment
We hired a car for the second week, which was delivered to us by Zakros in Paleohora, and dropped off by us at the airport at Iraklion on the way home. Zakros, like last year, did not put a foot wrong.
If I said that Western Crete was undeveloped, it is not a patch on Eastern Crete for unspoilt. This area is very unoccupied. We had choices on beaches on which we were the only people; and whilst the towns and villages may not be in quite the same league as those set up to look after tourists in the Agios Nikolaos area (or even in Paleohora), they’re not going to leave you without a bite for supper either.
We stayed in Palekastro, about 18 kilometres from Sitia, which is the capital of the province. Palekastro has a few tavernas, lots of Germans and lots of Swiss, no huge shops but good local shopping,(I recommend Finias’s supermarket. This young man looked after my wallet, which had fallen out of my bag, and should get lots of custom for his honesty and helpfulness), a couple of tourist shops and 3 or 4 tavernas. There is a long sandy beach nearby, which has the European Blue Flag, and lots and lots of little beaches all up and down the coast. We stayed near Chiona beach which has 3 tavernas of its own and was very pretty and almost unoccupied. There are no sunbeds in this area ( at least not in October).
The town has a couple of night club places, a lot of "Rooms Rent" available, and a couple of hotels. We didn’t see a campsite, a couple of miles north there’s a small beach with a taverna called Makridati, and the guy obviously takes tents in his olive grove.
We stayed in the Hotel Marina Village, which, whilst it was running down for the end of the season, was in a pretty rural location, had a nice (freezing!) pool, and runs a pretty good book exchange. Usual comments about Greek showers apply.
We ate at Chiona Taverna 3 times- food was good but the location was superb, sunset views over a dappling bay. Mythos in Palekastro was excellent. Hellas Hotel was good if you weren’t veggy. The gigantes beans, picked off the "without meat" section of the menu were somewhat sausagey and the service made out it was my fault.
We hired a car for the second week, which was delivered to us by Zakros in Paleohora, and dropped off by us at the airport at Iraklion on the way home. Zakros, like last year, did not put a foot wrong.
If I said that Western Crete was undeveloped, it is not a patch on Eastern Crete for unspoilt. This area is very unoccupied. We had choices on beaches on which we were the only people; and whilst the towns and villages may not be in quite the same league as those set up to look after tourists in the Agios Nikolaos area (or even in Paleohora), they’re not going to leave you without a bite for supper either.
We stayed in Palekastro, about 18 kilometres from Sitia, which is the capital of the province. Palekastro has a few tavernas, lots of Germans and lots of Swiss, no huge shops but good local shopping,(I recommend Finias’s supermarket. This young man looked after my wallet, which had fallen out of my bag, and should get lots of custom for his honesty and helpfulness), a couple of tourist shops and 3 or 4 tavernas. There is a long sandy beach nearby, which has the European Blue Flag, and lots and lots of little beaches all up and down the coast. We stayed near Chiona beach which has 3 tavernas of its own and was very pretty and almost unoccupied. There are no sunbeds in this area ( at least not in October).
The town has a couple of night club places, a lot of "Rooms Rent" available, and a couple of hotels. We didn’t see a campsite, a couple of miles north there’s a small beach with a taverna called Makridati, and the guy obviously takes tents in his olive grove.
We stayed in the Hotel Marina Village, which, whilst it was running down for the end of the season, was in a pretty rural location, had a nice (freezing!) pool, and runs a pretty good book exchange. Usual comments about Greek showers apply.
We ate at Chiona Taverna 3 times- food was good but the location was superb, sunset views over a dappling bay. Mythos in Palekastro was excellent. Hellas Hotel was good if you weren’t veggy. The gigantes beans, picked off the "without meat" section of the menu were somewhat sausagey and the service made out it was my fault.
#3
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Third bittie:-
The area is full of Minoan ruins, some of which were spectacular. Our trips included
· one on the doorstep to Palekastro; which is a Minoan town, spread over a large area. Lots of the finds are in various museums. Lovely location, just next to the beach.
· Gournia- about 2 hours’ drive west of Palekastro, this huge Minoan town is spread over a hillside, just east of Ag Nik. It’s mindblowing to see the sort of cultured culture they had 3-4,000 years ago. (Panorama restaurant, just up the hill great place to recharge batteries and discharge bladders and have coffess miles above the stunning blue Gulf of Mirabello)
· Moni Toplou right out at the North east of the island is a fortified monastery, where they clearly took their responsibilities to defend Christendom literally. It also has the most amazing icon; with 61 biblical scenes on it.
· the beach at Bai, in a date palm forest. My advice is, unless you like not having room to turn round on a beach, don’t do it! God knows what it’s like in the summer.
· Zakros- This is a stunning Minoan Palace right on the coast. You can drive down, but it was much more fun to walk through the gorge from its big brother Ano Zakros, 8 kms uphill, and get the bus back to the car. The palace is, like Festos, much more user friendly than Knossos, being of a more believable size, and not having Arthur Evans made up reconstructions. It also has some terrific terrapins in a cistern in the middle. Nice, if somewhat pebbly beach, and three or four great tavernas along the beach front.
· Sitia- pleasant town. Has what you would want, but doesn’t oversell itself. Good museum which has a lot of the finds from round about, including the Palekastro Kouros, a beautiful graceful figurine of a boy, found at Palekastro, carved in setions in ivory, with pins to hold it together.
· Xerokambos- 40 minutes down a dirt track; supposed to be a nice beach but it was firecely windy when we were there, so all we know is it had a nice taverna (Libyan View- for the uninitiated, the Greeks call the sea south of Crete, the Libyan Sea)
· Makriyialos on the south east coast. Very disappointing but we did a spectacular drive up to Stavrohori, some 15 miles into the mountains, then over the hill to Orino, on a wee track. Remind me again how fantastic the Cretan mountains are?
· Lasithi plateau, where the windmills are. Windmills disappointing because so many are out of use; but we walked up the hill to the cave where Zeus was born and climbed right down into it- 165 metres- brilliant.
· Kritsa- up the hill from Ag Nik. A lovely little hill town entirely devoted to taking the tourist dollar; but in return for (mostly) good quality crafts and products. Definitely worth a visit.
Flew out with Air 2000, who did a great job, on a full plane in contrast to their fellows on the outgoing flight.
We used The Rough Guide to Crete, which is a very good general guide; the Blue Guide to Crete, which will tell you more about Minoan ruins than you ever wanted to know; and Sunflower’s "Landscapes of Eastern Crete"- which gives great advice on both motoring and walking tours. I used Stephanie Coughlan’s "A birdwatcher’s guide to Crete
The area is full of Minoan ruins, some of which were spectacular. Our trips included
· one on the doorstep to Palekastro; which is a Minoan town, spread over a large area. Lots of the finds are in various museums. Lovely location, just next to the beach.
· Gournia- about 2 hours’ drive west of Palekastro, this huge Minoan town is spread over a hillside, just east of Ag Nik. It’s mindblowing to see the sort of cultured culture they had 3-4,000 years ago. (Panorama restaurant, just up the hill great place to recharge batteries and discharge bladders and have coffess miles above the stunning blue Gulf of Mirabello)
· Moni Toplou right out at the North east of the island is a fortified monastery, where they clearly took their responsibilities to defend Christendom literally. It also has the most amazing icon; with 61 biblical scenes on it.
· the beach at Bai, in a date palm forest. My advice is, unless you like not having room to turn round on a beach, don’t do it! God knows what it’s like in the summer.
· Zakros- This is a stunning Minoan Palace right on the coast. You can drive down, but it was much more fun to walk through the gorge from its big brother Ano Zakros, 8 kms uphill, and get the bus back to the car. The palace is, like Festos, much more user friendly than Knossos, being of a more believable size, and not having Arthur Evans made up reconstructions. It also has some terrific terrapins in a cistern in the middle. Nice, if somewhat pebbly beach, and three or four great tavernas along the beach front.
· Sitia- pleasant town. Has what you would want, but doesn’t oversell itself. Good museum which has a lot of the finds from round about, including the Palekastro Kouros, a beautiful graceful figurine of a boy, found at Palekastro, carved in setions in ivory, with pins to hold it together.
· Xerokambos- 40 minutes down a dirt track; supposed to be a nice beach but it was firecely windy when we were there, so all we know is it had a nice taverna (Libyan View- for the uninitiated, the Greeks call the sea south of Crete, the Libyan Sea)
· Makriyialos on the south east coast. Very disappointing but we did a spectacular drive up to Stavrohori, some 15 miles into the mountains, then over the hill to Orino, on a wee track. Remind me again how fantastic the Cretan mountains are?
· Lasithi plateau, where the windmills are. Windmills disappointing because so many are out of use; but we walked up the hill to the cave where Zeus was born and climbed right down into it- 165 metres- brilliant.
· Kritsa- up the hill from Ag Nik. A lovely little hill town entirely devoted to taking the tourist dollar; but in return for (mostly) good quality crafts and products. Definitely worth a visit.
Flew out with Air 2000, who did a great job, on a full plane in contrast to their fellows on the outgoing flight.
We used The Rough Guide to Crete, which is a very good general guide; the Blue Guide to Crete, which will tell you more about Minoan ruins than you ever wanted to know; and Sunflower’s "Landscapes of Eastern Crete"- which gives great advice on both motoring and walking tours. I used Stephanie Coughlan’s "A birdwatcher’s guide to Crete
#5
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Your trip sounds marvelous! I have always prefered 'small' islands, although I'll have to reconsider Crete, given your glowing report.
I'm hoing to work in a Greek taverna next summer - did you meet any English girls doing this? Any information gratefully received, particularly regarding whether I will be able to earn enough to support me.
I'm hoing to work in a Greek taverna next summer - did you meet any English girls doing this? Any information gratefully received, particularly regarding whether I will be able to earn enough to support me.
#7
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Litsa
We did find people from the UK working in tavernas. It wasn't something we asked about so I can't really answer your questions about wages etc. We do have a thing called the Social Chapter in the EU which provides for a minimum wage; although there is an opt out, which I think Greece have not used.
We did find people from the UK working in tavernas. It wasn't something we asked about so I can't really answer your questions about wages etc. We do have a thing called the Social Chapter in the EU which provides for a minimum wage; although there is an opt out, which I think Greece have not used.