15 Best Sights in Chania, Crete

The former Venetian church of St. Francis, surrounding a lovely garden in the shadow of the Venetian walls, displays artifacts from all over western Crete, and the collection bears witness to the presence of Minoans, ancient Greeks, Romans, Venetians, and Ottomans. The painted Minoan clay coffins and elegant late-Minoan pottery indicate that the region was as wealthy as the center of the island under the Minoans, though no palace has yet been located.

Just across the narrow channel from the lighthouse, where a chain was connected in times of peril to close the harbor, is the old Turkish prison, which now houses the Maritime Museum of Crete. Exhibits, more riveting than might be expected, trace the island's seafaring history from the time of the Minoans, with a reproduction of an Athenian trireme, amphora from Roman shipwrecks, Ottoman weaponry, and other relics. Look for the photos and mementos from the World War II Battle of Crete, when Allied forces moved across the island and, with the help of Cretans, ousted the German occupiers. Much of the fighting centered on Chania, and great swaths of the city were destroyed during the war. Almost worth the price of admission alone is the opportunity to walk along the Firka's ramparts for bracing views of the city, sea, and mountains.

South of Chania a deep, verdant crevice extends 16 km (10 miles) from near the village of Xyloskalo to the Libyan Sea. The landscape of forest, sheer rock faces, and running streams, inhabited by the elusive and endangered kri-kri (wild goat) is magnificent. The Samaria, protected as a national park, is the most traveled of the dozens of gorges that cut through Crete's mountains and emerge at the sea, but the walk through the canyon, in places only a few feet wide and almost 2,000 feet deep, is thrilling nonetheless. Reckon on five to six hours of downhill walking with a welcome reward of a swim at the end. Buses depart the central bus station in Chania at 7:30 and 8:30 am for Xyloskalo. Boats leave in the afternoon (5:30) from Ayia Roumeli, the mouth of the gorge, where it's an hour-long scenic sail to Hora Sfakion, from where buses return to Chania. Travel agents also arrange day trips to the gorge. Also from Chania, a couple of extremely scenic routes head south across the craggy White Mountains to the isolated Libyan Sea villages of Paleochora, the main resort of the southwest coast, and Souyia, a pleasant collection of whitewashed houses facing a long beach. Much of this section of the coast, including the village of Loutro, is accessible only by boat or by a seaside path.

Lands at the northeast corner of the Akrotiri Peninsula, which extends into the sea from the east side of Chania, are the holdings of several monasteries, including Ayia Triada (Holy Trinity) or Tzagarolon, as it is also known. The olive groves that surround and finance the monastery yield excellent oils, and the shop is stocked with some of the island's finest. Ayia Triada is a delightful place, where you can visit the flower-filled cloisters and the ornately decorated chapel, which dates from the monastery's founding in 1611. Today, just a handful of monks remain.

You'll get some insight into the Venetian occupation and the Christian centuries that preceded it at this small museum housed in the charming 15th-century church of San Salvadore alongside the city walls just behind the Firka. Mosaics, icons, coins, and other artifacts bring to life Cretan civilization as it was after the Roman Empire colonized the island and Christianity took root as early as the 1st century.

Chania's colorful folklife museum is bursting at the seams with farm equipment, tools, household items, wedding garb, and a wealth of other material reflecting the island's traditional heritage.

A peninsula on the western end of the island, about 75 km (45 miles) west of Chania, extends into turquoise waters, with a lagoon on one side and isolated sands and coves on the other. The pink sands, rock formations, and colorful waters evoke the tropics. In places, the peninsula is broken by narrow channels, requiring beachgoers to wade through the warm, shallow waters, adding to the remote aura. The eastern, lagoon side of the peninsula has amenities and is popular with families (the water is never more than a few feet deep) while other parts, especially the western, ocean-facing side, are relatively isolated and frequented by nudists. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (free); showers; toilets. Best for: nudists; snorkeling; solitude (western end); sunset; swimming; walking.

This ancient landmark is tucked away in what was once the Jewish ghetto, a warren of narrow lanes known as Evraki, just off the harbor south of the Firka. The building was formerly the Venetian church of St. Catherine, became a synagogue under the Ottomans in the 16th century, and was sorely neglected and near collapse by the end of the 20th century. Venetian Gothic arches, a mikveh (ritual bath), tombs of three rabbis, and other architectural features have been beautifully restored and are a stirring memorial to Crete's once sizable Jewish population, obliterated during World War II; many Cretan Jews drowned when a British torpedo sank the ship carrying them toward Auschwitz in 1944.

Often cited as the best beach on the island, Falassarna stretches along the western edge of the island, about 60 km (37 miles) west of Chania. The long expanse of sand is broken into several coves and has a little bit of everything—amenities on the main section, Pacheia Ammos, plenty of isolation in other parts, and even ancient ruins behind the northern end. One small disadvantage is a steady wind from the west, which can make the water choppy (but is a boon for windsurfers). Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (free); showers; toilets, water sports. Best for: nudists; solitude; sunset; swimming; walking; windsurfing.

This 16th-century, Venetian-era monastery on the north end of the Akrotiri Peninsula is said to be one of the oldest and largest remaining religious communities on Crete. Delightful frescoes cover the wall of the courtyard chapel, while a path leads down the flanks of a seaside ravine past several caves used as hermitages and churches to the remote, 11th-century Katholiko, the monastery of St. John the Hermit, who pursued his solitary life in a nearby cave. Follow the path down to the sea along a riverbank for another mile or so to a secluded cove that is the perfect place for a refreshing dip. The return walk requires a steep uphill climb.

Kastelli Hill creates a backdrop to the Janissaries Mosque, the oldest Ottoman building in Crete, built at the water's edge when Turks captured the town in 1645 after a two-month siege. Its back courtyard, once home to a garden of palm trees, and its minaret were both bombed and destroyed during the Nazi occupation. You can enter the building only when the town uses it to host temporary art and trade exhibitions, but the presence of the domed structure at the edge of the shimmering sea lends Chania part of its exotic aura.

The hill where the Venetians first settled rises above the east end of the harbor and it became the quarter of the local nobility. Their palaces, now partially in ruin from neglect and World War II bombings, still line the ridge above the harbor. Kastelli had been occupied much earlier; the Minoan city of Cydonia was sited here.

If this cove at the northern end of the Akrotiri Peninsula, about 15 km (9 miles) east of Chania, looks familiar, you may recognize it as the location of the 1964 movie Zorba the Greek. The onetime fishing village has grown a bit since then but it's still a charming place, especially with this white-sand beach on a lagoon backed by a steep mountain (it was here that Zorba did his Sirtaki dance); a slightly wilder, less crowded beach is just to the west. Amenities: food and drink; parking (free); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: snorkeling; swimming.

As you follow the harbor front east from the mosque, you come to a long line of Venetian arsenali (warehouses) from the 16th and 17th centuries, used to store wares and repair craft. The seawalls swing around to enclose the harbor and end at the old lighthouse that stands at the east side of the harbor entrance; from here you get a magnificent view of the town, with the imposing White Mountains looming behind the animated harbor.