I had read on another post about taking a countryside tour of Crete. Does anyone have any recommendations of tours....

Teach, you don't say which part of Crete; I do know there are several options in Western Crete.

If you go to Vamos, a traditonal village about 20 km (12 Mi) from Chania, they offer daily hikes M-F... they take u in a mini-van to start of hike & then pick up... They vary from hikes thru 4 or 5 close=togethr rural villages, or hikes in shore towns, or through a smallg gorge. They usually involvve a taverna lunch or a picnic or refreshments at the end.
http://www.vamossa.gr/content/view/15/12/lang,english/
another, that overlaps/melds with the above, is"
http://groen.maakum.nl/~faragito/hom....php?page_id=3
There's also one from Rethymnon -- in high season just all-week tours, but daily hikes off season...
http://www.happywalker.com/index.php

If u are talking about the kind of a tour where someone drives you around, you can find a number of these by googling "private tours Crete" -- I do not have any of these bookmarked because they are out of the budget range for me and for my companions, but I have read glowing reports of these from those who can afford t hem. And certanly it would be a fine way to see the maximum wihtout having to drive oneself.

There's a very good couple of books-the Sunflower guides; one to West Crete and one to East Crete. They have a range of both walks and dives and a lot of them are "off the beaten track"

Sheila and travelerjan, thank you both very much for your comments. We will be staying in Western Crete for five days. We hadn't really intended on driving over to Eastern Crete, but I will check out your tour options to see what best fits our needs.

Just get the Western Crete one, then. Where do you expect to be?

Our home base is outside of Chania in the Ammos Hotel. I'll look for the book.
Thanks again!

Diktynna Travel in Chania is a Crete in-coming tourist specialist. Contact Maria for help with day trips. www.diktynna-travel.gr
She is wonderful to work with.

Teacher - I hope to spend some time in Crete next September (yes, I am actually planning a year in advance) and am considering the Ammos Hotel. How did you hear of it and what made you decide to stay there? I was thinking of splitting my time between the western part of Crete and also the eastern part, renting a car a thereby seeing the whole island. What plans to you have?
Also, would September be consider high, middle or low season?

Lolo,
I did much online research before deciding upon my accomodations. I was looking for a smaller hotel with charm. One that I wouldn't mind spending some time at. Most of the resort hotels that interested my husband are on the eastern end of Crete. As this is our honeymoon, I wanted to choose one home base on the island to settle into. Western Crete seemed more appealing to me. Thus, the Ammos Hotel. I like the photos and I checked several sites for reviews. All of the reviews were good. My correspondence with the hotel has been very pleasant so far. I would be happy to give you an update when I get back from Greece.
Our plan is to visit Athens, Santorini, and Crete. We really want a mixture of culture and rest. This is our first trip to Greece, but I believe September is just after the high season ends. Probably a great time to head to Greece! Good luck with your plans.

Travel - Yes, i would love to hear about your trip to Crete. We have been to Athens and Santorini and would be combining Crete with Cyprus.
When will you be going?
I would probably take the advice of others on this posting and take day tours.

I have three Crete trip reports, all of which are posted on here, but years ago. If you want copies, email me, and I'll send them on

Sheila - I would be interested in your reports. I tried clicking on your name but I can't seem to find them. Could you top them or something? Thanks!

We will be spending 6 nights with friends on Crete, near Chania, in late Sept.

cindy, you don't e-mail her by clicking on her name. You e-mail her by taking her E-MAIL ADDRESS (which is in the parentheses), and putting it into the "To" line on your regular e-mail program (Outlook, Gmail, etc).

In the message portion, introduce yourself (to remind her) and ask for her travel reports.

Give me your email address and I'll send them. Email me with it if you don't want it on here

Yes, I know how to email someone, but if you click on someone's user name you get a list of all the posts that they have made. I thought that maybe I could use that feature to get the trip reports, but it seems that she has been posting a lot - which is great - so that I could not easily go back far enough to find the Crete trip reports. This can be a useful feature, however, when you're looking for something.