I was going to call this "The definitive..." but realised my sense of self deprecating humour would not be appreciated in text. So here goes nothing <BR> <BR>We have just had a couple of weeks holiday in Crete, and it may be the best holiday we’ve ever had. <BR> <BR>The weather was (mostly) tremendous; the scenery was suitably Cretan; and the relaxation factor very high. Crete was selected by the members of this household because of its capacity to interest the one who likes climbing hills and watching birds and the one who likes thing very old- archaeology, in other words. <BR> <BR>We spent a week there once before so we did not have to do the basic orientation and could plunge right in. We did not ever stray out of Western Crete, but had a great time anyway. <BR> <BR>Leaving Aberdeen, we flew BA to Heathrow, and were faced with the usual problem of having to get to Gatwick. We used Speedlink- the direct bus, which took 45 minutes and cost £17 each; and stayed at the Gatwick Hilton which did the biz, mainly because it is effectively in the terminal building, but is horrendously overpriced at £100/night for the room. <BR> <BR>Simply Crete, our tour company, used to be independent, but were taken over by Thomson’s earlier this year. There was no diminution in the quality of the service. We flew cattle class by Caledonian to Chania- they did a great job on the way out and were bloody awful on the way back;-either they’d all been out on the razzle the night before and were hungover, or they have been taking reverse customer care classes. <BR> <BR>Chania airport was very efficient and has been upgraded since we were last there. Schipol it ain’t, but it now has air conditioning, and was very god at getting us through baggage recovery and passport control. <BR> <BR>The car hire was through Zakros, who also gave us what we wanted, when we wanted it, and didn’t mess us about on things like not giving us a full tank of petrol, but believing us when we told them so. (phone numbers available on request). <BR> <BR>Crete has a very developed tourist industry east of Iraklion around Agios Nicholaos, and there are some pretty grotty bits where too much has been crammed into too little space and sausage beans and chips has become standard fare. But Western Crete is less developed- based on the cities of Chania and Rethymnon- and the south coast is very undisturbed. We spent the first week in the southwestern town of Paleochora- very userfriendly, lots of families, lots of Germans, no huge shops but good local shopping, high quality tourist craft shops and dozens of very good tavernas. There is a long sandy beach which has the European Blue Flag, and there are a lot of rocky coves and pebble beaches nearby. There is one lovely beach at Koundouras, about 5 miles away, which only the Greeks seemed to know about. Krios, which is as far west as the road goes, is quite pretty, but was overrun by wasps and hornets. Expect to pay about 1500dms for 2 sunbeds and a parasol, on any beach you use. <BR> <BR>The town has a couple of night club places, but that is not its main claim to fame. There are a lot of "Rooms Rent" available, and a couple of good hotels- Hotel Glaros for one- and a well equipped campsite. We had a studio apartment less than 3 minutes walk from the beach(Ton Mari). Very good apart from having only a hand held shower..grrr!!! <BR> <BR>Everywhere we ate was excellent ( I exaggerate not, honest) except the Third Eye- a veggy place which advertised that it did some meat meals too. The service was awful, they gave my husband Spaghetti Carbonara, which wasn’t, and beat up one of the neighbourhood dogs in front of us. The places we ate which we liked were- Calypso; Avenis; Gramenos (5 miles outside town);Odysseus (pizzas, but really good); and Coralio. So was Kamares in Souyia. Cost for two for a meal varied from 4500dms to 5700dms for 2 (£4.50-£5.70). <BR> <BR>The area is called Selinos and is famous for frescoed Byzantine churches. We tried to see lots. A mixture of Greek roads, bad maps, worse map reading and locked churches conspired against our best efforts. <BR> <BR>A lot of Cretan roads are not paved. If you get a rental company map they simply do not appear on it..and you will think you need a donkey to get there; but if you get a good map (this is a relative term) like Harms Verlag- which you have to organise before you go for your chances of finding it there are slim- then some but not all of them will appear. That makes counting to find road junctions a bit random. However it may lead you into great adventures…like our trip over the mountains, past lots of churches but not the ones we were looking for, to Elafonisso. This is an absolutely beautiful beach with an offshore island and a lagoon to die for. Until relatively recently it had no road access and you had to walk or get a boat to get there. That is no longer true and it is a bit overpopulated now. You can wade through knee deep water to the island, which has very few people on it. <BR> <BR>6 kms outside Paleochora is a lovely little hill village called Anidri which has a frescoed church and a lovely kafenion in the old school. A super walk through olive groves, to be refreshed at the top, followed by a walk down the gorge to the pebble beach below. It also has a beach bar. <BR> <BR>The main villages in the south west are linked by ferries in the summer. Whilst we had hired a jeep for the week we were there, we could just as easily have stayed in Paleochora and hopped along the coast by ferry. As it was, we drove to Souyia ( about 2 hours) and then walked up a gorge and over a hill to Lissos, which is an old Minoan site, again with its own pebble beach. There is allegedly a caretaker who can let you into the fenced site and will sell you a drink, but we did not see hide nor hair of him. You can also get there by boat without all the effort we put in. <BR> <BR>The route to Souyia goes through some of the mountains which were the home of the Cretan resistance during the war. We read quite a lot about that period, and were breathtaken at the gallantry of those involved; I was a bit surprised that there were as many German tourists in this area, given that it seems that every few hundred yards there is another memorial for people killed in outrages that make Kosovo seem like the teddy bears’ picnic. I am not (I hope) being rascist or looking from too narrow a perspective but I’ve never been anywhere before where I’ve been so conscious of recent European history. <BR> <BR>The highlight of my holiday was the first Sunday when we walked the Samaria Gorge. (In passing, do not deal with Syia Travel, who took a booking and our money to do this as part of an organised trip, and only when we went as requested, to confirm at 10pm on Saturday night, did they tell us they weren’t going after all.) We got up at 5.30am and caught the local bus to Omalos at the top of the gorge and then walked the 11miles through Europe’s longest, and, surely, most spectacular, ravine to Ayia Roumeli, where we collapsed for a few hours before catching the ferry back. <BR> <BR>The weather was unremittingly sunny, although, to our surprise, there was a fairly constant northerly wind, which we now understand to be an August thing in Crete. It was pleasantly cooling when we went walking; but it was not just a breeze, and a couple of times we got seriously sandblasted on the beach. <BR> <BR>The second week we moved up to near Chania. It, like Rethymnon, is an old Venetian town, with a lovely harbour, and lots of rambling alleys with crafty shops. It’s also got a terrific old market which has got lots of traditional stalls with meat and fruit and veg as well as fancy stalls with spices and olive oil and raki and things. There are a couple of museums - one archaeological and one folklore. Lots of tavernas (though none that we tried were as good as those in Paleochora) and lots of tourist shops. Huge selection of different types of accommodation. <BR> <BR>We stayed in a village called Tersanas about 20 minutes drive out, on the Akrotiri, which is tiny- one basic taverna, a beach bar, a lovely little cove with its own beach and right off the beaten track. The apartments we stayed in- Alianthos- were lovely; nice pool, nice gardens, nice bar, tennis court, jetty and very nice flat. <BR> <BR>Food around here was generally dearer- 5400- 9200dms; but the only places I would be inclined to recommend would be the taverna in Matheri on the north side of Souda Bay; and Zorba’s in Stavros- both village places where they do not speak English. <BR> <BR>Our serious bit of culture was the run down to Phaistos and Ayia Triada on the south coast. These are Minoan palaces which are still being excavated. Crete is full of Minoan relics. These were the guys who built the Labyrinth and feared the Minotaur. Last time we were there we went to Knossos, which is the best known of the palaces and which was excavated by Arthur Evans early this century. My husband thinks that what you see is mostly the product of his imagination because he "restored" so much. That hasn’t happened at Phaistos and as a consequence I liked the site much better. The last time we also went the museum in Iraklion which has a superb collection of Minoan remnants and which shows the decline of civilsation from their peak to the mere muddle of the hellenistic period. <BR> <BR>We came home from Phaistos, firstly past Kamares, which is the village with the cave where the Kamares Minoan ceramics were found, then through the Amari valley, which apart from being very beautiful was the route by which the English smuggled General Kreipe out of Crete after they kidnapped him in 1944. The Germans burned out every village along the route in retribution. The memorials are very moving. We found and got into the church of Ayia Anna, which has the oldest frescoes in Crete. <BR> <BR>We visited Aptera, which is an old Turkish fort on top of Roman remains, on top of Minoan remains. Very important site; very badly interpreted, then drove through some of the hill villages, which are just beautiful. <BR> <BR>Our next medium sized walk was from the monastery of Ayia Triada (not the same one as above) on the Akrotiri, to its neighbour, Gouverneto, then down into the gorge some 3 kms below where a ruined monastery- Katholiko- can be visited. We didn’t actually "do" the monasteries, which we visited last time, but they whole trip is well worth it for the sights. <BR> <BR>My last major achievement was encouraging my husband to climb his first ever mountain- Gingilos (2080m) in the Levka Ori- the White Mountains. They are spectacular; and we saw lots of birds, which I won’t bore you with. Anyone who is interested in a list should e-mail me. <BR> <BR>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 Byzantine frescoes than you ever wanted to know; and Sunflower’s "Landscapes of Western Crete"- which gives great advice on both motoring and walking tours. I used Stephanie Coughlan’s "A birdwatcher’s guide to Crete". I also improved my Greek whilst sitting at the swimming pool. <BR> <BR>It’s a great place to go. You could get a flavour in a few days, or scratch the surface in month. <BR> <BR> <BR>

Sheila, thanks for a very interesting and informative trip report. I really enjoy reading these... <BR>

Sheila, you rat, ANOTHER place I have to put on our list of places to visit. <BR>So, is there anything interesting to do there?

That was irony, Elvira? <BR>

Irony, or smart-alecky American humor... and sort of a jab at myself, 'cause your jam-packed vacation sounds like the ones I plan (hence, my nickname 'the Travel Nazi')

Thanks Sheila, I will be heading to Chania in three weeks and will be taking along a copy of your "definitive" travelogue. We are staying for one week just outside of Chania and look forward to hiking the Samaria Gorge. Thanks for the tip about who to avoid!

Are you staying in Chania or outside? <BR> <BR>2 tips-1. avoid eating in the harbourside tavernas. You will get (on the whole) better food at better prices in the back streets. <BR> <BR>2. There are a maze of alleys behind the harbour at the west side of the harbour with lots of very nice little craft shops - some tourist tat too- but the alleys themselves are worth wandering in. <BR> <BR>Make that 3 tips 3- Do the gorge by service bus rather than organised tour- unless you want a guide to tell you about the gorge as you walk through. Take a couple of energy bars with you and only a little water in a refillable bottle. There are lots of places to top up. We (for which read I) carried far too much <BR>And, if it's sunny, remember the backs of your legs can burn too..we saw some awful sights at the end of peope who had forgotten to put sun cream there.

topping

Loved your trip report!! Tersana sounds like my kind of place! I am reading 'Corelli's Mandolin' and your account took me back to some pages. <BR> <BR>Any recommended websites for the area?

You must have thought topping that was very egotitaical. It was to answer the question posted earlier today. But the most definitive web site I have so far found is www.interkriti.org

topping for Margot

Briefly, I would not bother to go east of Heraklion; you will love western Crete!