We were thinking of going to Greece and hiking the Samaria gorge last week sept or first week of October. Is this a good time? Will the gorge still be open? This was a major lure for us, so it would really be bad if we get there and it's closed!

Also, is this time of year still good beach weather? I know it is warm during the day, but nice enough to swim in the water and suntan?

Thank you!

It is good beach weather still particularly as Crete is one of the most southerly islands. The Samaria gorge is more a matter of how much rain there has been in the White mountains/Omalos plateaux. You should be OK in late September. There are drier gorges such as the Imbros gorge and the Zakros gorge amongst many others so all is not lost if the Samaria gorge is impassable.

We've been to Crete in October and found it warm enough to sunbathe and swim. Occasioanlly it was cloudy on the mountains but the coast seemed to stay clear of the cloud.

We did Samaria in September and it was lovely. It doesn't usually close till much later in the autumn.

It will certainly be warm enough to swim.

I was in the Samaria forge in October several years ago. It was pretty dry, so I didn't have to wade through water--just tried to use the rock and barely got wet at all. It seems to me it was an ideal time for being in the gorge, since I've seen pictures of it at other times of the year with a lot more water, making hiking with normal boots difficult.

I didn't go to the beach in Samaria, but did go swimming several times in Crete, sometimes from regular beaches, sometimes from rocks in remote places along a hike. The water couldn't have been more perfect. I think October is an ideal beach time in Crete. I didn't "sunbathe," partly because it's really not something I do, except indirectly when I'm IN the water, and anyway the sun was much too hot just to sit in it when dry.