Trip Report Western Crete - Rethymnon
 

Trip Report Western Crete
Vol. I Rethymnon

My wife and I planned to visit our daughter in Northern Ireland in May 22 to June 5. I could not justify a transatlantic flight from a cool wet climate (Vancouver) to a cool wet climate (Belfast) without a guarantee of sun, so we added on a two week visit to Western Crete.

We rented a car for the whole two weeks and visited Rethymnon, Chania, Paleochora, Hora Sfakion, and Plakias.

This is our profile as travelers.

We are in our early 50’s and have been to Greece several times but have never visited Crete. We prefer to spend our money on dining and activities rather than accommodation. We look for simple pensions with a studio kitchenette. A private balcony with a view where we can eat, read, be contemplative and talk are very important to us. We enjoy preparing our own breakfast and snacks/lunch and use our budget for the evening meal in a taverna. Beaching for maybe an hour or two in the afternoon is nice with an occasional full day on a beach.

We take time in a town to fully explore and find all the hidden treasures. If we find a location that captivates us we are likely to put down roots for a few days. We like narrow alleys, Venetian buildings, and daily marketing at small markets looking for vegetables, bread, wine and snacks.

Rethymnon
During my research I found someone who said “Rethymnon has its own charm but you have to really look for it.” I would say that that is true. On arrival Rethymnon appears to be a very busy concrete jungle with a big beach. When you take the time to explore you do find that hidden charm. There is a Venetian Fortezza which still has several intact or restored buildings Nearby is the small Venetian harbour and lighthouse. Behind the Fortezza you will find the old quarter of the town with its myriad of small alleys, old buildings, pensions, tavernas and shops. For us this is where we enjoy spending our time exploring, taking pictures, finding a place to stay and discovering interesting tavernas. Unfortunately Rethymnon was heavily bombed during the second world war and thus its old quarter has been reduced in size.

The waterfront area was very busy and the town beach is lined chock a block with concrete hotels and was crowded and very unappealing. I guess the number of hotels does indicate that the area is popular, but we really did not enjoy the beach at all. So it was back into our little rental car and off to Chania.

Renting a car.
We found Athens Car Crete on the internet. Their prices were as low as we could find and we paid 258 euro for two weeks all insurance included. There is a premium to pay if you are under 25 (30 if from Spain or Italy!!) or over 70. The price was low probably because the car was at least three years old and displayed minor dents and scrapes from every tourist driver over that time. It was in good mechanical order and handled very well on the small narrow roads off of the main highway. Athens Car does not have a location at the airport so they arrange to meet you at the arrivals door. They have the contract on a clip board, take an imprint of the credit card, hand you the keys and off you go. They did not require an international license but it is best to have one in case the local constabulary wants to chat with you. We have used similar agencies from Athens and have always had a good experience. On return we found their designated area in the parking lot, locked the keys in the car and walked into the airport for our flight home.

Volume II Chania coming soon.

You can see our pictures at http://travel.webshots.com/album/559511069PIlVxI

Stan -

I'm really looking forward to your trip report! Two whole weeks on Crete - I'm jealous. We're heading there for four days the last week of August and staying in Chania (all the way from Calgary - hello to you over the Rockies!). I'm hoping we have enough time to explore the western part of Crete (beyond the beaches).

Where did you fly into (Chania?)? I'm interested in understanding this as we will arrive in Chania via air from Thessaloniki and will be departing from Iraklio via ferry to Santorini. So far I've researched Economy Car Rentals and they also seem reasonable.

Stanbr, thank you for your trip report. Your detail is great and thanks for the tip on Athens Car Crete. I look forward to reading all installments as I am debating a trip to southern Italy vs. Crete for next summer. Your traveler profile is very similar to mine so I anxiously await further details of your trip.

Hi Hania. I have read your postings here over the years and your info was one of the reasons we centered our vacation on Chania. I never realized you were from Calgary. We just moved here from Calgary last October

Hi Stan -

I think you may have me mixed up with someone else? (I post as Hana - not Hania). I found Fodors in 2002 while planning our honeymoon in Italy. In any case, I have been to Crete before but it was back in 1997 when I travelled Europe for 5 months after graduating from university.

I have very fond memories of Greece having spent an entire month between the mainland and the islands. Crete was magical - partly due to my time spent with family friends (one of whom is Cretan). I experienced so much there - including a wonderful village celebration and a visit to my friend's parents home surrounded by the family olive grove high in the hills.

Glad to hear you had an excellent trip - the wealth of information here always amazes me! I do wish to write a trip report this time - I think it's a great way to capture one's experience and give back to the boards.

Aaah Vancouver - my husband and I dream of moving there - we both love it. For now, our jobs are here (both oil and gas related) so we visit Vancouver as much as we can.

Looking forward to hearing more!!

Sorry Hana, I did misread your name.

Because this trip report seemed to be getting rather large, I chose to post it in three or four volumes all on different threads. I have had several comments that I should have put the subsequent volumes in the original thread so I am doing just that. All three are now contained in this the first one. I hope that I have not caused too much confusion.

Volume 4 is still to come.

Chania Volume 2
We spent four days in Chania and could easily have spent another day or two as there is so much to enjoy.

We arrived at Chania approaching from the east from Rethymnon and made the mistake of taking the first Chania exit off the National Road. This exit also services Souda and it took us over an hour in a traffic jam to get to the harbour at Chania. We learned that there are at least 4 exits further west on the highway that are much more efficient entrances to Chania. On arrival Chania appears to be just another large Greek city, that is until you reach the walls of the old city. There you realize you are in for something special.

The walls are massive and contain the Old Quarter along with the Venetion harbour. The walls have been breached selectively for road access and the old city blends into the new city in a somewhat orderly transition. The Venetian harbour is the highlight of the city and is lined with old buildings housing hotels, tavernas and bars. The waterfront teems with people but somehow it seems to be able to absorb them as part of the scenery. Further down to the east and the actual boat moorings are the old Venetian armories and guarding the harbour entrance is the stately lighthouse, still standing duty after all these centuries.

The old quarter is a delightful mix of pensions, hotels, tavernas and small shops selling vegetables, rugs, ouzo, and raki. The buildings are multi story often with four or five floors. The tall buildings and the narrow alleyways give the area a sense of timelessness.

We just loved Chania. Our fist few minutes in the harbour area demonstrated that we were in for a special visit. We arrived without reservations and were walking the waterfront just taking it all in. We were studying our map for Theotokopoulou Street where Travelerjan had recommended some good pensions. We must have looked bewildered because a taverna barker stepped up and instead of trying to get us to visit his restaurant asked if he could be of service. We explained, we were looking for a small pension with kitchen facilities and he directed us to Pension Nora which just happened to be on the street we were searching for. Within minutes we had a lovely ground floor room in a renovated house, complete with a good bed and cooking facilities. Situated at the end of a quiet dead end alley, we had a lovely table and chairs and umbrella where we just hung out reading and eating in our quiet moments. All this for 30 euro a night. We deliberately ignored the larger hotels on the harbour with their wonderful water views because of the late night noise from the tavernas and bars. Generally we always look for a pension close to the activity of the waterfront but far enough away so that it is quiet at night.

There is stretch of beach a twenty minute walk west of the old part of town. It is in a built up area with several tavernas and a small fishing port and was pleasant enough as town beaches go. It was just a little too far for us to walk and wasn’t good enough to give up our precious free parking spot just outside the walls.

We spent three days exploring Chania, taking pictures and visited a wild outdoor farmers market with all kinds of local cheese, vegetables, fruit, olives olive oil, raki, birds and flowers. We also visited the permanent indoor market which has all of the above but also has shops that cater to the tourist crowd. We purchased an olive wood handled knife at a shop on the Street of Knives behind the armories. Every evening we settled down at a taverna on the waterfront and enjoyed an ouzo and watched the people drift by as the sun set over the harbour. These moments on the waterfront are special times of peace and relaxation after a busy day of exploring the back alleys of the city. And of course we sampled Raki.

Raki
Greeks love Raki but Cretans seem to revel in it. It is a clear alcohol distilled from grapes and old socks I think. It could also be used to fuel a rocket in a pinch. It is strong. It is everywhere in Crete. Every taverna seems to have their own home made supply and insists on giving you a complimentary glass with your bill. We did find one shop that mixed honey and cinnamon into the Raki and it was actually pretty good. Other than that it is at its best when someone else is drinking it. If you have to drink it, just throw it back, don’t even think of sipping.

While in Chania we attempted a day trip to the Gramvousa Peninsula to take in Falasarna and the cruise to Balos and Gramvoussa Island. Things didn’t work out quite as we planned as a side trip down the scenic old road turned into a circular trip around a road construction site. Every detour seemed to bring us right back to a different approach to the same construction site. We eventually muddled our way through, (navigation is actually fairly simple when you remember to keep the ocean on your right hand side while traveling west). The ultimate result was we missed the tour boat to Gramvoussa. That turned out to be a blessing because the sky opened up in a huge rain storm that lasted for several hours, so we turned around and holed out in our little apartment in Chania.

Volume 3 the Beaches
Elafonisi
We were now a full week into our vacation and I had a great farmers tan but the rest of me was still that classic Canadian winter pasty white, so we were determined to look for beaches. Our first stop was Elafonisi the famous pink sand beach at the far southwest part of Crete. The drive down to Elafonisi was magnificent, or at least what little of it I saw. My attention was firmly on the road as we negotiated a small winding mountain road, with tiny towns clinging to the slopes, gorges, a tunnel and rocks strewn on the road from the heavy rains. I also neglected to fill up with gas and much to my dismay there were few services at Elafonisi and no gas station at all.

Elafonisi lived up to it’s reputation and was beautiful with a large expanse of beach sheltered by an out island. The beach and the island were attached by a thin corridor of sand making access easy. There were hundreds of people on the beach but there was room for many more.

Driving in Crete
Very good road maps are available in various tourist publications and signage is in Greek and English. We have never been seriously lost trying to get somewhere. There are four types of roads in Crete. The National Road is more or less a 4 lane highway along the North Coast. Secondary roads are two lanes but in pretty good repair and sometimes even have a small shoulder. Then there are Regional Roads like the one we took to Elafonisi. These are high mountain roads, about a lane and a half wide with no shoulders and blind curves every hundred of meters or so. (My wife just commented that I am exaggerating. I am not.) Lastly there are gravel roads that snake off into the mountains and probably evolved from goat paths.

Driving each type of road takes getting used to.
As is common in Greece, driving the national road is a high speed affair. The small rental cars cannot hope to compete with the locals in their high powered German cars and all slow moving vehicles are expected to give way to vehicles approaching from the rear. In fact it is common for slow vehicles (slow appears to be any car doing the speed limit) to drive partially in the break down shoulder lane. This allows the fast cars to overtake and pass anywhere at any time. There does appear to be some kind of gene in the Greek soul that motivates them to wait until there is oncoming traffic before they pass. One problem we encountered driving in the breakdown lane was coming upon stopped cars in that lane, which makes for interesting steering and braking maneuvers. Suffice to say one cannot be inattentive ever on a Greek highway.

We met an North American lady who complained about the local habit of driving in the breakdown lane and she decided to ignore it and just stay in the driving lane. Although I can understand the angst that a North American has at Greek driving customs, ignoring them and pretending we are at home messes up the flow of things and puts everybody at risk as the impatient drives tailgate and pass anyway. There is a reason for that old saying “when in Rome do as the Romans do.”

The smaller roads generally do not have the break down lane so you are expected to just watch for faster cars from the rear and get over as far as you can. The smaller roads are also very narrow and wind upwards into the mountain areas. This presents even more of a challenge than the National Road as most Greeks prefer to pass on blind curves. The double line in the middle of the road is not a “no passing” signal, rather the Greeks take it to be a convenient marker outlining an imaginary third lane down the middle of the road which both sides are free to use. On these roads you have to watch behind you and in addition you have to be on the lookout for oncoming cars in the middle of the road. It is not actually as bad as it sounds as the speed is quite low and you have time to get out of the way just as long as you are paying attention at all times.
I never even tried one of the goat path roads.


On to Paleochora
We spent the next two nights at Palechora a small beach town on the south coast. From high up on the mountain road it is a spectacular setting on a spit of land with the sea on both sides. One side had a large sand beach and the leeward side had an uncomfortable looking rock/pebble beach. The whole time we were there the wind blew hard from the west and the sand beach was empty. We explored beaches both west and east of town and found some very good sand beaches toward Koundoura. Just at dusk we discovered a lovely secluded and sheltered beach east of town 2 km down a dirt road. We do not have the name of that beach but you can find it by following the Camping Paleochora signs. Go past the campground until the road becomes a dirt track. It is maintained so it is an easy drive.

Paleochora itself is a typical Greek town with the remains of a ruined Venetian fortress. Only one section of the walls remains, but the view of the sea is almost 130 degrees from the fortress and is worth a visit. The central city is about 2 blocks wide and 6 blocks long and other than the bank and the internet café held little interest for u, however, after 6 o’clock in the evening the area transforms into a giant block party. The streets are blocked off to traffic and tavernas with tables all the way into the street appear as if by magic. Most of the patrons appeared to be local people just hanging out. It was great.

We decided to break our rule about finding a pension away from the noisy action and chose one right on the waterfront. It is a quiet town at least in late May so we took a chance and took a suite with a balcony overlooking the ocean. This area is on the lee side of the city and is sheltered from the strong wind. We stayed at Captain Jim’s Taverna and Pension. It was the most expensive hotel we stayed at 40 euro. We did find a very nice Cyclades style pension further up the same street away for the downtown area but it was fully booked.

Finding a Pension
Not having a hotel booking can be very stressful for the compulsive planners. I have learned to overcome this insecurity and have found the adventure of searching for a pension to be one of the joys of the trip. On arrival we scout the town and find the area where we want to stay. Then we look for a pension. The pension owners are on the lookout for prospective clients and are generally nearby, so it is fairly easy to make contact. Often there are signs on the door leading you to a nearby taverna where the owner has their second business.

We always ask to see the room, make sure there are cooking utensils ( often they have a refrigerator and stove but no pots pans or cutlery). We check out the bed to see if (by some miracle) it has some give to it. I need three pillows so we make sure there are extra pillows. (I’m not going to tell you why I need three pillows. You can just use your imagination.) If we are interested we then ask price. Make sure that the price includes the air conditioning as many of the pensions charge extra for that. Also ask where the fuse box is. Many pensions switch the refrigerator and air conditioning off at the fuse box.Be prepared to walk away. Often they will reduce the price as soon as you make motions to leave. (In May and early June anyway) In fact walking away is not a bad idea it gives you a chance to compare one place to another. Often the price is the same but the quality can differ widely. This gives you the best choice.

Pensions generally do not take credit cards and do not accept payment until you are ready to leave. To ensure you do not skip on them they take one passport. This is unnerving but over the years we have gotten used to it and have never had a problem with the passports going missing. It has been suggested that it is wiser to offer a different piece of ID (like a driver’s license.) Often on multi day stays they will accept payment the night before you leave and you can retrieve your passport. It is a strange coincidence that my wife (the keeper of the passports) is 100% consistent in randomly pulling my passport out to give to the hotels.

Here is the final volume of our trip report. They are all contained in this thread.

From Paleohora to Plakios

I am afraid my research was a little off on this phase of the trip. I had read that Horasfakion was a major jumping off place for both the Imbros and Samaria Gorges. Although neither of us have the knees to even consider the gorge walks we thought it would be cool to experience the activity of all those people returning from their hikes.
The drive took us past the entrance to the Imbros Gorge and the road down to the coast must have been 5 kilometers down with over 20 switchbacks. Of course I never drink and drive but the stress of this section of the road, did drive me to drink. ( later on.)

We arrived at Horasfakion and could barley find a parking spot due to all the cars and busses jammed into the large parking lot. We were concerned with getting a room when all the people arrived so we immediately went looking for a pension. We figured the crowds would be tired and somewhat rowdy so we bypassed several pensions on the waterfront and went back into the second road. We still had an ocean view but it was 100 meters from the ocean.
This is where my plans began to unravel. Three ferries arrived in rapid progression and disgorged hundreds of tired tourists. We watched them land and then much to our dismay they all filed into the tour buses or their cars and drove off back to Chania or Reythmnon. By the time the last bus pulled out there were about 12 people left in the village. It was a quiet night but we did have a taverna all to ourselves.
One bright spot is that it has a good pebble beach with 3 foot swells where we spent a few hours killing time until dinner.

The next morning we took to the road and headed 11 km down the road to Fragokastelo. It is a Venetian fortress which is still quite intact. It is located on the seashore beside a nice sandy beach. One thing that was unique about it was that it was not perched high up on an acropolis as most Venetian fortifications are. Located on the seaside far from any strategic sites lead us to speculate that this location was perhaps a Venetian seaside get away from it all resort.

There were two or three pensions and tavernas along the beach and a small horbour. One of the hotels was built with rock in the style of the fortress and even had a room in a windmill house. Frankly I would have preferred to stay the night here rather than at Horasfakion

We continued our drive and found the whole south coast is lined with beaches. We arrived in Plakios determined to settle down on a beach for a day or two. We were prepared to dislike Plakios because one tour book stated that Plakios “represented British Tourism at its worst” After visiting Portrush in Northern Ireland on the earlier portion of our trip I can say with certainty that Plakios does not in any way represent British Tourism at its worst.

In fact, Plakios is a town that has been built to service the tourists who arrive to enjoy the 3 kilometer long town beach. The beach is excellent and there are shops, tavernas hotels and tourist facilities across from the beach. There is little charm in Plakios and no windy narrow alleys to explore, but it does it’s job. There are several good tavernas along the waters edge and the hotel we found there was by far the nicest one on the whole trip. It was called Gio-Ma www.gioma.gr. It was right across from the water but it was quiet. The whole building was covered in bougainvillea and we had a great sense of peace sitting on the balcony overlooking the ocean. Again we paid only 30 euros on a walk up basis.

We spent 4 nights at Plakios and spent twoof those days sunning and the other two days touring the many beaches beside the Libyan Sea. We also visited Prevelli Monastery which is full of history and was a center of resistance to both the Turks and the Germans in different wars. Prevelli was certainly worth the visit. One can access the famous Previli beach from a parking lot near the Monastery, however we had been told that you can drive to it along a dirt road from the other side of the gorge, so we set out to discover this Road that does not appear on the map. We traveled for 5 hours and found at least a dozen beautiful beaches but never did find the road to Preveli so I guess we will have to visit that beach on another trip.

Tavernas in Crete
Many of the tavernas display their evening dinner options outside in refrigerated cases. It is actually a very good way to see the food and in our experience previewing the food that way proved that what looked good in the display proved to be quite yummy.

Experience has shown us that local house wines can vary from excellent to oxidized vinegar. Before sitting down I always ask for a small sip of the house red wine. This little trick has saved us from disaster on several occasions. If the wine isn’t good I know I am not going to enjoy the taverna.
In Plakius the house wines were for the most part quite acceptable and were well priced at 4 to 6 Euro per liter. As an aside we found a market in Plakios that had a wine dispenser machine that allowed us to preview the wine and fill our own liter and a half bottles for 2.5 Euro. I just love Greece!
We have adopted the Greek fashion of arriving for dinner between 8 and 9 o’clock and lingering until 11 or 11:30. We have found that many tavernas do not work on turn over and make no attempt to move you along so you can spend the whole night eating a variety of dishes and sipping the wine. The trick to this is not ordering all your food courses at one time. We would order a half liter of wine and a Greek salad and order an appetizer after we had finished the salad course. Because the salads are so large we always order just one and share it.
We do the same with the appetizer course ordering two or more and sharing them.
We then order the main course and by the time we are finished a good two hours have passed.
We generally pay between 15 and 25 euro for the two of us for dinner.

My last comment has to do with getting the bill.
After these memorable dining evenings it is inevitable that my wife becomes susceptible to my manly charms and it is time to retire to the hotel. At this point the server inventively disappears or finds something else to do. This is consistent wherever we have been in Greece. I just can’t seem to find the servers eye. I have taken to holding a 20 Euro note in the air but that only prompts the server to bring the Raki or ouzo course. Only then can I get the bill. Oh well. If anybody has discovered an effective way of getting the bill I would be interested in hearing about it.
Our pictures can be viewed at.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559511069PIlVxI