We are looking at booking a holiday in Crete in September. Can anyone recommend resorts to stay, or ones to avoid? We are considering all-inclusive packages but would like to have somewhere to walk to from the hotel (eg. a harbor, shops, etc.), so not isolated in the middle of nowhere. Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
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Elounda is lovely. Beautiful location, great places to eat and you can get a boat over to Spinalonga, a former leper colony.
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Koutouloufari. Traditional and very pretty. Walking distance to old Hersonnisos town.
Chania is very nice with a historic harbour and good beaches.
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Chania is lovely. Loads of nice restaurants around the harbour. I’d also recommend a boat trip to Agia Roumeli where you can walk up Samaria Gorge.
We got the bus to Ag Nik for lunch, from Elounda. It’s a big town and I’m not sure I’d want to stay there, but it was nice to visit. I’d love to go back to Crete one day. Chania does look good and it would be nice to try the west, having been to the East.
There are some minor tours that are well worth going on.
At the risk of hyperbole, I would say you owe it to yourself as a human being to see the Palace of Minos at Knossos:
One of the major Bronze Age archaeological sites in the world, the place from which both the Greek and Roman civilisations can be traced back to, I find it difficult to overstate its significance. I went there a few years ago, rather underappreciative of its importance, but came away staggered. It was partially restored around 1900, which has been controversial among archaeologists, but I found it made the experience all the more meaningful.
Oh, and the place from which we get the legend of Theseus, the minotaur and labyrinth!
Mark
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Some great suggestions, thanks. These will help when we select a hotel. We will only be there for a week, primarily just to relax, but will definitely take in a couple of excursions.
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I found it disappointing.
There’s not much there.
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I am with HH on this.
Elounda is great and food especially so.
Spinalonga, which is nearby, is fascinating. A highlight.
And Agios Nikolias (see photo above) is close by and worth a day trip. (Short taxi ride).
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Definitely worth renting a jeep and touring the mountain villages. Can be exciting - when I did it (35 years ago) the water bombers were out and getting disturbingly close.
Another vote also for Knossos.
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I remember renting a small car and we headed over the mountain into some lovely valleys where the food is grown. We ate in the valley village taverna…….wonderful food, lamb and feta pie.
We climbed out of the steep valley back to our destination and on the way back to the coast was an old man, a young boy with a few dozen goats. He waved us down, got in the back of the car…….let the boy do the rest of the walk.
We almost probably smelt of suntan lotion, politely he smelt of “real” greek life. Great memories.
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