Past POIs - Samaria Gorge [Chania, Crete, Greece]

Point of Interest: Samaria Gorge
Date Visited: June 2017

Samaria Gorge is a must see if you are in Chania. You do need to be somewhat physically fit, however, they do allocate roughly 8 hours for you to complete the hike (and we took roughly 7 hours for reference).

The hike itself is 16km in length (14km for the gorge and 2km to get to the town where you will take a ferry back). While Allison did the research for this trip, it is possible for you to coordinate the trip yourself, however, it came out to roughly 5 euros more per person when we went with the hotel. We thought that it would be best to go with a group since they would coordinate all the transfer points and making sure that everyone makes it back. For reference, it cost us 24 euros each at the hotel, there were shops in town that cost 19 euros.

You will need to wake up really early depending on where you start. Apparently you can start at other places such as Rethymnon, but I believe Chania is the closest, so you can sleep in a bit more. For reference, we started in Chania and had to get up and ready outside our hotel for 6:00am.

There is a pit stop before you get there at the local store which has both washroom as well as final items that you might have forgotten or need (such as hiking shoes, poles, snacks, etc). We got to the pit stop at 7:20am and had 25 minutes to get ready with our hike actually starting at 8:00am.

The beginning of the hike is basically all downhill at the beginning and it evens out about half way through. Bring hiking poles if you like, I didn't find them useful, but Allison did.

Note, we made it to the ferry at 5:30pm and we ended up at the hotel at 8:30pm.

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

2017 - Greece - Day 8 [Crete]

Today, we head back to Heraklion and have some stops along the way.

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

Kydon Breakfast

The breakfast Kydon was very good, a large buffet similar to the previous hotels but of better quality. No issues suggesting Kydon as a place to stay. Coordinating to get out of their parking lot was a bit tricky and I can see why they chose to valet park it since it is a very small parking lot in the back. Included with our stay was two welcome drinks and overall, everyone was very helpful.

Big sea turtle we saw at the harbour

Chania harbour

We wandered the Chania harbour before heading to Kounis Lake. Kounis Lake was mentioned by the car rental person that helped out when we rented our car in Heraklion. Kounis Lake is a nice lake which is slightly off the highway and is away from most tourists it seems.

Chania harbour

Drivers pull into the shoulder to allow cars to pass! What a country!

Our chariot the past two days

While at Kounis Lake, we had lunch at the local tavern where we ordered the boiled greens, tomato soup, and lamb which came out to 24 euros. The food was good and I would suggest it if you are in the area.

Lamb on top, tomato soup top right, boiled veggies bottom

A short walk away, you can rent a paddle boat and you pay by time, costing us 10 euros per hour at the time. We only did 30 minutes since we were a bit tired from the hike the previous day and we paid 5 euros at the end. There are supposed to be lots of turtles and goldfish in the lake, however, we only saw one turtle and one goldfish. Before you begin, make sure to ask them where to go to see wildlife. The water is fairly shallow and you can see the bottom for most of it.

Kounis Lake

Turtles! At Kounis Lake

Included with this is a 10% coupon at the local souvenir shop and a free orange juice from the tavern that we ate at which was a nice surprise for us.

Monastery of Arkadi

Monastery of Arkadi

After that we went to the Monastery of Arkadi which is a fairly nice place. It cost us 3 euros to enter. We spent about an hour there, your time spent is dependent on your interest. You get to walk through most of the place.

Rooftop pool at GDM Megaron

Next stop, Heraklion! We made it to our next hotel, GDM Megaron which is a very nice looking hotel and the staff probably thought we didn't belong since everyone was very well dressed inside. At the reception, they have a lot of homemade cookies, so enjoy!

Ippokampos bread

Ippokampos grilled veggies

Ippokampos  May fish

Dinner was at Ippokampos where we ordered the local special at the time, may fish, and grilled veggies which came out to 25 euros. It was a nice dinner and the bread that we got was actually very good and we took them home. Note, bread normally costs you money, ranging from 0,50 euros to 1,00 euros for the most part, and it is normally very ordinary and something we would get in Toronto for free.

We went back to the hotel to rest due to our long day in the car. Tomorrow, we visit Knossos.

2017 - Greece - Day 6 [Crete]

Today, we rent a car to drive to Chania where we will be spending the next few days.

Capsis Astoria Breakfast

Capsis Astoria Breakfast 

Capsis Astoria Breakfast

Breakfast at the Capsis Astoria was also a buffet style breakfast with a very large variety of items. Eggs scrambled, fried, hard boiled and even omelette. There were many types of cheeses and sliced meats. There was a fruit section with watermelon and other fruit. Lots of bread and spreads. Overall very nice.

Capsis Astoria Breakfast

Capsis Astoria Breakfast

We discussed with the receptionist when we arrived and we ended up deciding to book the car rental with them. It cost us only 3 euros more than when I originally booked at Hertz and it would be dropped off at the hotel and we could drop off the car at the hotel when we come back. It seemed like a local company that we would be booking through. We also opted for the extra full coverage insurance which was an extra 12 euros per day but we wouldn't need to worry about scratches and damages. The really odd thing of it all in my mind was that they didn't even take a credit card or deposit for collateral. Oh well!

Rethymo boardwalk

Rethymo boardwalk

Headed to Rethymo as our first stop which was roughly an hour away from the hotel in Crete. It is a nice port/coastal town which has a nice feel to it when you walk along the boardwalk area. We took some pictures and visited the fortress which cost us 4 euros each to visit. I'd suggest avoiding this fortress, it was a bit disappointing for the price since there wasn't much to see.

Butler Pantry folks

Butler Pantry sandwich

While in Rethymo, we stopped at a local coffee shop, Butler Pantry for a snack and got a sandwich to share for 2,80 euros.

Rethymo fortress

Rethymo fortress

We made it to Chania at around 4:30pm and the hotel (Kydon) is very nice. Came with valet parking and very helpful front desk staff. After checking in we wandered around for info about the Samaria Gorge (we got differing information about how much a tour would cost versus doing it on our own) and we ended up deciding to join the tour at the hotel which cost us 24 euros each (we saw some in town for 19 euros) since it wasn't much more than if we took the bus on our own and it would include a tour guide and private bus back to the hotel.

Rethymo fortress

Rethymo fortress

Tamam was for dinner where we order the goat, pork fillet, and greek salad which came out to 36 euros, very good meal and it ended with free raki and delights.

Random Walkway at Chania

Tamam Greek Salad

Tamam goat on the left, pork fillet on the right

Raki and delights

Chania coastline

Sunset from Kydon Hotel

Went back to the hotel early since tomorrow would be a long day since it was our hike to Samaria Gorge.