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 Summary (Crete)

Duration: 3.5 days (Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning)

Highlights

Samaria Gorge was a definite highlight. I know that we don't normally go hiking much, but this experience was definitely worth it and highly suggested.

Monastery of Arkadi was a nice stop since we were driving to Chania for Samaria Gorge. I can't say that it is worth a visit if you aren't in the area though since there isn't much else nearby.

Venetian Harbour (either in Chania, Heraklion, or Rethymo) are worth visiting for the nice views. They are all a bit different, but all are very nice to look and be at.

Lowlights

Nothing disappointed me in Crete.

Food Suggestions

Central Park Cafe has a very large menu and the food that we ordered was great.

Paralia which is by the water serves fresh seafood

Ippokampos also by the water and serves fresh seafood.

Tips

Our first time driving here and we noticed that if you are slow, you should drive on the shoulder to allow other cars to pass. The same applies for when you drive behind a slow car, they will usually drive on the shoulder which means they are allowing you to pass. I noticed that the solid line rule did not really apply here.

Final Thoughts

Crete is significantly larger than Santorini and I can see why people say that even one week would not be enough depending on what you like to see and do. I think we had a good taste of what Crete had to offer and if we could rejig some days, Crete would have gotten some more time.

2017 - Greece - Day 9 [Crete]

Today, we visit Knossos and wander Heraklion.

Yup, that's a honeycomb!

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

Breakfast buffet again and the most impressive one so far. Someone makes omelets or eggs for you. Lots of sliced meats, cheeses, fruits and veggies and plenty of desserts. We counted over 10 types of cookies that they say are homemade. At least 6 types of cakes and there was a orange juicer.

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

GDM Megaron Breakfast

Knossos is our plan for today. The bus station happened to be just next to our hotel so no running around. There is a booth for tickets which clearly shows Knossos and cost 1,70 each way and you can just buy the roundtrip at the booth. You can pay on the bus, but it costs more so just buy the roundtrip ticket. For those interested, the bus station is right by the port of Heraklion. The bus seemed to run every 15-20 minutes, so waiting won't be a big issue.

Knossos

Knossos

Knossos bus station

Peacock! At Knossos

We spent about an hour at Knossos, time depends on your interest and pictures of course. We made it back to Heraklion by around noon.

Central Park Bread

Central Park penne with smoked pork

Central Park linguine with smoked salmon

Central Park Cafe is where we stopped for lunch and they had a very extensive menu which had several languages, I guess Heraklion gets more tourists. We ordered the smoked pork penne and the linguine with smoked salmon which came out to 20 euros and was very good. I would recommend this place.

Knossos model at Archeological Museum

Archeological museum was next since we had some time and we spent an hour here. There were some neat things inside like seals (signatures back in the day) and jewelry. Cost us 10 euros at the time. Ended up at the hotel to rest a bit after the museum.

Heraklion fortress

Heraklion fortress

Visited the fortress at Heraklion and it cost 2 euros but it was a very interesting place and worth the cost. It has some nice views of the area and the history behind it all if you are interested with a lot of things that you can read. We were here for about an hour.

Paralia sea urchin

Paralia sea bream on left, pasta marine on right

Free fruit and raki

Loukoumades

Paralia was for dinner and we ordered the sea bream, urchin starter and pasta marine which came out toe 37 euros but it also came with free fruit, raki, loukoumades and even a cinnamon drink at the end, all for free! Owner came out and greeted and chatted with us for a bit. The restaurant is right by the water, nice atmosphere.

Cinnamon drink

View

Tomorrow, we head to Athens by plane and spend the day there.

2017 - Greece - Day 7 [Crete]

Today, Samaria Gorge! It will be a full day activity where we leave at 6:00am and expected to come back to the hotel by around 8:30pm.

Kydon breakfast bag

Our hotel, Kydon, had a breakfast bag if you were leaving before their breakfast actually opens and it consists of a sandwich, slice of cake, banana, apple, and a bottle of water in a nice paper bag. Very nice.

Samaria Gorge

Samaria Gorge

The trip to the gorge consisted of us leaving the hotel at 6:00am, getting transferred to another larger bus shortly after and we made it to the pit stop near the start of the gorge hike at 7:20am where we had 25 minutes to buy any last minute items and washroom break.

Samaria Gorge

Our actual start time at 8:00am. Note, it is colder up here, so you might want to bring something warm for the beginning of the hike and just bring a backpack to put it away when you are warmer.

How'd these rocks get inside the tree?

It is a steep decline in elevation where you will hike from 1,250m (4,100 ft) to 0m (0 ft) and the hike is 16 km in length (14 km for the gorge and 2 km to get to the town where you will take a ferry).

Samaria Gorge

I would say that the initial portion (the downhill hike) is a bit boring and dull, whereas the last half is where the pictures that you see online are and it is just as nice in person.

Samaria Gorge

It took us from 8:00am to 3:00pm to get to the town at the very end of the hike. We did bring hiking poles and while personally I'm still not sure if they helped, Allison did appreciate having them.

Samaria Gorge

Along the way, there are a number of stops where there are rangers in case you have any issues and there are plenty of signs to tell you where you are and there are water springs as well to fill your water bottles so you don't need to bring all the water you need for the day, just fill as you come across them.

Samaria Gorge

With our tour, included was a guide who makes sure that everyone has returned and made it to the bottom and she did start well after us, although she did end up passing us less than half way through the hike. The guide was very knowledgeable and told us a lot about the area and the gorge while we were making our way to the gorge via the bus.

Samaria Gorge

Note, once you make it to the bottom of the gorge to the little town, you are still a 1 hour ferry and a 1.5 hour bus ride back to Chania. If you are going further than that, expect it to be even longer. In our case, the ferry back was at 5:30pm and we ended up at the hotel at 8:30pm.

So pretty!

Rouscis is where we stopped in the town for a snack and we got the spaghetti bolognese, eggplanet salad, pork souvlaki and a frappe for 21,50 euro. Food was okay. It was a good stop though since we were fairly tired by then.

Spaghetti on the bottom left, eggplant salad on bottom right, pork souvlaki top right

While on the hike, we actually met with someone who was doing the hike down with all their gear today, and was going to the do the hike up the gorge the next day! Absolutely crazy!

Samaria Gorge

Overall, a very nice and worthwhile hike. We actually lucked out since the gorge was closed due to weather and was only recently re-opened.

Our ferry

Dinner was at Goody Burger and we got the Texas BBQ, and Bacon and Cheese Salad which came out to 11,50 euros. It reminded me a bit of Harvey's and it was a welcome change from all our souvlakis.

Texas BBQ on the left, salad on the right

1 euro ice cream!

Tomorrow, we drive back to Heraklion.