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4 Stars - 98 Opinions
The lane to the cemetery
Gouves beach, Crete, Greece
Vai beach - Crete 1990
The Knossos Palace
Can anyone recommend a car rental company in Chania. The company I usually use only deliver to Heraklion. We're going to Crete for a week at the end of February. Thanks in advance!
I have used novacar in France and in Spain and was very satisfied - good booking and pick up arrangements and competitive prices. My brother used them in Chania last year and also recommends.
http://www.novacarhire.com/car-hire/greece/chania_crete.htm
I have also used Autoway twice(last time in 2006)and found it reasonabled priced and good assistance. We had a car problem during our transfer and they gave us all the help that was needed.
Have a great stay, Crete is wonderful.
Thanks everyone, I had never even heard of these companies and I'll check them all out now. Thanks again!
It's a very special place to visit. It's a small town in the south part of the island. It has this caves where the hippies in the 70's used to live there. It has a lot of artesans shops where you can buy some artistic products. I really recommend it.
It's an hour and a half from Irakleion by car.
Crete is one of the 13 regions of Greece. It is the biggest island in Greece and the second biggest (after Cyprus) of the East Mediterranean.
Crete covers an area of 8.336 sq.kms. The length of the island is 260 km, but the shore-length is 1.046 km. The biggest width is 60 km from the Dion cape to the Lithinon cape, while the smallest is 12 km and is called "isthmus of Ierapetra". A high mountain range crosses the island from West to East, formed by three different groups of mountains.
To the West the White Mountains (2.452 m), in the middle the mountain of Idi (Psiloritis-2.456 m) and to the East the mountain of Dikti (2.148 m). These mountains gifted Crete with fertile plateaus like Lasithi, Omalos and Nidha, caves like Diktaion and Idaion cave, and gorges like the famous Gorge of Samaria.
Crete is divided into four prefectures, each with its own capital - Chania (Chania), Rethymno (Rethymno), Heraklion (Heraklion) and Lasithi (Agios Nikolaos).
This tip is not about any one particular restaurant but a comment on our experience of several restaurants in the eastern end of Crete ( all in the Prefecture of Lasithi). All of these eating places were popular with the locals and/or Greeks and had very few, if any other, non-Greek tourists. We tried two in Piskachefalo and two in Monastiraki and all of them served excellent, wholesome food of interesting variety - including for veggies, freshness and flavours.
They were all characterised by having lots of small plates of different dishes, some served as appetisers or some as main dishes but all clearly intended to be shared. The Greeks seemed to enjoy eating out in large groups, often in families. Plates were passed around and everyone would help themselves to something as it went around. The service was also pretty quick.
We noticed that in the restaurants catering more clearly for the tourist trade this was not so much the case. Each person ordered their own meal and would be given their own plate of food. Sharing was not encouraged. Much more like western europe.
Regarding the way to order you would find out from the restaurant owner what was available and you would take your pick that way - there wasn't always a menu to pore over.
For drinks, you could start with an ouzo, followed by a beer or Retsina.
The price actually didn't seem very different from the UK but this was because of the poor exchange rate of GBP to Euro at the moment (Aug 2009). Our meals for 4 with drinks usually came to around 50Euros or less. I always left a tip of about 10% though mainly because we had some excellent meals in these places. I suspect it is the custom to leave a tip. Enjoy eating out Cretan style, we loved it.
Greeks are known as champion gesture users in the Mediterranean. Their hands, bodies and faces are rarely still and it sometimes seems possible to get the gist of a conversation by watching it from 50 meters away.
Instead of shaking heads from side to side as we do, they have another indescribable way of saying "No". This is done by raising the entire head in a backwards movement and clicking the tongue. Sometimes these movements are too subtle and quick, and you can't be too sure that he/she's answered at all. You can repeat the question again and again, and find he/she's been saying "No" from the very beginning.
"Yes"
A slow down movement of the head to one side, slightly closing the eyes as the head is lowered.
"Come here"
This gesture is indicated by the wawing of the hand, a kind of pawing of the air with the fingers and the palm downwards, that looks to the non-Greek as though he/she is either waving good-bye, or telling you to move back a few steps.
This can be confusing, because the further you move back, the more frantic the gesture becomes.
"I want to tell you something"
This gesture is done by touching or patting the lower lip with the index finger, and can easily be misunderstood, as it looks as if you are being told to be quiet. This gesture is often performed immediately after the "Come here" gesture - and put together they simply mean "Come here, I want to tell you something".
"What do you want / what do you mean?"
With a quizzical expression in his/her eyes, the Greek will shake his/her head from side to side a few times. This normally means that he/she either hasn't understood what you've asked, and is asking you to repeat it, or he/she is asking you what you want.
"Thank you very much my friend"
The "Yes" gesture is followed by putting the right hand to the heart. Standing in front of the person, the gesture is of course followed by a verbal statement. But the gesture can also be performed at some distance.
The late Minoian Cemetery in Armeni you can see during the road trip to the south of Crete Island.
There are about 200 tombs in the rocks there.
You can see really small graves but there are also few really big ones, you can easily go to the tomb, it is very interesting place for people who are interested in archaeology. I recommend it to you especially the entry is free , you don't have to pay for visiting it.
The objects and offerings from the tombs you can see itn the museum in Rethimno.
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Address: Elounda Lasithi, Elounda, Crete, 72053, Greece
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