Hire a car & go East young man!
There is no shortage of car hire companies in Malia. The roads are full of mopeds and quad-bikes, which looked like fun but we chose to hire a Jeep so we could go further afield in (relative!) comfort. Jeep was fun to drive, but in hindsight a car may have been easier to drive round the mountainous curving roads. Forget the Western side of Crete if you're based in Malia or Agios as it's further than it looks on the map, although roads were generally better than I expected.
Try to go to the beautiful palm beach of Vai on the north-eastern tip of Crete...and best food I had was in a taverna in Palaikastro town square on the way to Vai.

