| Chania Prefecture tips and photos posted by real travelers and Crete Island locals. • 98 Photos
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 Stavros beach in Akrotiri by Lilasel
Akrotiri is a place for nature lovers, with interesting walking and hiking paths through the unspoilt gorges with amazing diversity, natural beauty and living traditions.
With picturesque sandy beaches, all awarded with the Blue Flag, century-old monasteries and churches, impressive caves with rich lithological and archaeological interest (In one of them was filmed "ZORBA THE GREEK"), historical monuments, Akrotiri attracts many visitors every year, who enjoy Cretan hospitality and nature at their best. Leave a Comment
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 Paleochora waterfront by AcornMan
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We hired a car for three days and headed for the south (Kalives is in the northwest part of the island) and drove through the mountains and three different zones. First through the olive groves, then bare mountains with very small bushes and hardly any other plants and finally to the area where pines and other dry soil plants grow. We were amazed that within such a short distance (less than 100 kms/65 miles) there were so many different sceneries. We reached the small town of Hora Sfakion and headed o the Samaria Gorge. We knew that we couldn't go down there, because after the winter there was too much water and mud, but we wanted to see it at least. We also knew that my sister in her wheel chair wouldn't be able to get there. We drove upwards around the mountain and the road was quite narrow, but I wasn't afraid. The view from the mountains was absolutely breathtaking! The road got narrower and narrower and finally ended - we were lost! We turned back and stopped by a house and I went to ask for the road. The young girl knew some words of English and she said that one can only get there by boat. At least I thought so. We had a packed lunch on the field and continued our trip. We stopped to ask an eldery lady for the road and used sign language and showed the map and she asked us: "Don't you speak English?". What a relief! She confirmed that there's no road to Samaria Gorge from there, only by boat, so we drove back to Hora Sfakion, where we swam and did sun bathing. In the shallow sea it was quite warm to swim and we really enjoyed it. Leave a Comment
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 Pink sand!! by oriettaIT
Please play attenction to the sign and avoid to walk on the flowers and plant that grow on the sand, they are protected as the whole island is a natural park.
And.... PLEASE don't abandon your trash there!! it is a paradise corner, we MUST preserve it! Directions: Situated in the South-West corner of the island.
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 Paleochora from the west by AcornMan
As for beaches? Well, take your pick. The sandy beach on the west side of the penninsula has, as you might have guessed, sand - very nice, soft, fine sand at that. The beach is long enough that you have lots of choices of where to go, but it's still very convenient because the town is right there behind it. The pebble beach, while smaller, is also very nice and no less convenient. But the best beach around is Elafonisi, accessible by a daily ferry or by road. The trip is about 1 1/2 hours either way you go, but it's worth every bit of time and effort it takes to get there.
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 A Picture of the Bridge and
the Face of the Church by Jmill42
The monastery is actually built into the sides of a rocky cliff and contains a church dedicated to Agios Ioannis Xenos, or St. John the Hermit, who founded the monastery. There is a cave nearby that was named after him, because he used it as his dwelling.
There is a bridge located in front of the church that is still well preserved and used by the tourists who make it this far.
Be prepared for a hike from the road that brings you here. While no where near as long as Samaria, it is a bit of a hike, and more importntly, back up. Leave a Comment Directions: North of the Hania airport, there are signs leading you directly to the beginning of the hike down.
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I am not sure if there are trips to Kalives anymore but at the time when we were there it was a new destination so there was only one hotel in the centre and a few more spread in the outskirts of the village. All tourists were also Finnish back then. Kalives was a sleep little village and very charming and original. I liked to take early morning walks before my sister got up and explore little back streets and then go to the bakery and get fresh bread for breakfast. Leave a Comment
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My sister, my son and I took the guided walk in the village, but my sister's partner prefered to stay in the hotel and sleep. Our guide, a young man called Timi, who on day of our arrival didn't want to "see" us (I think he was in a panic because he has just finished his education and didn't know how to handle the situation with us not having the rooms we were promised), turned out to be a lovely guide, who knew very much about the history of Crete and which pleased us even more knew very much about the flowers, plants and trees of the island. He showed us the church, which was closed then and took us to a chapel (also closed) in the garden of which grew lemon and orange trees in full bloom and fruit. Really nice indeed. Through narrow streets to the hill, which was very steep and I wouldn't have been able to push my sister all the way up there, but our neighbours from the hotel, two brothers in their mid-50's, helped us and they actually did most of the pushing and at what speed. One could have thought that they were in their 20's! The climbing was worth it because from the hill we could see over the village and far to the sea. Very beautiful indeed. We learnt about the plants, too. Timi told which were used as herbs, which were used for medicine and which were used to make alcohol, it was all very interesting. We could easily see that he was very interested in the nature and valued it and treated plants and animals with respect, which we found really charming indeed. Leave a Comment
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After my daily morning walk we headed towards to Kastelli Kissamos. We stopped for ice cream in a small picturesque village and we were disappointed because ice cream they had was exactly the same as we can buy here in Finland (I noticed the same last year when I was travelling in Europe that they sell same kind of ice cream everywhere and I'd like to taste the local ones. In Bulgaria they seemed to think that my friend and I were crazy because we wanted Bulgarian ice cream, though they had fine western ones, too!). Next stop was the monastery of Gonias, which was quite nice, but nothing really special. One of the brothers told us about the monastery and he asked my son about his name and held his arm around his shoulders. Poor boy whose shoulders were burnt! Leave a Comment
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 Church bell tower by AcornMan
More than anything, Paleochora is a place where you can chill out and relax no matter what your interests are. We spent some days basking in the sun on the beach, but on other days we just lounged around our hotel and ventured out only infrequently. In short, I absolutely fell in love with this place. I almost never return anywhere when I travel because I want to see as much of the world as possible, but I truly look forward to the day when I can go back to Paleochora. Leave a Comment
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