Crete at a glance
Don’t leave Crete Island without…
- Taking a pedalo out on the beautiful Lake Kournas, the only natural freshwater body in Crete.
- Visiting the excellent Nikos Kazantzakis Museum in Myrtia, where you can learn about the life and work of the famous author of Zorba the Greek, and the El Greco Museum in Fodele, dedicated to the most important Cretan painter of the Renaissance.
- Discovering the undersea world of the Mediterranean at the stunning Cretaquarium Thalassocosmos, the largest aquarium in Greece (in Gournes).
- Enjoying the sunset with a view of the Libyan Sea from the hilltop where the Chrysoskalitissa Monastery is situated. According to legend, there is gold treasure buried under one of the 90 steps that you have to climb to reach it.
- Getting a genuine Cretan knife with a mantinada engraved on the blade.
- Visiting the beautiful Frangokastello, the legendary Venetian castle where strange visions called “Drosoulites” can be seen in May every year.
- Exploring some of the small islands around Crete, such as Gaidouronisi (Chrysi) with its turquoise waters and beaches of white sand and crushed seashells, opposite the town of Ierapetra; Gavdos, the southernmost point in Europe, with its forest of cedar trees, zen atmosphere and magical sunset, opposite Paleochora; and the magnificent Koufonisi or Lefki, the “Delos of Crete” according to locals, opposite Sitia.
- Walking around the archaeological site of Ancient Gortyna, the capital of Roman Crete, with the stunning Church of Saint Titus and the Great Inscription of the Gortyn Code, the oldest and most complete set of laws in Greece.
- Taking an evening stroll to the beautiful harbour of Agios Nikolaos to admire the elegant neoclassical buildings around Lake Voulismeni and the dazzling views of Mirabello Bay.
- Exploring the beautiful Lasithi Plateau, with its thousands of windmills. Created in the 1950s, this could be considered the world’s first – and largest – wind park. It is worth taking a photograph of the view from Seli Ambelou.
- Making a stop at Paleochora, known as the “Bride of the Libyan Sea”, a gateway to the stunning beaches on the southern coast.
- Looking round one of the hundreds of Byzantine churches (13th-16th century) in the region of Selino, important repositories of religious art by great painters of the past.
- Arranging a guided tour of the Mountain Desert in the heart of the White Mountains. Scientists have dubbed this mysterious moonscape with its conical rocks and sinkholes the “Antarctica of Crete”.
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