A whole week, just enough to discover some part of the west coast of Crete. Let’s visit this Greek Island !
• Daily road trip journey • Discovery of the best beaches • Advice to enjoy your trip the most • Plan a Trek in the Samaria gorge
We arrived at Chania Airport around 5pm, so I didn’t count this first day. It was more about picking up the car, finding our hostel for the night and starting to experience the Cretan atmosphere.
Day 01 • Kolymvari & Kissamos
Day 02 • Balos beach & Kefali
Day 03 • Elafonissi beach & Kedrodassos beach
Day 04 • Georgioupoli & Kournas
Day 05 • Kournas, Vamos & Chania
Day 06 • Samaria Gorge trek
Day 07 • Chania
Day 01 • Kolymvari & Kissamos
Let’s hit the road !
We left Chania in the morning right after having breakfast and a walk in the city center. We didn’t linger long since we knew we will hop again in Chania during our trip.
On our way to Kissamos we stopped by Kolymvari for a lunch break. Completely by chance, we ended up in a typical restaurant serving traditional dishes. The Diktina taverna was really cute, affordable and the staff was incredibly nice.
Afer this yummy break, we hit back the road to Kissamos where we booked an apartment for the night. On our way we saw a nice beach and had a swim. (This is why it’s really great to have a car and nothing really planned… then you can let the unexpected happen.)
By the end of the afternoon, we arrived at Kissamos where we stayed at Eva Ele. And OMG!!! What a wonderful surprise ! The host was so kind, lovely and welcoming. She helped us plan half of our trip by giving us a lot of priceless advice. I so recommend this place !
Kissamos is a really cute city, less crowded than Chania and more authentic.
Day 02 • Balos Beach & Kefali
Books ain’t lying about this place. It is marvelous !
But be careful, there is still some things you need to know before going.
1 • Drive safe
If you’re renting a car, make sure that Balos beach is included in your renting insurance. Indeed, you’ll have to go off road to reach the parking. It means it can be dangerous to drive. Sometime the road is closed due to bad weather.
2 • Wear confortable shoes
Once you’ve reached the parking, it takes around 30 min to walk down to the bay. Be careful, there is no sign for the path. Follow the tracks made by other visitors until you find the stairs leading to the beach. Some people do, but I’wouldn’t walk here wearing flip-flop.
3 • Bring your own
Bring food, plenty of water and beach supplies. There is no shops in the bay. Locals do sell fresh water bottle for the fair price of 3€ the liter. If you want a chair and a parasol, it will be 10€ for 2 persons. We decided we didn’t need any of that. (We bought fresh water on our way back though, those stairs were easier on the way down… 😅)
4 • Find the best spot
Unfortunately, you’re not the only one to know about this place. In addition to the other drivers, some cruises offer to visit the bay. If you want to avoid other tourists, here the best advice I can give you. Bring your own parasol, go off to the left side of the bay and enjoy.
Luckily for you most of the chairs and parasols are on the right side of the bay, precisely on the same side that boats will arrive. The cruisers will stay around 2h, meaning those tourists won’t be here long enough to come near you.
Now that you know how to get there safely, avoiding tourists… Put on some sunscreen, sit back and relax 😎
After this wonderful day at the beach, we drove to Kefali where we stayed for the night at Panorama apartment. We discovered a quiet village, with 17 inhabitants, far from tourist crowd. The rooms and the (only) restaurant are owned by one family. We ate at this place and once again the Cretans showed how welcoming they are. During our dinner some residents came to greet us. Even in the morning, we stopped by the restaurant to check-out and locals offered to share their breakfast with us.
So I have to recommend this place too ! 💛
Day 03 • Elafonissi beach & Kedrodassos beach
Elafonissi, also known as the pink sand beach.
Our host from Eva Ele at Kissamos, told us that this beach is not that amazing. She recommended another place called Kedrodassos beach.
We still wanted to see the famous pink sand beach. We arrived around 9:30am and walked till the protected area of Elafonissi. Looking for that pink sand, we actually walked all the way up to the peninsula. We found a cave and even an old church which seemed abandoned. This place was the real surprise of Elafonissi. It was kind of magical, we felt completely lost, isolated. A quiet moment in front of the ocean. But about that famous pink sand… well our host was pretty right. Honestly we saw more pink sand on Balos beach than on Elafonissi. When we headed back to the car, we saw a huge crowd coming to the beach and some buses were still arriving. A lot of tourist are visiting this place… So we escaped to go to Kedrodassos.
Kedrodassos.
Well, this place is not easy to find. Indeed this beach is almost only known by locals. We finally managed to find the parking and (here we go again) an other cliff to to walk down. That was definitely worth the effort. Way different than Balos or Elafonissi, on this beach we felt like we were all alone. Plus there is a lot of trees so it’s shady enough to have a nap or chill without getting sunburnt.
We spent all the afternoon on Kedrodassos beach, before hitting the road again to our next stop. Adviced (again) by our host from Eva Ele, we drove to Kournas. She told us about a lake there, where it’s pretty pleasant to enjoy fresh water. We stayed there 2 nights, in order to have enough time to visit Georgioupoli.
Day 04 • Georgioupoli & Kournas
Georgioupoli is a cute small city, seaside resort like, but enjoyable.
I recommend to have a walk by the sea. At the end of it (or at the beginning, it depends), you’ll find a church on the water. Well not exactly floating, it was just built on a dyke. Be careful while walking on it, the ground can be slippery. This church is really cute and there is a beautiful view on the city and the sea side from there.
After this walk we had a swim and chilled on the beach before going back into the city to enjoy a coffee
It was pretty late when we came back to Kournas so we decided to just have dinner and then come back to our place. We found an AMAZING restaurant, so delicious that on the next day we also ate there. The To Matis Tis Limnis serves a medley of typical greek meal which is a great opportunity to taste different dishes. Plus the staff was lovely. Really if I go back in Crete I’d eat there again.
On the next day we had a walk by the lake. Actually that was enjoyable to have that fresh air. You can also rent pedal boat if you want to enjoy even more the lake. We even saw people having a swim. Plus their is a local market by the lake side where you can buy some typical souvenirs.
Day 05 • Kournas, Vamos & Chania
Time to come back to Chania to organize our trek in the Samaria Gorge. On our way we had a stop in a village called Vamos, to have a lunch break followed by a digestive walk. Nothing much to do there, even though the village is pretty cute. I mean if you’re looking for some peace and quiet time, this is the place to be. The walk we had was so peaceful.
When we arrived in Chania we booked and planned our trek in the Samaria Gorge. (I’ll explain that on Day 06).
Once that was done, we re-explored the adorable cute little streets of Chania and we got surprised by the sunset and its incredible colors. That was one of the most incredible sunset I ever saw.
Day 06 • Samaria Gorge
Even if we had a car and we knew there was a parking near the beginning of the trek at Omalos, we found out that it might be difficult to get back to that parking on the very same day.
This is why we decided to not take our car.
Although there is a lot of tour which offer to help you plan the trek, we decided to do it on our own. Only using public transportation.
To get to the entrance of the Samaria Gorge we had to take a bus from Chania to Omalos. Then we trekked down to Agia Roumeli where we boarded a boat to Chora Skafion. To finish the trip, we finally took a bus to Chania.
1 • Get to the Samaria Gorge
One day before, we bought tickets to Omalos directly at the Chania bus station. (We heard that the ticket office can be crowded in the morning so I recommend you to get your tickets in advance.)
We were also able to get boat tickets from Agia Roumeli to Chora Skafion and bus tickets from Chora Skafion to Chania. We paid, per person, 15,40€ for the buses and 12,50€ for the boat. KEEP CAREFULLY THESE TICKETS !
We took the first bus leaving for Omalos, around 7:30am.
2 • Trek time !
We arrived around 9am and paid the park fee 5€ per person (bring cash). We brought our own lunch and a lot of water (you never know, and weather was pretty hot that day). It took us 5ish hours to reach the end of the trek. I think we were pretty fast… you definitely can go slower than that. Still keep tracking time, since boats have schedule. You have to be at the harbor before the departure of your boat. By the way, the trek is around 13km, they said… Well note that the end of the trek, is not where the boat will be… You’ll have to walk again ! (around 3-4 kilometers) to finally reach the harbor. But it’s totally worth the effort. The landscape are amazing. Plus if you manage to arrived in advance you’ll be able to enjoy Agia Roumeli black sand beach and have a refreshment.
3 • You did it !
Well done ! After this hard day you deserve to rest. To do so, you’ll have to take the boat (or trek back to Omalos, which I think might be pretty hard to do on the very same day). Know that it is also possible to stay a night (or more) in Agia Roumeli. There are hotels and restaurants that are resupply by boats since there is no roads. We took a boat around 5pm to Chora Skafion in order to get a bus to Chania. Don’t worry about the time you’ll arrive at Chora Skafion, buses wait for boats to arrive.
Day 07 • Chania
This is our last day (#sadness).
Time to do some shopping and bring home some souvenirs. We had a wonderful stroll inside the tiny streets of Chania. I really loved this city, its colors, agitation, sounds and smells…
I hope you enjoyed to read this article !
Don’t hesitate to ask me anything if you want some details. You can also find some info about Crete and this trip on my Instagram.
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Have a great day and I hope you’ll visit this amazing island someday.
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