On the island of Crete
Hello! This summer we rested on the island of Crete and want to share our experience. We traveled with two children, so we rented a car only for 3 days, but we tried to plan everything so that these days were unforgettable! I will also say that renting a car in Crete is not a problem, and it is better to do it not in a hotel, but in the city - it will be the same, only cheaper. We took an Opel Corsa car, for 3 days it cost 100 euros. All cars have air conditioning, you can, if you want, take a navigator, but here you can safely do without it. You can not take a map of Crete with you - here they are given everywhere when renting a car. Show the employee the places you would like to visit - he will tell you a good way. Good luck!
So, day one!
On this day we visited 2 beautiful places in Crete. First we went to the fresh mountain lake Kurna. We lived in Rethymno, and this lake was only 24 km from us and about 20 minutes drive. Kourna is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains on one side and catamarans, boats and taverns on the other. The lake has a very pleasant clear water with an amazing ability to relieve stress and fatigue! There are a lot of geese on the shore. this place serves as a favorite resting place for migratory birds (and people! ). And at the bottom of Qurna, according to legend, there are giant turtles. I don’t know about giant ones, but we did see one small turtle on a stone.
We rented a catamaran for an hour. It costs 7 euros small (2 seats) and 14 large (4 seats, only two pedal). Tip: it's better to come here in the morning, at 9 o'clock, if you don't like when there are a lot of people. There are plenty of parking lots, and all are free. I think it's worth the trip! By the way, some write that after a few hours the lake starts to get bored - not at all! Who cares, but we could have been happy to stay here longer, but the car was taken only for 3 days, but we wanted to see a lot more! So, we left this wonderful lake with the warmest memories!
And ahead of us was waiting for the gorge... We chose Imbros, it took about an hour to drive from Kourna, the road was difficult - the pass... Imbros - a beautiful gorge, 8 km long, entrance 2 euros, free for children. But it is difficult to walk along it: the whole road consists of angular, uncomfortable boulders, from which our legs constantly jumped off and tucked up. In addition, 8 km... It was too much for us, even despite comfortable shoes and hats (this is a must !!! ), so when the gorge finally ended and the Libyan Sea appeared from behind the mountains, we burst out with a friendly “Hurrah ". Take note: there is almost no shade in the Imbros Gorge, there are 2 places to rest along the way, there are no toilets and water sources, and there are also many mountain goats. At the entrance they say that the walk through the gorge will take 2.5 hours. We walked for 3 hours at a fairly fast pace (as far as possible with two children), resting 2 times for 3-4 minutes. The place is beautiful, but very tired!
At the exit there was a tavern where you need to wait for a taxi (of course, if you don’t want to turn around and walk back, because everyone leaves the car in the parking lot near the entrance to the gorge). How nice it was to sit on a chair and sit!... The hospitable hostess tavern treated us to watermelon. And the taxi arrived in 20 minutes. By the way, it costs 5 euros for one person.
It was a big car with an open body, where we climbed into. What bliss was this descent, what views and a pleasant breeze!! ! The song “I will live! ” sounded in my ears!
When we were again at our car, opinions were divided: it was planned that now we would go by car the same way as we had just taken a taxi to relax on the coast of the Libyan Sea. But everyone was so tired that they didn’t want anything new, and we returned to Lake Kurna again. And none of us later regretted it! We spent the rest of the evening enjoying swimming in this clean, clear water…
Visited 5 places today! The first stop was the Cretan Marine Aquarium, where almost all the inhabitants of the seas surrounding Crete are collected!
Entrance to the aquarium costs 8 euros for an adult, 6 euros for a child 5-17 years old. It is quite large, the largest fish being the sand shark. There were also 2 blue-gray sharks, 2 octopuses, several jellyfish, 2 sea turtles, starfish, rays, sea cucumbers, sole, corals, algae, huge shells, tuna, sea bass and all kinds of other fish, as well as different types of crabs and crayfish. Near each aquarium, the names of its inhabitants are signed, incl. and in Russian. A Russian-language audio guide is also offered for an additional fee (I don’t know how much). From Rethymno it’s about an hour, maybe a little more (the aquarium is located near Kokkini Hani, it’s a little further from Heraklion). Both you and the children will like it, you will relax and see a lot of funny and interesting!
The next one according to the plan is the cave of Zeus, i. e. the cave in which, according to myths, Zeus was born. This is the most difficult part of the journey for this day, at the entrance to the cave there is generally a terrible serpentine. From the Cretan Aquarium, it's a 50 minute drive.
This is a small, refreshingly cool cave, but very old, with stalactites and stalagmites, in one room, children are free, adults enter 4 euros. You don’t need to take warm clothes, it’s not so cold, and it’s just nice to go down there on a hot summer day! But to get into this cave, you need 15 minutes to climb the mountain. You also have to go back. But it is not difficult, and even more so after the Imbros gorge, the descent and ascent seemed to us just a children's fairy tale. By the way, the cave is open only until 16.30!
The Lassithi Plateau, on which the cave of Zeus is located, is very beautiful, flat and large, there are 21 villages around it! And in one of them, in a place called Krassi, the pride of these villages grows - a very thick and ancient plane tree, which is as much as 2000 years old! We, of course, stopped by to see, from the cave of Zeus to go only 10 minutes.
Then we go to the Palace of Knossos. According to legend, this is a huge labyrinth in which a terrible monster named the Minotaur lived. But in fact, little is left of the labyrinth, and without a tour it’s not interesting here. At the entrance there are people offering guide services. I think it's better to use them! A ticket to the Palace of Knossos costs 6 euros, it works from 8.30 to 19.30, closed on Mondays. The palace is located 5 km from Heraklion.
Our next and final point is Fodele Beach. This is a beautiful place where the Pantomaris River, which flows through the entire famous village of Fodele, where the artist El Greco lived, flows into the sea. This beach is only 2.5 km from the village. The water here is good, the sand is dense, village children bathe in the river.
But there are no changing rooms. And when we asked in English where you can change clothes, they answered us - in the toilet in the bar... But the nature here is cool! The beach is not crowded, calm, you can relax and unwind. In general, I liked it.
The third day, and the last, we devoted to the sea. Only not to the one where they swam before, Crete, but to another, to the one that washes the shores of North Africa as well - the Libyan Sea.
For this, we traveled for a long time, not without wandering, to the extreme south-west of the island, to where the famous Elafonisi beach stretches with pink sand and 100 shades of the sea... Theoretically, it takes about 2 hours and 40 minutes to drive from Rethymno, but we turned the wrong way and lost an hour wandering through numerous Greek villages. By the way, they are very picturesque. But still save time just in case!
The Libyan Sea is simply amazing! So warm and transparent, better than in the pool and completely without waves even in a storm. This evening we planned to see Chania, the old city, but no one wanted to leave Elafonisi!!!
Therefore, we rested here until 6 pm and went home.
Here, on the shores of the famous Elafonisi, we were closest to Africa...
All in all, I really enjoyed the trip! I hope, dear tourists, that you have found useful information in my report! If you need more details - write, I will be happy to answer your questions!
