This was a first for me. I’ve never been to Greece, so this summer we rented a villa in Skepasti on the northern coast.
In a nutshell, we found the people absolutely lovely, the towns touristy and the scenery incredible.
There were nine of us in our group, my family (three teens, albeit my eldest flew out separately for one week as he was working…or maybe just too cool to holiday with the fam, I can’t remember!) and my sister’s and her two teens. We hired a car per family which was really easy but I will warn you now, some of the mountain roads are not for the nervous driver (or passenger!) and rented a villa with a pool to ensure that all holiday needs from ‘chilling’ to ‘culturing’ were met.
We walked the Imbros gorge, a smaller one than it’s more famous Samaria cousin, and we were not disappointed. A two hour, quiet, less tourist riddled path from the mountains mid Crete to the southern coast.
This concluded with a well earned beer and a ride back to where we’d parked in the back of a pick up. The likes of such I’ve not done since I went to South Africa back in 1991! Apologies for my incessant giggling and whoops as we veered around those 100+hairpins if you were the rather unfortunate other passengers in the back with my and my (much more restrained) family.
Knossos had to be done along with the archaeological museum in Heraklion. It’s hot, full of tour groups and slightly reconstructed, which frustrated my history boffin hubby. The museum is quite small and well laid out, however, be warned, if you don’t like pots, you may be a little frustrated.
But, what took our breath away was the delight of Chania and, to a lesser extent, Rethymno. Both Venetian ports, the quaintness and beauty was lovely. Chania is on the return-to list. Have a look for yourself…
This has definitely whet my whistle to explore more of the Greek islands. Crete is not a picture postcard, quintessential ‘blue and white houses Greece’, primarily due to it’s history of invasions, but it has a rugged charm all of it’s own with a huge amount of stuff to see and do. Local food in Tavernas filled with local people will not fail to disappoint and Cretan beer on a hot dusty day…just sayin’!
