Yannis Divramis 
Kedrodasos sits on the far southwest coast of Crete, in the Chania district, just east of the pink-sand lagoon of Elafonisi. Its name means cedar forest, and a grove of low, ancient juniper trees grows across the dunes right down to the sand. Pale sand, smooth flat rock and shallow turquoise water make it a … Read more
Neapoli sits inland in the hills of the Lasithi district of eastern Crete, the administrative capital of the region and a working town rather than a resort. The main road between Agios Nikolaos and the Selena mountains runs straight through it, past a broad central square shaded by plane trees, the grand church of the … Read more
Ha Gorge, known locally as Faragi Ha, slices the western face of the Thripti mountains above the Ierapetra plain in eastern Crete. Its huge dark cleft is visible for kilometres across the plain. The gorge is a near-vertical slot, barely a couple of metres wide in places. A chain of waterfalls and deep pools breaks … Read more
Ano Viannos stands as a mountain town in the south-east of the Heraklion district, built on the slopes of the Dikti range high above the Libyan Sea. It is the main settlement of the Viannos region, and whitewashed houses climb the hillside among plane trees and running springs. Old churches, two of them carrying fine … Read more
Ligres is a long, quiet beach on the south coast of Crete, set in the Rethymno district below the mountains between Agios Pavlos and Triopetra on the Libyan Sea. Grey-and-golden sand, low dunes and a stream mouth back a small line of tavernas and rooms, with no resort development along the shore. A rough road … Read more
The Myli gorge is a short, green ravine just south of Rethymno on the north coast of Crete, in the Rethymno district. Its name, the Valley of the Mills, comes from the ruins of dozens of old watermills that once ground the region’s grain along a stream shaded by plane trees. The path runs between … Read more
Treis Ekklisies, meaning Three Churches, is a small seaside settlement on the south coast of Crete. It sits below the Asterousia mountains in the Heraklion district and faces the Libyan Sea. A long pebble beach, clear deep water and a small fishing anchorage rest at the foot of a mountain road that winds down from … Read more
Maridaki is a tiny seaside hamlet on the south coast of Crete, tucked at the mouth of a gorge below the Asterousia mountains in the Heraklion district. A small beach of pebbles and grey sand faces the Libyan Sea, and cold spring water runs down the ravine to the shore. A scatter of houses and … Read more
Kapetaniana is a remote mountain village high on the southern side of the Asterousia range, in the Heraklion district of Crete. Old stone houses and small Byzantine churches cluster beneath the rocky peak of Kofinas, the highest summit of the Asterousia at around eleven hundred metres. The village faces the Libyan Sea far below and … Read more
Krousonas is a large mountain village on the eastern slopes of Psiloritis, in the Malevizi region of the Heraklion district of Crete, west of the city of Heraklion. Cherry orchards, vineyards, olive groves and chestnut woods surround its stone houses at a cool altitude that stays fresh through the summer. The village is known across … Read more
Myrtia is a village south of Heraklion, set among the vineyards of the Peza wine region on the island of Crete. Travellers know it above all as the ancestral home of Nikos Kazantzakis, the writer of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation. A modern literary museum on the shaded village square keeps his manuscripts, … Read more
Houdetsi is a small village south of Heraklion, set among the vineyards of the Archanes area on the island of Crete. It carries a reputation across the island for music. The Irish lyra master Ross Daly settled here and founded the Labyrinth Musical Workshop, which teaches and stages concerts of Cretan and world music inside … Read more