A Preveli day trip from Heraklion crosses Crete from the north coast to the Libyan Sea, where the Megalos Potamos river flows through a grove of Cretan date palms into a lagoon behind Preveli beach, below the monastery of the same name. Tours across the rest of the country are listed on Greece Tours. The … Read more
Cretaquarium tickets open the doors of CretAquarium, the public aquarium of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research at Gournes on the north coast of Crete, east of Heraklion, where the tanks hold fish and other sea life of the Mediterranean. Tours across the rest of the country are listed on Greece Tours. The sections below … Read more
An Elafonisi day trip from Heraklion crosses almost the full length of Crete, from the capital on the north coast to the far south-west of the island, where the pink-tinted sand of Elafonisi lines a lagoon so shallow that visitors wade across it to the islet. Tours across the rest of the country are listed … Read more
A Matala day trip from Heraklion crosses Crete from the north coast to the Messara bay on the south coast, where the village of Matala sits beside a sandy beach under a cliff cut with caves that served as tombs in Roman times and as a hippie home in the 1960s. Tours across the rest … Read more
A Samaria gorge day trip from Heraklion is a long day out from Heraklion and the resorts of central Crete to hike the Samaria Gorge in the White Mountains of the west, with a coach to the Omalos plateau, the walk down to Agia Roumeli on the Libyan Sea, a ferry along the south coast … Read more
A Spinalonga day trip from Heraklion is a full-day excursion that takes travellers by coach or private car from Heraklion and the resorts east of it to the Gulf of Elounda, then by boat to Spinalonga island, with its Venetian fortress and former leper colony, with a stop in Agios Nikolaos or Elounda on the … Read more
Vori is a traditional village on the Messara plain in the southern reaches of the Heraklion district, a quiet stop that reveals the everyday life behind Crete’s famous monuments. Whitewashed houses, shaded squares and old fountains line its lanes, while olive groves and vineyards fill the surrounding fields. The village sits near the ancient palace … Read more
Moires stands as the bustling commercial centre of the Messara plain in southern Heraklion, Crete, far removed from the polished tourist resorts that line the island’s northern coast. This working market town serves the fertile agricultural region with banks, shops, tavernas, and the practical services that keep rural Cretan life running. Every Saturday, one of … 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
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
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