Creta · Greece
In the destination Creta.
In the photo: Farol veneziano de Chania
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The city
Chania is the second city of Creta and the most beautiful place to stay: the crescent-shaped Venetian harbour, with the lighthouse at the end of the breakwater and the old mosque of the janissaries on the waterfront, is the centre of an old town of narrow lanes, Venetian and Ottoman houses, neighbourhoods such as Topanas and Splantzia and the Etz Hayyim synagogue. It is the base for the west of the island: the Samaria Gorge, the beaches of Elafonisi, Balos and Falasarna, and the Akrotiri peninsula, with monasteries and the beach of Stavros.
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The local experience
The porto veneziano in a crescent, with the mesquita dos janízaros on the water’s edge, the arcades of the shipyards and the 1864 lighthouse at the tip of the breakwater: Chania's iconic image.
The old town behind the port: Topanas, with Venetian and Ottoman houses, the old Jewish quarter with the synagogue Etz Hayyim, Splantzia and the hill of Kastelli, where Chania began.
The archaeological museum of western Crete, in a new building in the Halepa district, with finds from Kydonia, Minoan Chania, Aptera and other ancient towns in the region.
The maritime museum in the Venetian fortress Firkas, at the western entrance of the port, with ship models, navigation instruments and the story of the Battle of Crete; on the other side of the port, the replica of a Minoan ship.
17th-century monastery on the Akrotiri peninsula, 15 km from Chania, with a three‑domed church, a columned façade, an icon museum and on-site production of olive oil and wine.
16th-century fortified monastery in the northern Akrotiri peninsula, the starting point for the trail to the Arkoudiotissa cave and the ruins of the seaside monastery of Katholiko.
A pale‑sand beach with pinkish tones and a shallow lagoon that separates the coast from the islet of Elafonisi, at the extreme southwest of Crete, about 75 km from Chania, in a protected natural area.
The one-day hike through the Samaria Gorge, a national park since 1962: 16 km downhill from the Omalos plateau to the Libyan Sea at Agia Roumeli, passing the Portões which are 4 meters wide.
The Balos lagoon, at the far northwest of Crete: shallow water in shades of blue and green between the Gramvousa peninsula and Cape Tigani, seen from the top of the access trail, in a protected natural area.
Wide pale-sand beach on the west coast of Crete, 60 km from Chania, with open sea and, on the hill to the north, the ruins of the ancient city of Falasarna, including a harbor that uplifted terrain has left away from the sea.
A shallow, calm-water cove on the northern tip of the Akrotiri peninsula, 15 km from Chania, enclosed by a rocky hill: it was here that the final dance in Zorba the Greek was filmed.
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