Crete, Greece (Large Towns - Rethymno, Chania, & Agios Nikolaos)

Restaurant - Rethymno, Crete, Greece

Mixed Seafood Dinner - Crete, Greece

Lake Voulismeni 
- Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece

Shopping Street
- Rethymno, Crete, Greece

Courtyard Restaurant
- Chania, Crete, Greece

Harbor in Evening 
- Agios Nikoloas, Crete, Greece

Romantic Restaurant
- Rethymno, Crete, Greece

Wedding - Chania, Crete, Greece

Crete, Greece - Large Towns (Rethymno, Chania, & Agios Nikolaos)  (6/23-7/11/2010) - Crete is a wonderful island!  

We planned to be in Crete a week and stayed 2 ½ weeks. Home to hundreds of beaches, beautiful coastlines, great food, hospitable people, and one of the oldest civilizations in the world, Crete claims to host almost 25% of all of Greece’s tourism. 

Crete is the largest and most populous (pop: 650,000), and diverse of the Greek Islands. The people of Crete are proud and warm and maintain their culture and customs, particularly their strong musical tradition. 

After a 10-hour overnight ferry crossing from the Greek island of Rhodes, we landed in Crete at the city of Sitia early in the morning. Sitia looked just OK to us so we hopped on a bus to Agios Nikolaos, a touristic but attractive Greek village. 

Agios Nikolaos has a small beautiful picturesque lake (Voulismeni) that is encircled by tiny fishing boats and restaurants (see photo). The charm of Agios Nikolaos makes it a fun place to visit, especially because we stayed at the Du Lac Hotel with a balcony overlooking the lake. The lovely views day and night and the Cretan music and smells of food making their way up to our room from the lakeside restaurants were worth the stay. 

We took a day trip to Elounda and found a little taverna on the water and Wayne had a seafood plate with fried sardines, calamari, and mackerel (see photo). Pat had a Greek salad and they served hot bead with melted bits of cheese with eggplant dip - yum! The beaches in this area of Crete are just OK so off we went to Rethymno. 

Rethymno is an absolutely beautiful town and beautiful beach a few minutes walk away! The delightful Venetian-Ottoman quarter of Rethymno is a maze of narrow streets with romantic tavernas (restaurants) and shops. Pat strolled trance-like through the streets viewing shop after shop of colorful shoes, dresses, and dining sets - a woman’s delight! 

Having an early dinner at the Rethymno's Old Venetian Harbor was a bit magical. Even more magic materialized that night when we attended a wine festival in Rethymno’s central park. Drinking Cretan wine (some are pretty good) and sampling local made cheeses under a full moon… OK, life is good. Sad to leave Rethymno but glad to visit our next place… 

Chania is another beautiful former Venetian town with narrow lanes curving around a large beautiful harbor used in filming the movie Zorba the Greek (see photos – can you tell?). Chania's beaches were a little further away but an easy 20-minute bus ride got us to one of our favorite beaches with a rock lined cove (see photo). Chania was wonderful to wander with romantic restaurants serving great Cretan and Greek food.

Some history... An advanced people, now named Minoans, came to Crete in 3400 BC developing unprecedented artistic, engineering, and cultural achievements. Around 1450 BC, the Minoans were wiped out by earthquakes and possibly a giant tsunami caused by the massive volcanic eruption of Santorini.

More modern history is showed today by the beautiful Venetian towns and fortifications around Crete. The Venetians ruled supreme from 1204 until 1669 when they were succeeded by the Turks who ruled Crete until very recently except for a brutal occupation by the Nazi Germans in WWII. In 1988, Crete became an independent country, followed by its union with Greece.

Please see our other blog post on Crete to see more of wonderful Crete:  
Crete Greece  Smaller Villages Georgioupoli Matala

Please also see our 10 other blog posts for other beautiful Greek Islands:

‪Greece Greek Islands Our Impressions and Travel Advice

Greece Antiparos Greek Island

Greece Ios Greek Island

Greece Mykonos Greek Island

Greece Naxos Greek Island

‪Greece Paros Greek Island

‪Greece Rhodes Greek Island

‪Greece Santorini Greek Island Oia Fira Villages

‪Greece Santorini Greek Island Rest of Island

Greece Tinos Greek Island

For free travel tips and cost-saving bargains:
- Like us on our Facebook travel page
- Follow us on Twitter: Follow @wdunlap

Treat yourself and see many more photos (some winners of awards) of our worldwide travel adventures - click on our travel photo file: www.flickr.com/photos/unhooknow/sets.

Contact us to Arrange an inspirational and informative Plan Your Escape® travel presentation for your organization about great travel tips, unique bargain-finding strategies, easy-to-use trip planning tools, and interesting stories.

From a travel TV host (Plan Your Escape®), travel columnist for the Huffington Post, and experienced traveler (100 countries), our popular 5-star customer rated groundbreaking and comprehensive how-to world travel book (available as paperbook or Ebook for $7.96) Plan Your Escape®, Secrets of Traveling the World for Less Than the Cost of Living at Home reveals secrets how you can travel and see more for half the cost for all trips from weekend getaways to longer vacations and trips, experience more adventure and romance, safely realize your travel dreams with comprehensive planning tools and checklists, travel the world for less than $100/day for a couple, and much more! – for additional information and sign up for free travel tips and bargains, go to www.PlanYourEscapeNow.com

You have read this articleGreece Crete Large Towns Rethymno Chania Agios Nikolaos with the title Crete, Greece (Large Towns - Rethymno, Chania, & Agios Nikolaos). You can bookmark this page URL https://tiogatalk.blogspot.com/2010/08/crete-greece-large-towns-rethymno.html. Thanks!

Write by: AN - Thursday, August 19, 2010