One of our gymnast friends studied abroad in Greece and she adores the Greek Islands. As a result, on learning that we would visit Greece, she insisted that we go island hopping. We enthusiastically agreed and asked for recommendations, which she provided in detail.

Greece is home to 6000 thousand islands with 200 inhabited and open for tourism. Initially, we found ourselves paralyzed by the daunting number of options. Fortunately, our friend rescued us, narrowing our search to a few chains, enabling us to settle on Crete and Santorini, two islands with very different vibes.

Touring

Crete

Crete, the largest island in Greece, is the ideal choice for efficient Greek island travel. Thanks to its size, it has a bit of everything. To illustrate: it hosts many excellent hikes, a wealth of beautiful beaches, a plethora of cute towns, and even some ancient ruins. With so much to do, we decided on 5 full days on Crete.

We flew to Heraklion, Greece’s 5th largest city, and caught a bus to Chania, 3 hours away. We capitalized on the long bus ride by researching what to do on the island, making final plans after checking into our lodging in Chania (yep, we decided what to do on Crete after arriving).

During the following days, we enjoyed exploring Chania and visiting Knossos but Samaria Gorge, Balos Bay, and delicious food were the highlights. All things considered, if we did the trip again, we would skip Knossos. It was interesting (they had running water 4 thousand years ago!) but small and underwhelming compared to the likes of Pompeii or the Colosseum. With that in mind, we think our time would have been better served visiting a beach or hiking a mountain.

Samaria Gorge

The Gorge

Samaria Gorge is Europe’s largest gorge. Naturally, this makes it a popular attraction while it is open, from May through October, with the exact opening/closing dates depending on the weather. From start to finish, the hike is 16km (10 miles) long with a total elevation change of 1.2 km. Surprisingly, an abandoned settlement sits halfway through the gorge. Despite the inconvenient location, Samaria’s residents remained until the 1960’s when the Greek government ordered they leave. Once the residents were removed, the gorge was turned into a nature preserve for the endangered Ibex.

Logistics

Hiking Samaria Gorge can be logistically challenging.

1. The gorge takes 5 to 8 hours to hike, depending on an individual’s fitness level.
2. The public bus to the gorge leaves once per day at 7:45 AM, arriving around 10 AM.
3. The end of the hike is not accessible via road. The only way out is by ferries that leave once per day at 5:30 PM.
4. There is one public bus back to Chania from the ferry, leaving after the ferry arrives.

Essentially, if you miss the ferry OR the bus, you’re stuck finding a hotel in the tiny town at the end of the hike. If you think this sounds a bit stressful, you’re not alone. We agree. As a result, we booked an organized tour to the gorge which comes with a few benefits:

1. Our tour left Chania at 6 AM so we were the first group entering the gorge in the morning. Consequently, we were peacefully alone for most of the hike with no one in sight (you hike the gorge individually, not with the group).
2. A guide was with us on the bus and he:
   1. Provided gorge and ferry tickets.
   2. Gave us hiking directions including what time to leave checkpoints to stay ahead of the crowds.
   3. Followed 30 minutes behind the group, ensuring no one was injured or in need of assistance.
3. The return bus had our names and wouldn’t leave without us.

We booked with Elafonissos Travel and strongly recommend them. For an extra 5 dollars each, we bought peace of mind, early entry, and an excellent guide. All things considered, it was 100% worth the small price tag.

A Gorgeous Hike

With logistics handled, we rose early, caught the bus to the gorge and loved the hike, happily adding it to our personal top 5 hikes ever. The first 1 km descended over 600 meters but the terrain quickly leveled out, settling to a non-distracting, pleasant difficulty level. As we walked we marveled at the pristine state of the gorge. We were nearly always surrounded by trees and shrubs. Occasional breaks in the trees revealed cliffs to each side soaring to unreachable heights while a small stream babbled underfoot.

At the end of the hike, we reached a small town where we ate a hard-earned, very good meal at Calypso Restaurant then relaxed for an hour on a black “sand” beach. Finally, we exhaustedly caught the ferry and bus back to Chania where we collapsed, satisfied, into bed.

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Balos Bay

As we mentioned earlier, Crete is bordered by innumerable cute beaches. Consequently, it’s hard to pick which to visit. After much discussion, we selected Balos Bay for its striking features and ease of access. For the adventurous, Balos can be reached via a sketchy not-rental-car-friendly “road” or, alternatively, via a boat tour which includes an island stopover as well as 3.5 hours at the actual beach.

We weren’t in the mood to test the merit of our car rental insurance, so we went with the boat tour and we’re very glad we did. While we think it would be too crowded in high season (confirmed in reviews) we found that, in the low season, the boat tour was easier, more relaxing, and more interesting than trying to drive.

During the initial boat ride, Jackie started visiting with two guys who were also on multi-month trips. By some unspoken agreement, we mutually decided to spend the entire day together and, by the end of the day, we’d made some friends. We visited on all of the boat rides, hiked the island as a group, and relaxed together on the beach. The beach itself was striking but we’ll let the pictures below speak for their selves.

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Santorini

Santorini is known as an island of romance, it’s where you’re supposed to go for your honeymoon and, as we are on our honeymoon, we thought we’d check it out. The island is actually 5 where there once was only 1. Amazingly, Santorini is an active volcano which, in 1613 BC exploded in one of the most violent volcanic eruptions ever. The explosion was so violent that it not only blasted the island into 3 pieces, some think it caused the fall of the Minoan empire and it might even be the cataclysm that initiated the end of the bronze age.

We stayed in Thera, Santorini’s largest town. Over our time there, we hiked 14km from Thera to Oia (a town known for its sunsets), watched the sunset, took an ATV to a few beaches, and relaxed.

All things considered, while we enjoyed Santorini, if we could do it over again, we would skip it. There are a few reasons for this but, fundamentally, Santorini just doesn’t suit our travel style. You’re supposed to book a nice hotel with an infinity pool and pass the time drinking cocktails, reading a book by said pool. We prefer active travel so, once we’d hiked to Oia, we were itching for something else to do and we didn’t find anything.

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Food

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the outstanding food we ate on the Greek islands. Greece has been one of the most vegetarian-friendly places we’ve been, with Berlin as its primary rival. The wonderful thing about Greek food is that, not only is a lot of it vegetarian by default, it’s also full of vegetables and beans.

Not only did we find excellent restaurants, but we also found excellent hummus! After constant disappointment in Italy, Greece delivered the best store-bought hummus we’ve ever eaten, with the result that we demolished over 1 pound per day.

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Observations

Off Limits (ish)

Greece has an interesting attitude towards safety, epitomized by the following two pictures. On the left, you see a warning that the Red Beach is off-limits for safety reasons. On the right, you see the large parking lot providing access to the aforementioned off-limits beach. Greece is like a friend that says “You really shouldn’t do that but, yeah, I’ll hold your beer.”

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We noticed this attitude exemplified in other places too. For example, here are some danger signs in Samaria Gorge. It’s always: “Danger: Walk Fast” not: “Danger: Do Not Enter”. We like it.

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English as a Common Language

It’s astounding how effectively people with English as a second language communicate with each other. For example, on multiple occasions, we observed a Chinese tourist and Greek shop owner efficiently conversing in English, more effectively than we would be able to speak with either of them. They both used short, direct sentences with simple, well-enunciated words where we often speak too quickly or too eloquently. We’ll describe a meal as exquisite, for example, and receive a blank stare in return.

Touristy

As you might expect, the islands were very touristy. Santorini, in particular, is an island whose economy relies almost exclusively on tourism. Fortunately, we went to the islands aware this would be the case so it didn’t bother us but it’s worth noting. If you don’t like tourists, these islands are not the place for you.

As our friend said. Santorini is “a place where tourists go to view pretty whitewashed hotels that are built to house tourists”. It’s as far as you can get from “going local”.

Buses

Buses on the Islands are, on the one hand, excellent. They are punctual, comfortable, and reasonably priced. With that said, they present two challenges.

1. Many buses only run once per day. On Crete, for example, the busses to and from Samaria and to/from the Balos Boat both run once per day so missing them cancels your day trip.
2. Google Maps doesn’t have the bus schedule so you have to go old school and read paper schedules (or PDFs from the web so maybe modified-old school).

Cheap

We were pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive the Greek Islands were, though we likely benefited from traveling during the shoulder season. Reaching them wasn’t cheap but, once there, we found that lodging was only 30-40 dollars per night. Similarly, a meal for two could be purchased for as little as $10, with very nice dinners seldom exceeding $25 (our most expensive meal was $50 but it was outstanding, and included both an appetizer and a glass of wine for Jackie).

Overall

We adored the Greek Islands, especially Crete. In fact, we enjoyed ourselves so much that we’re already wondering when we’ll find the opportunity to return and island-hop for a month.

First, we kept remarking at how much we were enjoying the food. It’s amazing how large of an impact food has on our overall experience but we couldn’t help but notice that our energy and enthusiasm jumped now once we were eating more than simple carbs.

Next, hiking, beaches, and natural beauty kept us excited, ready to continue exploring. Relatedly, inexpensive travel meant we could do everything we wanted while staying within our budget.

Finally, the sunny disposition of the people and weather made every day a pleasure with the 80*F (24*C) weather outshone only by many friendly faces.

Bonus Pics

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