Since I was so enamored of Crete after my trip with CYA, and since when my parents had visited the island years ago they had spent the entirety of it on the beach, we flew over for a few days. We stayed in the picturesque Old Town of Chania. In the height of tourist season, one can imagine that it is insufferably crowded, but that wasn't much of a problem in November. Many places were, in fact, quite deserted.
We could also stay at a beautiful hotel for much less:
We arrived late Sunday afternoon, and after successfully renting a car and navigating from the airport to the hotel, we enjoyed a tasty dinner (the best fried zucchini I've had yet and various meats including my first experience with goat, and great wine). My parents were introduced to the wonderful after-dinner Cretan tradition: complimentary raki (a Cretan liquor) and dessert (in this case loukamades, Greek deep-fried donut-holes covered in honey). I tried a sip of raki (I had avoided it all of my first visit to Crete, but figured I should at least taste it before leaving), found it disgusting, and hurriedly started scraping my fork on the empty loukamades plate, scraping up the remnants of honey to get the alcoholic flavor out of my mouth. The waiter took this to mean I wanted more loukamades, and came back smiling with a heaping plate of them. I was at this point already completely stuffed, but was forced to eat a few more so as not to insult the waiter...I waddled back to the hotel afterwards.
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On our first full day in Crete, we loaded up the rental car and headed of for the Southwestern coast and Elefonisi beach. All I can say is: thank goodness there weren't many cars, and thank goodness my mom is such a talented driver. The "National Road" was nothing more than a one-lane road (well, one-and-a-half if you count the shoulder, which you really should in Greece because that's the way you drive here: driving partially in the shoulder, thereby creating a makeshift passing lane). Since this was the National road and the only red-labeled road on the Michelin map, you can only imagine what the other, orange- and yellow-labeled roads were like...
A two-way, one-lane tunnel--but there's a stoplight! So easypeasy right? Well...not if a truck going the other way decides to run the red light and you have to go in reverse back through the tunnel...
We did make it to Elefonisi, and it was well worth the drive. We were, for the first fifteen minutes, completely alone on the beautiful, pink-sanded beach, before it became a bustling crowd of five on the entire stretch of beach.
On our way back, the concierge at our hotel had urged us to take a detour to the eco-village of Milia. She warned us that the road was a little iffy (the roads we'd already driven on weren't?!), but that 70% of her guests had felt it was worth it upon return. So we buckled up and braved it. We were firmly in the 30% (I had to suppress hysterical laughter for most of the 6 km along the unpaved dirt one-lane road running along the mountain edge)...
...until we finally got there. It was a truly special place: tucked up in the mountains, completely isolated, silent, and peaceful. We walked into the beautiful little hotel/restaurant, where we were once again alone save for the one man cooking in the kitchen. We had a lovely lunch (which I will not be describing because unfortunately it did not sit well with me after the long winding drive back)
On the way back we saw the most spectacular rainbow I've ever seen
All in all, the day took the phrase "off the beaten track" to a whole new level.
We could also stay at a beautiful hotel for much less:
Our beautiful suite...converted from an old Turkish building
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On our first full day in Crete, we loaded up the rental car and headed of for the Southwestern coast and Elefonisi beach. All I can say is: thank goodness there weren't many cars, and thank goodness my mom is such a talented driver. The "National Road" was nothing more than a one-lane road (well, one-and-a-half if you count the shoulder, which you really should in Greece because that's the way you drive here: driving partially in the shoulder, thereby creating a makeshift passing lane). Since this was the National road and the only red-labeled road on the Michelin map, you can only imagine what the other, orange- and yellow-labeled roads were like...
We called this "the orphan-maker" (my brother had expressed distress at my parents driving around the mountain roads of Crete because he "wasn't ready to be an orphan")...this is a two-way, one-lane road, hairpin turn around a cliff, and you can see that there's a pole, where a mirror used to be...
We did make it to Elefonisi, and it was well worth the drive. We were, for the first fifteen minutes, completely alone on the beautiful, pink-sanded beach, before it became a bustling crowd of five on the entire stretch of beach.
Kite surfing in gusty winds around protruding rocks...quite dangerous and impressive
On our way back, the concierge at our hotel had urged us to take a detour to the eco-village of Milia. She warned us that the road was a little iffy (the roads we'd already driven on weren't?!), but that 70% of her guests had felt it was worth it upon return. So we buckled up and braved it. We were firmly in the 30% (I had to suppress hysterical laughter for most of the 6 km along the unpaved dirt one-lane road running along the mountain edge)...
...until we finally got there. It was a truly special place: tucked up in the mountains, completely isolated, silent, and peaceful. We walked into the beautiful little hotel/restaurant, where we were once again alone save for the one man cooking in the kitchen. We had a lovely lunch (which I will not be describing because unfortunately it did not sit well with me after the long winding drive back)
(the salad was fresh and delicious, maybe the best salad I've eaten in Greece)
On the way back we saw the most spectacular rainbow I've ever seen
All in all, the day took the phrase "off the beaten track" to a whole new level.
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