Stepping out of the Groove: Paleochora, Crete

We have been enjoying a very, very good week on the island of Crete. So much so that we decided to extend our stay by a week. Our original plan had us leaving Crete by ferry to the island of Milos. I have no doubt Milos has a lot to offer, however, we were still feeling 'road weary' and thought it best to stay in one place for a while. As it turns out, by the time we leave Paleochora, Crete next Thursday we will have spent 14 nights here; longer than any other location on our entire 9 month trip. We have a nice apartment, it is affordable, lots of activities, inexpensive rental bikes, the beach is 100m away, etc. Yet another advantage of not having too much stuff pre-planned and pre-booked. We had not even purchased ferry tickets at this point, so it was simple to extend our stay and buy flights back to Athens. Kablam.

When we reviewed our last 6 weeks of travel, we realized just how 'on the go' we had been. We covered a lot of ground in Jordan, Israel, and Turkey in around 35 days. During that stretch we hit 16 separate locations! That is a lot of transitions. Add in the fact that it was the Middle East - which is a fairly intense part of the world in which to travel - and we were all feeling spent.

So, getting back to Crete...when we landed here by plane from Athens, we could not miss the snow lingering on the north slopes of the high peaks. I would not have guessed. Crete is VERY mountainous and commonly gets snow up high in the winter months. We are staying in Paleochora which is located on the south coast at the far west end of the island. Crete is a very well developed tourism destination, but most of that is on the north side and closer to the main airport (and port) of Heraklion. We chose Paleochora because the descriptions on the internet led us to believe it was a much more laid back place with no mass tourism development. That turns out to be accurate and a very welcome thing.

Our 2-bedroom apartment with full kitchen is only 320 Euros per week ($400) and it has ocean view. At the end of the day the money matters and we have found our enjoyment level of a place is adversely affected when we feel the crush of it being too expensive. Your $$ go at long ways in Crete (at the present).

One of the primary reasons for coming to Crete is that it represented a bit of unfinished business for me dating back to my first trip abroad to Europe in 1989. I had researched a great hike on Crete called the Samaria Gorge. I really wanted to get here and do it, but like a lot of tick list items it went by the wayside because of one factor or another. I never did make it to Crete on that trip, but I had not forgotten about the Samaria Gorge.

The Samaria is very much the most well known hike in Crete and in fact many travelers come to Crete with hiking it as their primary trip purpose. The logistics are somewhat involved: you either drive or take a shuttle for 1 1/2 hrs to the trailhead; you hike the gorge to the sea for 16km; you get to the finish by 17:30 in order to catch a ferry along the coast back to Paleochora. For those that take the shuttle, their day is finished. For those that drive their own car and left it at the trailhead, it requires retrieving the car the next day. That is another story for a different blog post...

The hike was spectacular and relatively uncrowded. It had only just opened 5 days previously. It is closed seasonally for high water in the creek. It has a very alpine feel to the place. You start at 1200m above sea level and finish at 0. A big, long downhill hike through a gorgeous conifer forest and alpine terrain. I never envisioned back in 1989 I would be doing the hike with my own three kids so many years later! There was a pub at the finish. Every good hiking destination should have a pub at the end.

Crete is somewhat of a hikers paradise. Lots of fantastic terrain. We did another gorge today that was 7km in length.

We have had rental bikes the whole time and have been enjoying exploring on those. This is the kind of place that is not too much bigger than Ouray. We send the kids down to the local bakery and grocery store on their own. They also go biking together on their own. So long as they stick together, we are cool with it and they have enjoyed the freedom. We are looking forward to our second week.