2019 was a milestone year for us as it was our 20th wedding anniversary that summer. To celebrate we picked Greece for our trip and this would be the first big trip in a while without the kids. Needless to say the kids were jealous but after 20 years of marriage we thought we deserved a trip for just the two of us. We spent about 10 days in Greece in late May (shoulder season). Most of the time we were in the Greek Isles and we loved it. It’s one of those places in the world we’d like to go back to.
Planning
We spent a lot of time debating the itinerary for the trip. The easiest part of the itinerary was our start and end point – Athens. We were going to start in Athens since it was the easiest international airport for us to fly to and from. GMac was also in Europe for business the week before so he’d be arriving in Athens a day before CMac would be there. However, from there we had lots of options. We generally like to minimize our time on trips within the big cities so we’d tour Athens for a day at the end of the trip. The rest of the time we wanted to spend in the Greek Isles. There are lots of resources for trips in the Greek Isles. A few we used are listed below.
We debated between several different itineraries that would cover off different islands. GMac’s spreadsheet for this trip had detailed out 5 different itineraries that covered different island combos. These included:
- Athens – Crete – Santorini – Athens
- Athens – Sifnos – Santorini – Athens
- Athens – Sifnos – Milos – Santorini – Athens
- Athens – Mykonos – Santorini – Athens
- Athens – Santorini – Rhodes – Athens
You could create any number of additional island itineraries and if you had more time you can just add on more islands. It’s easy to hop between the islands on ferries.
Another anchor on our trip in addition to Athens was Santorini and if you’re in the Greek Isles you must go to Santorini. More on Santorini later. In the end we settled on Athens – Crete – Santorini – Athens. We wanted a relatively simple itinerary and Crete appealed to us because of the hiking that it featured.
We used a combination of flights and ferries to get around once we were in Greece. We flew from Athens to Crete and then ferries to get us to Santorini and then Athens.
Crete
We loved Crete. The food, people and hiking were great. We flew into Crete (Chania) from Athens and rented a car at the airport. We got a white compact vehicle which seemed to be one of the standard vehicles on the island. The car was a standard which we had a lot of fun with, it had been a while since either of us had driven stick.
Chania is a lovely town with a picturesque harbour. There are a good selection of hotels in the area and we choose a boutique hotel along the harbour – Domus Renier. It was a great boutique hotel and we were very happy with our staff. The rooms were well appointed, the staff friendly and the breakfasts were potentially the best hotel breakfasts we ever had. On our first morning at the hotel we were served chocolate soufflés as breakfast desert. We won’t ever forget the memory of those soufflés.
We spent our first day wandering around the harbour and the narrow alleyways that traverse the old town. There are boutique shops in the alleys and some great picture spots along the harbour.
For our second day we decided to explore outside of Chania. We took our little white car out on the road and headed west aiming for Balos beach. Balos is close to the northwest tip of Crete and for most of the way the roads were good. However, the last hour of getting there was on a dirt road that narrowed dangerously at points and featured some good size potholes. There isn’t much parking at Balos either so it took us more than a few minutes to find a spot. With that being said the views at Balos were spectacular and we spent a good part of the day wandering around the lagoon.
On our third day we hiked the Samaria Gorge, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the White Mountains of Crete. We’re big hikers and this is featured as one of the best hikes on Crete and within the Greek Isles. There are a couple of options to get there including a city bus or guided tour. We ended going with a public bus which takes you to the trail head in the mountains. The trail is 16km in length and descends through a gorge with towering cliffs to the sea. At it’s narrowest point it is just over 4m wide. The trail is normally open May 1st to October 30th. We’d recommend bringing food, either snacks or a lunch for the hike as it will take you most of the day.
The bus or tour will drop you off beside the Xyloskalo restaurant at an elevation of 1250m. The trail head is easy to find and you start your descent immediately. The trail is well marked and easy to follow, you’re basically following the stream. There are some moderately challenging sections but nothing we found overly difficult. You do need to be in reasonable shape for the hike though, it is a 16km walk over some rough ground. We didn’t bring our hiking boots on this trip because of weight and only had running shoes for the hike. The running shoes were adequate but we would have preferred something with a better grip.
The hike ends at Agia Roumeli and there is no road access to the village. A ferry is the only way in and out of the village. Depending on what time you arrive you’ll have a wait for the ferry. You can spend time at the beach or in one of the many restaurants. The ferry ride we took, to get back to Chania, went to Hora Sfakion. From there it was another bus ride back to Chania.
We left Chania on our 4th day in Crete since we needed to catch the ferry to Santorini from Heraklion, which is east of Chania. The drive is about 2hours but we wanted to hit some sights along the way so we didn’t take the direct route. On day 4 we drove through the mountains to Preveli Beach. Near the beach is Preveli Monastery that has some nice views of the sea. Preveli is a small beach that you’ll need to hike down to from the parking lot, the trail is steep so it does take some effort to get down and back. The beach itself is backed by palm trees which you can hike through.
After Preveli we made our way back through the mountains to Rethimno and spent the night there at the Rimondi Boutique hotel. Rethimno had a nice feel to it and featured a boardwalk along the sea and an old town with narrow alley ways and shops. Although we were only there for an afternoon and morning we enjoyed wandering the town.
On day 5 we also choose to wander through the country side. It’s often that when we just wander that we have the best experiences. We came upon the village of Anogia around lunch and decided to stop there. It was still shoulder season so there were not as many places open. However, after wandering around the time for about 20mins we happened upon the Cafe Michalos and had a wonderful lunch. We had been ordering Greek salads at almost every restaurant we went to and each time the vegetables were so fresh. Cafe Michalos topped them all with some of the best salads we had on the entire trip.
From Cafe Michalos we made our way to the Palace of Knossos which is a Minoan Palace. It’s a relatively compact historical site with some controversy over some of the reconstruction. We enjoyed the stop but it wasn’t a highlight for us. After the Palace we arrived in Heraklion and settled into our hotel. We had time to walk the city but it was relatively unremarkable other than some nice restaurants. We were also excited for the next day which would bring us to Santorini.
Santorini
There are only a few spots in the world that live up to their reputation, Santorini was one of those spots for us. We highly recommend going and also recommend splurging on your accommodations. We travelled to Santorini via a Ferry from Crete (Heraklion). The ferries drop you off at the port which is at the bottom of a cliff. There isn’t much land available at the port so it’s a busy spot when the ferries come in. We grabbed a cab to take us to our hotel and would recommend other travellers do the same.
Santorini is a site of the one of largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history. This eruption shaped the island leaving partial ring of land, with steep cliffs, facing a water filled caldera. The main towns are Thira and Oia. A lot of the pictures that you’ll see of Santorini are from Oia or one of the hotels on the cliff facing the caldera. We choose to stay at a wonderful hotel, Aenaon Villas, about halfway between Oia and Thira. The Aenaon Villas is a boutique, family run hotel with only 6 rooms. The rooms are comfortable and are spread out around the grounds. Breakfast can be served on one of many terraces overlooking the caldera. The views from the hotel were stunning and we got some of the best vacation pictures we’ve ever had. There were some problems with the hot water in our room so we were moved to their Charissa Villa which is stunningly designed and features a living tree in the room. We can’t say enough good things about the hotel and room. The only drawback to our accommodation was that you need to bus, cab or walk to either Oia or Thira for food or shopping.
One of the recommended hikes on Santorini is from Thira to Oia. The trail is about 10km long along moderate terrain. The views of the caldera along the hike are beautiful. Since our hotel was in the middle we never walked the full length at once but did walk the trail to and from both Oia and Thira on separate days.
Oia is a very picturesque town and it features a number of shops and restaurants. It can be quite busy when tour ships arrive so best to go earlier or later in the day. We ended up eating in Oia most nights we were in Santorini. Plan to spend a half or even a full day wandering the town. The sunsets in Oia are spectacular and are one of the top rated things to do on Santorini.
Fira doesn’t have the selection of views that Oia has but does have a few more shops. We’d recommend spending a half or even a full day walking around.
While on Santorini we did a wine tour at Domaine Sigalas. We had a good tasting experience there and would recommend it.
There were a few other things we considered while on the island but we didn’t want to push ourselves and also wanted to relax at the hotel. We enjoyed our 4 days/3 nights on the island and were sad to leave for Athens and the end of our trip.
Athens
We only planned a day and a half in Athens. GMac had arrived a day earlier than CMac so he had scouted the city. If you’ve read other trip posts from us we don’t love spending a lot of time in a city. Usually 2 to 3 days will do it for us. For this trip we wanted to maximize our time in the islands so we only budgeted a little time in Athens. With that being said the Acropolis and Parthenon are can’t miss sites. The ruins are perched on top of a steep hill in the middle of the city. You’ll need to hike up to get to them but the trails are easy to walk. We spent the rest of our time wandering the streets and neighbourhoods surrounding the Acropolis. We like the Monastiraki Neighbourhood which had pedestrian alleys, shops and restaurants.
We didn’t regret only spending a day and a half in Athens. The Acropolis was great but aside from that Athens didn’t have a lot that really appealed to our travel style.
Magic Moment
We’ve had some of our most memorable experiences on our trips when we’ve least expected it. This time was when we found Cafe Michalos described above. It was a small cafe in the center of Anogia. The setting and food were perfect and the menu was homemade offering not only a list of foods but some advice on travel.
