Greece – Crete (October 2020)

It took me a couple of months to write the article about Crete so I hope I still remember it well enough 🙂 This will be a shorter one. Tldr is that we loved Crete esp. for late spring or early autumn, prices are good and Greek food is amazing as usual. As of Oct 2020 since we travelled from Switzerland and we live there, were randomly tested for corona at the airport (check entry requirements for each country before going there).

Budget

Crete is rather on the cheap side if you compare it to other European beach destination like Italy, Spain, France or other.

When should I visit?

April to October seems to be a good time 🙂

Accommodation

We used booking.com and google maps to research and called the hotels directly to book, which gave us a better price. Our budget for one room for 2 persons was 50 euro per night.

We quite enjoined Elafonissi resort and Candia hotel’s penthouse in Chania (the price was 60 eur per night). The location was on the town’s beach. We also stayed one night on the other side of the town, to easily access the old town, our favorite restaurant and the Saturday farmers’ market.

Transportation

We flew to Heraklion airport on the east side because of flight time/day options/price, but we advise to fly to Chania airport directly, especially for your first trip to Crete (also most famous and beautiful beaches are there)

We also rented a car from Surprice for a quite cheap price. As usual we researched on skyscanner.com, arguscarhire.com, etc.

Places of interest/Beaches

Chania old town (worth spending a couple days there)
Elafonisi beach (our favorite); spent 3 nights there
Balos beach, day trip by boat or car from Falasarna beach
Falasarna beach; spent 3 nights there (would have loved to stay more!)

Food and drinks

Gramboussa restaurant (came back multiple times, though it was quite a drive!). Unique concept of farm to table.
To Stachi restaurant (the best vegetarian restaurant I have ever been to!)
Saturday food market for fruits, veggies and other local delights

Places I wish I saw but didn’t have time

Milla mountain retreat – we wish we stayed at this 15th century hotel in the mountains (to enjoy the special farm to table food as well)