CRETE 2025 TRAVEL GUIDE

Written By Jumping Places

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Hello everyone! We are Chris and Carol, full-time travelers since 2019 and in this post we are going to guide you through some of the incredible things that you can do during a trip to the beautiful island of Crete in Greece. Whether you're planning a summer escape or an off-season adventure, this guide will help you with information about Crete, its stunning beaches, charming towns and historical sites including current prices and practical travel tips.

Crete is the largest island in Greece, which means there is a variety of things to see during your vacation there. We will cover some of the main attractions to visit, the costs, and some tips. We visited Crete in May which is the shoulder season and the prices will be cheaper during that time but we will also include the prices in the high season around July & August.

Best Time to Visit

  • Shoulder Season (May, October): Lower prices, fewer crowds, cooler weather.

  • High Season (June to August): More crowds, warmer weather, higher prices.

Things you may need for your trip

Getting Around Crete

To get around the island, the easiest way will be by renting a car. We always use Discover Cars to look for affordable car rentals. They are really good as we can always find great budget deals, and often it is even cheaper on their website than renting directly with the companies so you get a better deal.

Current prices online show that you can get a manual car rental from Chania airport in May for as cheap as 23 euros for 8 days without coverage, so that is under 3 euros a day, which is amazing.

In May you can get an automatic car from Chania airport for as cheap as 67 euros for 8 days. If you choose full coverage, which we normally do, it would work out to be 116 euros, around 14 euros per day.

The same search during the high season in July shows manual cars as cheap as 216 euros for 8 days. And an automatic vehicle is 307 euros for 8 days and 389 euros with full coverage, so around 48 euros a day.

Click HERE to search for great budget car rental deals in Crete.


Now let’s jump into the list of places that you CAN’T miss during your trip to Crete ⤵️

Chania

We started our trip in the city of Chania. We stayed at a small apartment in the city center, and the current price is 47 euros per night in May and 86 euros per night in July.

Chania is famous for its beautiful historic old town. Here you will find old fortified walls and a shipyard built by the Venetians in the 1500s. The Venetian harbor is a beautiful place to walk around, featuring many old colorful buildings that have been converted into restaurants and hotels. We ate at a nice restaurant on the seafront called Amphora. We had some delicious saganaki for €9.50, pan-fried meatballs for €9.50, and a dish called Iman for €13.50. And some sardines which cost €14.20.

There are many beautiful beaches surrounding Chania. We drove 30 minutes to one called Seitan Limania. From the parking lot, you need to do a 10-minute rocky hike down to the beach, but it is definitely worth it for the beautiful turquoise waters and landscapes.

Don’t be surprised if you see some naughty goats there, but be careful if you have food as they will definitely try and steal it.

If you can’t or don’t want to rent a car during your trip to Crete, there are many cool tours available to explore the island departing from Chania.

Kissamos

Since the island of Crete is so big, it is better to stay in multiple places if you want to see different sides of the island. After Chania, we spent a few nights in the quiet beach town of Kissamos on the west side of the island. We got a great deal at a place called Mandy Suites with a Seaview, and the current price is 40 euros a night in May, and in July, it is around 100 euros. We decided to stay on the west side of the island because here you will find 2 of the most beautiful beaches on the island called Elafonissi & Balos Beach. 

Elafonissi beach

The drive from Kissamos to Elafonissi is absolutely spectacular as you are going through the giant green mountains and gorges. Crete is a very mountainous island, so it is also a great place to do some hiking if you want.

Elafonissi beach is easily one of the best ones that we have ever visited in Greece and it also has an island in front which you can walk to in the shallow waters. Both the mainland and the island have creamy white sand and some of the nicest blue water that you will find in the Mediterranean. 

Near Elafonisi beach is a 500-year-old monastery on the seafront called Chrysoskalitissa Monastery which has some great coastal views. It costs 3 euros to enter, and includes access to a small museum. There are many nice mountain villages that you can visit in this region. We visited one called Kefali and ate at Panorama Cafe for some more nice views. We ate Greek sausages for 10 euros and cod fish for 12 euros.

Balos Beach

The other spectacular beach in this region is Balos Beach. Some people visit by boat tour, but you can also drive there on a rocky road and hike down to the beach, which is what we did. The views during the hike are absolutely stunning. Just like Elafonissi Beach, there is a separate island joined by strips of sand. Another unique thing about these beaches is that at some parts, you can find pink sand. Both Balos Beach and Elafonissi are easily 2 of the most beautiful beaches that we have ever visited in the world.

Samaria Gorge

Another popular activity to do in Crete is the Samaria Gorge trek. You can hike there on your own or find guided tours for around 30 euros. 

Rethymno

After some amazing days on the west coast, we then made our way east. We visited the popular tourist city of Rethymno on the northern coast. Just like Chania, there is a Venetian fortress here, which costs 5 euros to enter. Since this fortress is high up, it offers some great views of the city below. There are many old churches, houses, prisons, and an old Ottoman mosque from the period that the Ottomans ruled here. The city reminded us of a smaller version of Chania. There is also a nice little harbor with restaurants, and you can easily spend hours wandering around the nice little streets and alleyways.

Iraklio

For the remainder of our trip, we decided to stay in Iraklio, the capital city of Crete. We got a nice apartment in the city center, which costs 47 euros in May and 75 euros in July.

We didn’t get to see much of the capital city Iraklio because of bad rainy weather, but it definitely had more of a big city feel to it with wider walking streets and modern shopping areas with famous brands. It also has a beautiful harbor like the other places mentioned, and there is a famous Bronze Age archeological site nearby called Knossos, which was a major centre of the Minoan civilization built thousands of years ago. The current entry price to Knossos palace is 20 euros per person or you can choose the option of a self-guided audio tour with skip-the line tickets for 35 euros.

Spinalonga

Using Iraklio as our base, we explored more of the east side of the island. First, we visited a cute village called Plaka, which is where you can get a quick boat across to an island called Spinalonga. The boat costs 12 euros for the round trip, and the island costs 20 to enter. Once again, it is another Venetian fortress, but this was easily the best one that we visited in Crete. The views of the bay are incredible, and there are many buildings and ruins to visit. Unlike the other forts, this one has a village inside of it where people would have lived in the past. In the early 1900s, it was inhabited by a leper colony for around 50 years. They were isolated on the island due to leprosy being contagious and it was one of the last leper colonies in Europe.

After visiting the island, we had a nice meal at one of the seafront restaurants in the village of Plaka. This was the first time that we had fried feta cheese with honey, which was absolutely delicious and ended up replacing saganaki as our go-to Greek starter. It cost 7 euros. Our main dishes were seabream for 17 euros and pork chops for 11. Keep in mind that all the prices we are mentioning are at very touristy restaurants with nice views. You can get much cheaper food at local places in less touristy locations.

Agios Nikolaos

Very close to Plaka in the same bay is the coastal city of Agios Nikolaos, which, compared to Chania and Rethymno, had more of a modern look to it, mainly with new apartment blocks and fewer historic buildings. The city is one of the quietest cities that we visited on the island and has a nice laid-back feel to it. One of the main attractions is the small lake called Voulimeni in the center, surrounded by nice cafes and restaurants, a great place to relax

Voulisma beach

The last beach that we visited on our trip is Voulisma, just a 15-minute drive from Agios Nikolaus. This is another stunning beach with ultra-turquoise water and incredible mountainous scenery. In the same bay, there are many other beaches of the same level; you really are spoilt for choice in Crete with beaches.

If you have been to Crete, let us know in the comment section which were your favorite places that you have been to so that we can check them out on our next visit :D



We hope this blog post helped to give you some ideas of what you can do during a trip to Crete. Since it is such a big island, you would need months to really be able to see it all, but the places mentioned in this post are definitely all worth visiting.

If you would like to see the island in more detail, we have a Youtube playlist showing each of the places mentioned in more depth, and we also have a Youtube playlist showing other Greek islands that we have visited.


CRETE LINKS

🎥 Our Youtube videos:

🚌 Activities/Tours:

🏨 Accommodation 

📲 eSim

  • Use our discount code “JUMPINGPLACES” to get 5% OFF the Holafly eSim for Greece here holafly.sjv.io/POB7ON 

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