Five days is the sweet spot for Chania. It is long enough to walk Samaria Gorge, spend proper days at Elafonisi or Falassarna and Balos, and still have time for the Old Town, without feeling rushed. Three days feels too…
Chania on a budget is more doable than most travel sites suggest. Summer prices have climbed in recent years, but the best of the place is still free or cheap: the Old Town, the harbour walk at sunset, most of…
Three days in Chania is enough to get a real feel for the place, not just photograph the harbour and leave. It is not enough to see everything, and most people leave wishing they had stayed longer. But with a…
The sariki, the black fringed Cretan headscarf, is one of the strongest symbols of Cretan identity, and in Chania you do not have to look far to see it: on older men in a village kafeneio, on young men at…
The best night of your trip might not be at a restaurant. It might be at a panigiri, a village feast day: tables in the church square, grilled meat and wine, a lyra and laouto playing until dawn, and a…
If you spend a few evenings in Chania, you will hear the Cretan lyra, and you will not confuse it with the bouzouki music of Greek films. It is a small, pear-shaped instrument with three strings, played upright on the…