Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
LÉNDAS
Akti
Léndas beach.
Excellent, friendly taverna in a great
location on the beach, serving freshly prepared meat, fish
and Cretan dishes.
April-Oct daily 11am-1am.
El Greco
Léndas village
T
28920 95322.
A particularly
good restaurant with a large leafy terrace, serving
home-made Greek dishes, as well as fresh fish and
seafood. Try their
oktapódhi
(octopus; €8), or prime
Messará beef pepper steak.
April-Oct daily lunch &
dinner.
Villa Tsapakis
Ditikós Beach
T
28920 95378,
W
villa-
tsapakis.gr.
These bougainvillea-fronted rooms above
Ditikós beach come
with a sea view, fridge and TV, and
reductions for longer stays. They ha
ve th
eir own decent
taverna,
Odysseas
, nearby. April-Oct.
€35
East of Iráklion: the package-tour coast
East of Iráklion, the main package-tour resorts are at least 30km away, at
Hersónissos
and
Mália
, although there is a string of rather unattractive developments all the way
there; the merest hint of a beach is an excuse to build hotel and apartment complexes.
That said, there are one or two highlights amid the dross, which are well worth a visit:
the impressive
Cretaquarium
at Goúrnes, the
old villages
in the hills behind
Hersónissos, and, beyond the clubbing resort of Mália, a fine
Minoan palace
that will
transport you back three and a half millennia.
GETTING AROUND
7
THE PACKAGE-TOUR COAST
By bus
Iráklion (Bus station B) to: Hersónissos and Mália
(daily, every 30min 6am-10.30pm; 40min); Palace of
Malia (2 daily 9.15am, 3.15pm; 45min).
Cretaquarium
Daily: May-Sept 9.30am-9pm; Oct-Apr 9.30am-5pm • €8, children aged 5-17 €6 •
T
28103 37788,
W
cretaquarium.gr • Goúrnes,
15km from Iráklion
The only reason to visit the resort of Goúrnes is the
Cretaquarium
, a spectacular and
sizeable marine aquarium converted from a US air base. Boasting thirty tanks (some
huge), it houses everything from menacing sharks to dazzling jellyfish. Part of the
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, the venture is purely educational, scientific and
non-profit making. Most of the island's fish and crustaceans are included among the
250 species and over 2500 specimens on display, and unless you're a marine biologist
the audio-guide (€3; easily shared between two or three) is pretty well indispensable
and gives loads of fascinating background information on the creatures you're looking
at. The aquarium is well signposted on the road leading from Iráklion.
Hersónissos
The first of the really big resorts,
HERSÓNISSOS
was once just a small fishing village
(Límin Hersoníssou); today it's one of the most popular of Crete's package resorts, a
brash, sprawling place overrun with hotels, bars, touristy tavernas and nightclubs.
Beach and clubs excepted, the main attractions are the
Lychnostatis Open-air Museum
of Folklore
(Mon-Fri & Sun 9am-2pm; €5), a surprisingly rewarding museum of
traditional Crete with imaginative reconstructions of island life past and present, and
Aqua World
(April-Oct daily 10am-6pm; €6 adults, €4 under-12s), a small aquarium.
A short distance inland, the three pretty
hill villages
of Koutoulafári, Piskopianó and
“old” Hersónissos present a glimpse of more traditional Crete and offer some attractive
rooms and good tavernas.
Mália
Eight kilometres east of Hersónissos lies the package-resort town of
MÁLIA,
renowned for its wild, teenage, bar and clubbing scene. The town's focus is a
T-junction, from where the beach road - a kilometre-long strip lined with bars,
clubs, games arcades, tavernas and souvenir shops - heads north to the sea and
beaches. South of this junction the
old town
presents a saner image of what Mália
