Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cheese (€6).
May-Oct daily 10am-late.
To Petrino
Off the harbour platía
T
28320 91504.
A
charming little stone-built (
Petrino
) street café-ouzerí
serving up breakfasts, coffees and drinks during the day
and tasty mezédhes at night.
April-Oct daily
9am-late.
AYÍA GALÍNI
Onar
Taverna Street
T
28320 91121.
One of the best
tavernas on this row, at the harbour end with a great
rooftop terrace and views over the harbour, serving
wholesome food; try their excellent charcoal-grilled
fish and meat or specials such as meatballs with feta
Western Crete
Crete's westernmost quarter is one of its least visited, partly because there are no big
sandy beaches to accommodate resort hotels, and partly because it's so far from the
great archeological sites. But for mountains, scattered coves and unexploited villages,
it's unrivalled.
The city of
Haniá
(Chania) is an excellent reason to come here, but the immediately
adjacent coast, especially to the west of the city, is overdeveloped and not particularly
exciting; if you want beaches head for the south coast or the far west. Here, Paleóhora
is the only place which could really be described as a resort, and even this is on a
thoroughly human scale; others are emptier still. Elsewhere on the south coast,
Ayía
Rouméli
and
Loutró
can be reached only on foot or by boat;
Hóra Sfakíon
sees hordes
passing through but few who stay;
Frangokástello
, nearby, has a beautiful castle and the
first stirrings of development. Behind these lie the
White Mountains
(Lefká Óri) and
the famed walk through the
Samariá Gorge
. In the far west, great beaches at
Falásarna
and
Elafoníssi
are mostly visited only as day-trips.
7
Haniá
HANIÁ
, as any of its residents will tell you, is spiritually the capital of Crete, even if the
political title was passed back to Iráklion. It is also the island's most attractive city,
especially if you can catch it in spring, when the White Mountains' snowcapped peaks
seem to hover above the roofs. Although it is for the most part a modern city, you
might never know it as a tourist. Surrounding the harbour is a wonderful jumble of
Venetian streets
that survived the wartime bombardments, while simply wandering the
old town you will discover old city walls, Ottoman, Byzantine and Minoan ruins.
Restoration and gentrification, consequences of the tourist boom, have made inroads of
late, but it remains an atmospheric place.
The harbour
he
harbour
area is the oldest and the most interesting part of town, at its busiest
and most attractive at night, when the lights from bars and restaurants reflect in the
water and crowds of visitors and locals turn out to promenade. By day, things are
quieter. Straight ahead from Platía Sindriváni (also known as Harbour Square) lies
the curious domed shape of the
Mosque of the Janissaries
, built in 1645 (though
heavily restored since) and the oldest Ottoman building on the island. It is usually
open as a gallery, housing temporary exhibitions. Further east, on the inner harbour,
the arches of sixteenth-century
Venetian arsenals
, a couple of them beautifully
restored (and one housing a reconstructed Minoan ship), survive alongside remains
of the outer walls.
Kastélli
The little hill that rises behind the mosque is
Kastélli
, site of the earliest habitation and
core of the Minoan, Venetian and Turkish towns. There's not a great deal left, but
archeologists believe that they may have found the remains of a Minoan palace, and the
“lost” city of
Kydonia
, in the excavations being carried out - and open to view - along
