Spending The First Week of the year in Crete
 

Last year we found a juicy priced flight to Athens on United Airlines in the dreaded but delightful Premium Plus fare. We spent a few days in Athens, then went down to Crete for a week which was the highlight of the trip. We won't talk about Athens, because its been done 50 times already on flyertalk. In Crete, most resorts were closed so we stayed in Airbnbs in Herkalion and Chenai. We rented a car through Sixt, service was good, and no surprise charges despite one of our tires being on the verge of flat.

I'll say most tourist attractions were closed, so we drove around the island to enjoy the natural beauty. First half we were based out of Herkalion. Activities included eating way to much food, drinking enough wine, eating lots of cheese pastries and drinking delicious hot chocolate. We took a visit to the palace of Knossos, and drove out of town to see windmills, and the town of Miklos. The airbnb had a cool jungle theme, with badass monkey wallpaper, and was around $60 a night. It was also the only true queen bed we encountered in Greece.



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Lovely Seaside Town of Myklos
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Wandering Around Myklos
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In Goat We Trust
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Lion Square in Heraklion - main square
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I Love this Monkey Wall Paper
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The Arkadi Monetary - Which Was Badly Damaged by Ottoman Warriors in the 1800s
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First Floor of the Airbnb
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Air BNB Bedroom
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Palace of Knossos - If you are a fan of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis this is a key clue in the game - and apparently really exists!

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Palace of Knossos
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Herkalion Fortress

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Huge Meal of Fish at Lion Square in Heraklion

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Huge Meal of Fish at Lion Square in Heraklion

Chania
 

The second half of the trip was made up of staying in Chania. We found an Airbnb called the Venician Residence at Domicile Chania. It was originally built around 500 years ago by the Venetians. More importantly, its been remodeled! The property overlooked the harbor in the Chania old town. The host even hooked us up with some homemade wine. In Chania, we enjoyed wandering around the old town, eating good food, eating lots of cakes / tarts / other chocolate stuff, sitting in front of fires drinking hot chocolate and wine, and drove / hiked around a little bit including a trip down to the gorge at Zourva. Again the weather was amazing, at 70 degrees F every day and mainly sunny.
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View from the Airbnb
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Gorge We Drove Through
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Airbnb entrance
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Hike To the Lighthouse
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Another view - sorry!
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Nice View
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I will never get sick of this view
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Theriso
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Airbnb entrance
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Airbnb living room

Some Traffic
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Excellent review thanks. We love Crete off season too and we're off there next week - but don't tell too many people about it! We don't want it spoiling.

Indeed a nice wallpaper