Covering beaches, choosing a base, day trips, things to do, villages. Newest first, each one carrying the date of its last check.
Two islands off Crete's south coast that are different kinds of trip: Chrissi, an uninhabited juniper reserve off Ierapetra that you could not step onto in 2026, and Gavdos, a lived-in island below Sfakia that runs on a ferry and needs nights. Rules, crossings, the November timetable, weather, camping and who each suits.
A few kilometres west of Phaistos, the Minoan villa of Agia Triada produced the painted sarcophagus, the Harvester Vase and the Boxer Rhyton now in the Heraklion museum. What is left on site, how it fits a Phaistos day, and what this check could and could not confirm about hours and tickets.
Two low-key bases on the Libyan Sea, about 65 km apart. Plakias is a resort village on a long sandy bay south of Rethymno, with coves, gorges and Preveli nearby — and a wind that comes down those gorges. Paleochora is a small town on a peninsula at the far south-west, with a beach on each side, boats along the roadless coast and the E4 to Sougia.
Two south-coast villages half an hour apart on the same bay. Matala has the cave cliff, a sandy beach and Phaistos minutes away; Agia Galini has the stacked harbour, the evenings and the boats to better coves. Beach, village, day trips, buses and the season, compared.
A long, sheltered bay of dark-grey sand below the village of Psari Forada, on the Viannos coast of south Heraklion. Calm, uncrowded and properly far from everything, which is both the appeal and the catch.
Both are small south-coast villages with a long beach, a hippie past and a Blue Flag. Matala has the caves, the red beach and Phaistos nearby; Plakias has the longer beach, the gorges, the wind and the boat to Preveli. How to choose, from where you land to how you like to spend a day.
A farming hamlet of about seventy people on the south coast, six kilometres west of Myrtos: a long beach of coarse grey sand under tamarisks, a few tavernas, banana greenhouses behind and very little else. Who it suits, how to get there, and why it stays quiet.
The easy sandy bay against the amphitheatre harbour village — wind, beaches, evenings and day-trip range, compared honestly for a south-coast week.
The second Minoan palace and the Roman capital of Crete, twenty minutes apart on the Messara plain.
The gorge that ends in a perfect cove, the monastery coast around Kali Limenes, and what wild honestly costs in walking, driving and self-sufficiency.
Two escapes from the Matala scene — the long Minoan-harbour beach at Kommos and the over-the-headland cove of Red Beach.
The famous caves, the hippie myth fifty years on, Phaistos without the crowds, and the loop through the Messara that makes this the best full-day drive.
A dignified farming village with the best folk museum in Crete — the Ethnology Museum — plus lanes.
Two working villages ten minutes from the famous beaches — real squares, real prices, agritourism done right.
The 'Fair Havens' of the Acts of the Apostles — a fishing hamlet with Biblical credentials, oil-terminal islets.
The driving-and-walking overview of the island's least-known range — the villages, the vulture skies, the dirt-road truth.
Three chapels, a scatter of summer houses and a long dark-sand shore under the Asterousia cliffs.
A working monastery on a pebble shore at the foot of the Asterousia, reached by a long dirt descent.
A half-abandoned stone hamlet reborn around climbing and silence, under the holy peak of Kofinas.
Two low-key seafront villages under the Dikti wall — banana greenhouses, long empty beaches, taverna rows locals drive to, and zero resort machinery.
A tiny village under the Lion headland with an ancient healing sanctuary and a long free-camping past.
A fishing-and-farming village on the Libyan Sea below the Asterousia — long quiet beach, tavernas priced for locals, and a road that keeps it honest.