Chania Town, Venetian Rethymno & Kournas Lake

Put on your comfortable shoes and get in our private vehicle…lots of walking today…First stop after a couple of hours ride, the only natural lake of Crete, the small yet impressive Kournas lake. A short stop to take a couple of photos and also to fuel up the “engine” with a local “sfakiani pita” and a cup of local herbal tea that reinforces the body and rejuvenate the memory. After the lake which was created  by the tears of a beautiful blonde girl,  we will head to the most beautiful settlement of Crete, Chania, where Minoan, Venetian, Byzantine, Ottoman and Jewish buildings stand side by side, giving us the feeling that we are travelling back in time.

Get lost in the narrow paved little streets with the numerous Venetian palaces, hidden gems one next to the other, Ottoman mosques with the minarets straightening up to the sky, with the 15th century Synagogue being a martyr of the once thriving jewish society – and let your imagination bring to life images of a past era, with the descriptions of our official  tourist guide. Get inside the unlimited little shops and restaurants just to admire their amazing architecture and their cozy designs and colors. Take a selfie in the most photographed harbor of Greece, the venetian port of Chania with the symbol of the city in the background, the hundreds of years old lighthouse.

After the city tour you”ll have the chance stroll up to a  gem-restaurant where you ‘ll have lunch like the locals do, a selection of different mouthwatering tastes, with a variety of mezes and very good local wine. Follows Rethymno town, a model of Chania but with its own extraordinary character, very cozy and cute , where byzantine churches with beautiful bell towers , old inactive mosques once glorious buldings with tall minarets and a huge variety of Venetian buildings dominate in the center. Venetian Palaces and mansions, castles and fortifications, churches and former monasteries are only a few of the admirable buildings, that this place has to show. Stroll around the narrow paved streets, full of arched stone buildings, once palaces of the Venetians, while boutique hotels and fabulous restaurants in the modern  times  and spend a couple of hours into this unforgettable place