Greece was amazing! We chose this because it was going to be warm, had a beach and we got cheap RyanAir tickets into Chania. We knew we wanted to go back to Greece before we even left as this was a short but relaxing trip.
We stay at Villas Michalis. It is run by Michalis and his wife and they couldn't of been more hospitable. Our plane arrived late, after 11:00pm, but Michalis was nice enough to pick us up from the airport in his personal vehicle. When we arrived he took time to explain several different things to us and there was coke, wine and beer in the fridge along with apples, nuts and some candy all for us to have. The next day he arranged for a rental car to be delivered. He took care of returning it also and took us back to the airport when we left. We had an amazing view of the sea and the mountains of Crete. They also had a pool and each villa had a patio facing the sea.
the kids chilling by the pool at the villa's
Our first day we decided to drive an hour and a half through the mountains on many twisty, turny narrow roads to get the Elafonisi, the beach with pink sand. It was a drive but it was amazing. The beach was lovely, the weather was great and the pink sand was very interesting.
That night we enjoyed some greek food at a restaurant at the Old Venetian Harbor. After supper we took a walk along the sea wall to get to lighthouse. Since it was later in the evening we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the sea from the sea wall.
the light house, sea wall and harbor.
The next day we visited two different beaches. We enjoyed the water, sand and food. We even were able to build a sandcastle with the kids. Late afternoon we headed out to Old Town and the harbor again. There were several shops with tourist items and Cretan works. The side streets were all very narrow with barley enough space for a couple people to walk side by side. We also found a Starbucks in the middle of everything so we were able to get some frappacinos. They also had several fish spas around. I really wanted to do it and Harper did too but we ended up running out of time and not really wanting to spend the money after supper. Besides there wouldn't of been anything for the boys to do while we did that.
For super we ate along the Harbor again. Every restaurant along the harbor has someone who stands outside and tries to get you to go into their restaurant. I really wanted mussels and we found a nice, not so pushy lady at a restaurant while looking at the menu. They had a mixed seafood plate for 2 available. It was 50 euro, so more then I really wanted but she said it included mussels and looked huge! Well when it came out it didn't have mussels on it. I was kind of disappointed but the food on it was delicious. We enjoyed octopus, red mullet, swordfish, salmon (I think), squid, sardine and shrimp. I don't eat shrimp though. We didn't finish the whole thing but ate all the big pieces of seafood. I enjoyed it.
We had a wonderful relaxing time in Crete and I can not wait to go back to Greece and see the difference in the islands and mainland.
