10 days on Crete, February 2025

Описание: Beautiful Crete in the winter (February)! 10 days and a rented small car, driving around most parts in Crete. Well worth a visit. Almost no tourist, and the island is green with snow at the peaks. I tried to follow the coastline as much as possible.
PS - dont trust Apple maps road recommendations. Some of the roads are worse than dust roads, and in fact dangerous. This first map on the slide show is a shorter version made by Google maps. The last pics shows 3 maps with more details
Greece was hit by a cold wave at the time, but I had good luck with the weather. Only 30 minutes of rain!
Day 1. Started at the tourist resorts east of Heraklion, Hersonissos, Stalis and Mallia and spent the night in Aghios Nikolaos.
Day 2. To Sitia, passing Mochlos.
Day 3. Heading east, passing Palekastro to the eastern coast bay, Chiona Beach, visiting the minoan site, lunch in Zakros, took the beautiful road along the gorges to Xerokambos, continued the winding road to Zyros, then south to Goudouras, along the coast to Makriagialos spending the night in Ierapetra.
Day 4. Drove west along the coast as much as possible, passing Miros, picking oranges in Tertsa, lunch in Psari Forada, continued to Tsoutsouros, north to Pirgos and spent the night in quiet Treis Ekklisias after a winding tour with 20 very sharp curves.
Day 5. Off up in the mountains again, down south to Lentos and Kali Limenes and than north to Matala, where I did not find any open hotel, so I stayed in Kalamaki.
Day 6. To Aghia Galini and the beautiful coast road to the west Stopping at Agios Pavlos, examining the beautiful rocks looking like nothing else. Continued west but the coastal road of Agios Vasilios after Triopetra was blocked of sand, blown up from the beach, so I had to take the road via Spili and fascinating Kourtaliotiko gorge, but it was already too dark to visit. Spending the night in Plakias.
Day 7. Up to Selia and westward on beautiful road to Frangocastello, and a stop at quiet Chora Sfakion. North on the bigger but still very curvy road, visiting the war museum in Askifou, spending the night in Chania.
Day 8. A tour to Akrotiri peninsula, visiting Venizelou´s memorial place. Lunch at Kalives, driving around the peninsula via Kefalos and Georgiopolis, spending the night in Rethymnon.
Day 9. Back to Heraklion, passing Agia Pelagia. Spending the night in Heraklion.
Day 10 Heraklion, returning the car and last night at airport hotel.