Hi! My Fiance and I are planning our honeymoon for early - mid September.
Currently we are doing 2 nights in Athens (Plaka) and are planning to have about 2 weeks or slightly less in Crete, staying in a few different areas. We want to then do a few days elsewhere before going home and are trying to decide what to do. Below is our current itinerary and things we want out of our honeymoon. I am happy with the places already booked so not looking for feedback on those.
- Athens - booked 2 nights in Plaka
- Crete - booked 5 nights at a hotel on the beach between Chania and Agia Marina
- Crete -booked 3 nights a Boutique hotel just east of Mitropoli
- Crete - tbd 2 nights more central in a bigger town/city where things are walkable, likely Agios Nikolaos
- ??? 3-4 nights??
We enjoy a healthy mix of beach time (my favourite), historical sites (my finace's favourite) and we both enjoy walkable towns and nice cities, and some nice long walks/hikes that are doable in running shoes. We can rent a car need be and are planning to for most of our Crete time. We don't want cities to occupy the majority of our time, however we would like to be able to walk from our hotel to dinner, and we love walking so if its 20-minute walk or so, that's not a problem for us. We like being able to be out later at night having some drinks, and then being in bed by midnight, for this reason I think
We are toying between staying in Crete because there is so much to see, going to Rhodes, or Naxos.
I think we would both like Naxos and like the ability to day trip to Paros, but I have also read that it is like a mini-Crete and is it worth sacrificing exploring more Crete to go to Naxos for just a few days? My Fiancé is excited about Rhodes for the historic experience, I would be happy to spend a shorter amount of time there, but I'm concerned 3 or 4 nights might be too much and I would prefer not to travel around too much in those days. Crete also has so much to offer, I'd be curious to hear if it would be best to stay and go more east-ward / south to round out our Crete experience.
We loved Naxos. You should check out Matt Barrett's Greek Guide web pages. It really helped us when we did Greek islands on our own.
We did a week in Crete in November. 3 nights Heraklion and 4 nights Chania. Because it was so late in the season we stick with the bigger cities.
Chania was one of my favorite places we have been.
I did Crete over 12 days and we had plenty to do.
some Cretan ideas: - Matala has a nice beach, some historical significance and some snorkeling - Vai Beach has palm trees - Knossos Palace is a fantastic archeological site, but I didn't like Heraklion - Rethymnon is a beautiful town and is absolutely walkable - Balos, Falasarna and Elafonisi on the west coast are amazing
Naxos is also wonderful, but save the travel for another beach day in Crete!
We did Crete (6 nights) and Milos (5 nights) in September last year. Loved the combination and mix of experiences/landscape/activities) between the two islands.
Did Athens-Chania Crete-Naxos in the fall and loved all of it, I thought Naxos was a smaller version of Crete but it was fun to experience both. You can take a ferry from Heraklion to Naxos bc if you fly from Chania you’d need to connect through Athens
What sort of activities did you do in Naxos and what area did you stay? Were there any notable differences in Naxos that you would not have experienced in Crete?
There’s so much to see in Crete just stay there but I would recommend 3 days in Athens or your last night in Athens before you depart.
In September/early October I went to Athens for a week, then Naxos for 5 days, then Athens for another week, then Mykonos for a week, then Crete for a week. One of the best trips I’ve ever taken. I did amazing food tours in each location minus Mykonos bc that part of the trip was more partying & spa treatment focused
How did you find Naxos compared to Crete? Where in Crete were you and what food tour did you take there if you would recommend it?
We stayed in Chania, my brother rented a car and we went to Loutro for a daytrip. We did a food tour in Chania with @cretantastytrails. I befriended the guide Kostas and he took me on a bonus excursion to a farm, a vineyard, and a taverna in the mountains a few days later. That was the highlight of the entire trip.
Naxos and Crete aren’t comparable. Crete is so big it might as well be its own country. Naxos was relaxing, it also had amazing food, and I preferred its beaches. I was alone for that part of the trip and was able to fully disconnect and relax