HikingImbros Gorge
5.0· 1 reviewThe gentle 8 km gorge walk from the White Mountains down to the Libyan Sea.
- 6h
- small group · max 8
- Most days
Private · your group onlyFree cancellationPhotoshoot with a guide
From €44
Book this tourRethymno
Things to Do in Rethymno
Rethymno is the third city of Crete and the easiest to spend time in — a Venetian and Ottoman old town you can walk in an afternoon, a long beach on its doorstep, and the mountains and south coast within an hour's drive. This is what is worth your time, and what is worth leaving town for.
The town itself
The old town is the reason to stay rather than pass through: Venetian doorways, a Turkish minaret, the Fortezza above it and a harbour that has not been rebuilt into something else.
Rethymno Old TownRead before you go
- Is Rethymno Worth Visiting?Yes. Rethymno is worth visiting, and the specific reason is that it is the only city in Crete that gives you three things at once: an intact Venetian and Ottoman old town you can walk end to end in fifteen minutes, a long sandy beach that starts where the old harbour ends, and a position halfway along the island that puts Knossos, Samaria, Elafonisi, Spinalonga, Preveli and the White Mountains all within a day's drive of the same hotel. It is smaller and quieter than Chania, cheaper than either Chania or Heraklion, and - because the University of Crete's humanities campus is here - it stays a working city out of season rather than closing down. The case against it is that it has no airport, its beachfront hotel strip is generic, and its old town is noisy in August.
- What Is Rethymno Like?Rethymno is a working Cretan city of roughly 30,000 people rather than a resort, built around a Venetian and Ottoman old town that you can cross on foot in about fifteen minutes, with a sixteenth-century fortress on the hill above it, a small fishing harbour, and a sandy beach running east for some twelve kilometres. Because the University of Crete's humanities campus is here, several thousand students live in the town, which keeps ordinary cafes, bookshops and restaurants open all year and stops the centre feeling seasonal. The old town is dense, shaded and largely pedestrian, with wooden Ottoman balconies overhanging narrow lanes; the beachfront strip east of it is generic package-holiday architecture and feels like a different place. The pace is slow, lunch is long, and almost nothing important happens before ten in the morning.
- Rethymno Food Guide: Where to Eat in the Old Town and on the CoastFive restaurants cover the range of eating well in Rethymno: Prima Plora on the seafront for modern Mediterranean cooking with a view, Avli in a Venetian courtyard in the old town for refined Cretan cuisine, Hasika for straightforward Greek classics in a lively local room, Alana for a contemporary take on Cretan ingredients, and Taverna Galera for traditional, generous, no-frills Cretan cooking. Between them they span the whole spectrum from a special-occasion dinner to an ordinary long lunch, and all five sit within or beside the old town, so none of them needs a car. Book Prima Plora and Avli ahead in high season; the other three are easier to walk into.
- Rethymno or Chania: Which Should You Base Yourself In?Choose Chania for a short trip built around the most beautiful harbour in Crete and the beaches and gorges of the far west; choose Rethymno for a longer stay, a sandy beach that starts where the old town ends, lower prices, quieter evenings, and a central position that puts both halves of the island within a day's drive. Chania's old town is larger and more spectacular but also far busier and more expensive, and its own town beach is small, so beach days mean driving 40 to 75 kilometres. Rethymno's old town is smaller and more lived-in, with a stronger Ottoman layer, and its beach runs about 12 kilometres east from the harbour. If you have three days, go to Chania. If you have a week and a car, base in Rethymno and drive to Chania for a day.
Worth leaving town for
Everything below leaves from Rethymno and returns the same day. The gorges and the south coast are the drives people remember.
Hiking
Food & wineRethymno Walk & Taste
A four-hour food and history walk through the Old Town
- 4h
- small group · max 8
- Mon, Wed, Thu
Only 8 seats per departureFree cancellationPhotoshoot included
From €120
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SignatureRomance & History in Rethymno
5.0· 1 reviewA private evening walk through the old town, photographed as you go.
- 2.5h
- small group · max 2
- Most days
Private · your group onlyFree cancellationPhotoshoot included
From €320
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NatureSouth Crete Highlights
5.0· 1 reviewPreveli Monastery, the palm-forest lagoon and Triopetra beach in one unhurried day.
- 6h
- small group · max 8
- Most days
Private · your group onlyFree cancellationPhotoshoot included
From €250
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Food & wineTaste of Crete
5.0· 2 reviewsHoney, olive oil and lunch, tasted at the source
- 5h
- small group · max 8
- Most days
Only 8 seats per departureFree cancellationPhotoshoot included
On request
Book this tourGetting here and getting around
Rethymno has no airport of its own. Chania is about 65 minutes away and Heraklion about 70, and both runs are ones we drive daily.
Airport transfers
