Scenes from a visit to Chania, Greece (May 2023) part 2 of 2

This post is a bit of a grab bag of the last day/night in Chania. We did take a tour with a potential provider out to Elafonissi beach and through some mountain villages. Scenery was cool. I only snapped one real picture:

Unfortunately the tour was mostly a disappointing endurance exercise. Started off okay with some of the general intro and background info you'd hope for. But soon enough our guides revealed themselves to be like a Greek Beavis & Butthead tag-team, alternately complaining about the Greek government and trying to one-up each other in their efforts to flirt with my colleagues. Steady stream of corny, lame, bro behavior.

Back in Chania the rest of the time was split visiting some hotels, browsing some of the touristy sections of town, browsing some of the less touristy sections of town, and ultimately winding down with a glass of Cretan red wine. I'll start with the hotels ...

This one is from the rooftop of SanSal Boutique Hotel. Sharp, contemporary option just a few minutes walk from the heart of old town.

Snagged a few from Casa Delfino, where I was digging some of the funky furniture. Very nice place in a great location.

Also saw a roomy, refined suite at the Ambassador's Residence.

Took a few slice of the ordinary shots while wandering around the edges of old town.

Window shopped a bit, appreciating the pottery and other crafts. Liked the ducks. Found it interesting that the plastic woven bags and metal chickens are very, very similar to what you can find in Oaxaca and Michoacán.

Had to spend some time venturing beyond the touristy zone. Outside the old town there are layers of regular small city life happening with both generic and interesting retail happening. Combo architecture of economical design, old stock, newer buildings. Signs of hustle all around.

Was digging these housewares in the window. Seems like you can track them down online at the Morris.gr website if you're interested.

And I'm always going to duck into a supermarket to browse the snacks. Didn't grab the peanuts. Would have bought a t-shirt with that peanut logo, though. Did buy the two 'Tasty' options. Didn't love them.

Did a bit of a walkabout in the evening as well. Nicely-lit streets, plenty of inviting places to eat and drink. Or pick up souvenirs deep into the evening. Very pleasant place to visit.

As I was strolling I noticed a familiar evening activity around the plaza in front of the main church. The very limited video slice below hints at it, but what I saw were families and kids out playing, running, kicking balls around. Aka, something you see all the time in plazas around Mexico, from Coyoacán to Morelia to Pátzcuaro.



Also grabbed some evidence of visiting the harborfront in the evening, where you can clearly enjoy a meal/beverage and some people watching until 11/12pm. Lively, but not rowdy.

Pleased with my strolling I allowed myself a nightcap in the room before an early flight onward the next morning.

Scenes from a visit to Chania, Greece (May 2023) - part 1 of 2

Continuing the Greece tour, our next and final stop was Chania, Crete. I have to confess that before scheduling this tour I had never heard of Chania. After experiencing the tour I moved Chania onto the list of great little places I'm really glad that I visited. And it would be on the relatively short list of places I'd gladly go back to for an extended stay. Nice-sized city (pop ~ 55,000) that balances being a real, lived-in city and being a tourist / vacation destination. I'd put Monopoli in a similar category for similar reasons. But I'll get to that eventually when I have time to post about my Puglia trip.

Getting to Chania from Santorini takes a bit of work. You can fly, connecting through Athens. Or you can ferry to Heraklion and then drive / be driven to Chania. Total travel time is probably the same either way. Flight schedules offer more flexibility with the departure and arrival times. The ferry goes 1x per day. So we were on the 345p ferry that gets into Heraklion at 530p. Then it's a ~2-hour drive to Chania, so you're getting in around 730-8p. Which leaves enough time to check into your hotel and then head out for a nice dinner.

I took a quick video of the ferry experience, but there are many better ones out there on YouTube. The boats are big and comfortable. Nice seats, decent food / concession options. Room to walk around and stretch your legs (which is a big difference versus heading over on a smaller plane). If you have questions about the ferries, check out this video from Greece Explained (and fwiw, his channel is full of useful, well-done videos).

My base for the next few nights was Fileas Art Hotel. It's on the edge of old town and tucked around the corner from the main drags heading toward the harbor. Solid 3* option.

We were pretty tired and ventured exactly 1 minute away to Namaste for dinner. I have no photo evidence of our dinner, but recall it being good. Seems like the reviews generally agree. Nice place to eat, especially if you get yourself a table on the upper level with some views. Was just what we needed at the time.

Next day started in the morning with a walking & food tour with one of our partners. Gave us a good overview of the city's history and layout and kept us fueled with a few strategic pit stops. One of the first places we visited was Patsouros Cheese & More, which is just outside the touristic center. The kind of nice shop you want in your town if you're looking to treat yourself with some nice snacks or show up at a friendly gathering with something tasty that will be well received.

Walking through the streets into the old town you have picturesque scenes in all directions.

Of course we made our way to the harbour. Super charming little focal point for the city. Lined with restaurants for scenic al fresco dining. And filled with boats ready to take you out for an afternoon on the water.

We also got up to a lookout point for a great view of the harbor.

Before we wrapped up at the panoramic vista I documented the documenting of the selfie.

Snagged a few slice of life shots as we worked our way back into the side streets of the old town.

Solid food stop at To Steno, which was the kind of friendly place you could easily pass an afternoon into the evening snacking and drinking ... if you didn't have to keep on with the tour followed by an evening of catching up on work. My pic below does the spot zero justice. Check out more on their google maps listing, like this one.

Finished the tour with something sweet from Sketi Glyka.

Great finish to a nice day learning about a place that went from not at all being on my radar to being one of the favorite places I've been.

An Assortment of Experiences in Santorini, Greece (May 2023)

After Naxos, Paros, Mykonos, and Milos, our next stop was Santorini. We had some relatively bad luck with the weather. The guides told us Santorini gets a handful of rainy days per year and we seemed to be there for all of them. Apparently mid April was beautiful - sunny, 70s - but early May decided to bring the clouds. Fortunately it didn't rain all day. Mostly at night at I recall. The last night in particular was a rainout. But we made the most of the hours when we could roam around the island.

Our base was Caldera Premium Villas in Oia. This was a nice spot in a good location offering pretty good value for Oia. Cliffside, rooms with views, the typical steps cascading down to your room. Which is nicer on the way down than the way up. 85 steps to the street. First time I forgot my phone in the room was the last time I forgot my phone in the room.

Room itself was solid and basic. I wasn't on my honeymoon. Didn't need a private infinity pool. Cave-style room with some nice views out the window.

And some nice views as you make your way up some of the stairs to breakfast and the pools.

We did a highlights tour around some of the villages, starting conveniently in Oia. As you expect, something picture-worthy every which way you turn.

I did give in to the urge to buy one of the Yellow Donkey beer shirts. Nice soft blue one in my closet right now.

Of course the pottery caught my eye. Attractive, but nothing I was going to carry around with me for the next week through Crete and Barcelona.

At first glance this might look like a picture of people enjoying a nice coffe with a view. But it's really about that dog lounging on top of the ledge oblivous to the view. What's his deal?

And while there were a fair amount of fellow tourists around, it wasn't bad. There are advantages to visiting in early May. Just might want to give yourself an extra night or two in to minimize the likelihood of rain spoiling too much of your time.

Our excursion also included some time walking through Pyrgos, which I enjoyed. If I were to go back to Santorini I'd look to spend a bit more time around Pyrgos and Megalochori. Just a free day walking / wandering / eating. Seemed pretty relaxed.

If you do pass through Pyrgos, stop by E-sterna Handmade Creations. Very nice little shop with a variety of things that looked / felt both unique and of higher quality than a lot of other shops I saw walking around the island. Pics below from its google maps listing, as I didn't take any.

The next day was spent visiting a range of hotel partners getting a sense of the locations, property characteristics, etc. Snapped a few shots of the views as we went around.

Also snagged a couple at Mythical Blue. Nice place for a shorter visit. Could work for longers stays as well if you're very specific about what room you get.

Across from Mythical Blue is Volkan on the Rocks, which is a great spot for a casual meal / drink with some views.

At this stage of our market tour my younger colleagues were still perplexed by my insistence to receive payment for using my likeness in their photos. This was a creative response posted to the group chat, indicating how a 'normal' person would have participated in the selfie.