West Crete Tour: Discover Chania, Rethymnon Old Town, and Kournas Lake
3.7
23 Ratings
Heraklion
Embark on a captivating tour of West Crete, exploring the enchanting old towns of Chania and Rethymnon, and immersing yourself in the natural beauty of Kournas Lake.
Duration: 12 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Heraklion - We will start collecting participants from pick-up points in the morning.
    Depending on the place of your hotel/apartment the bus drive will differ.
    Approximately, the bus trip to Chania will take 3 hours.
  • Chania Town - Our groups will have 2.5 hours to wander around the beautiful Venetian streets and neighbourhoods of this picturesque town of Greece. Walk through its roads full of little shops, markets and local restaurants around the picturesque old port.
  • Lake Kournas - Bur Drive from Chania to the Lake: 1 hour
    We will visit the lake of Kournas for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
    The largest natural lake of Crete reflecting the White Mountains gives you the sense of an Alpine landscape. Grab the opportunity to hire a pedal boat for a lovely ride around the lake, swimming and enjoying a meal in one of the little tavernas (not included)
  • Rethymnon Old Town - Bur Drive to Rethymnon will take 20 minutes.
    Visit Rethymno and its picturesque venetian town. Enjoy 1.5 hours to walk along the old port and beautiful oriental beach road of the town.
  • Heraklion - Bus Drive back to Heraklion: 2 hours
    Embarkation in the buses and drive back to the hotels where we gathered participants in the morning.
    Depending on traffic and on the pick-up places of each one, the time of journey back to the hotel will differ .
What's Included
  • Liability Insurance Coverage by ALLIANZ for our tour participants
  • In-vehicle air conditioning
  • Professional Driver
  • Tour Guide
  • All fees and/or taxes
What's Not Included
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Pedal Boat Hire (at Kournas Lake)
  • Museum Entrances
Additional Information

Embark on a unified excursion to the West Side of Crete! Take pleasure in touring two delightful, conventional old towns, Chania and Rethymnon, plus a visit to the Lake of Kournas! Soak in the allure of the quaint town of Chania that draws in numerous tourists yearly, saunter through its captivating lanes and appreciate the distinctive old harbor of the town. Delight in a trip to the Lake of Kournas and unwind in the stunning backdrop of Cretan nature. Finally, explore the town of Rethymnon and stroll its thoroughfares from the harbor to the old town.

Location
Heraklion
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
3.7
(23 Ratings)
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1 star
Lynnerw7292dt
Oct 3, 2023
Well worth the long trip from Hersonissos area - A long day due to all the pick ups and drop offs. However, very glad we did it. The driver and guide were excellent. We particularly liked Chania.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Guldark2022
Jul 14, 2023
Amazint day trip with proffesional guide! Reccomend higly - Amazing Day trip to take. Had pick up and drop off from hotel. Really convenient. Bus driver was proffesional and felt safe all the time. Guide was really fluent and talked really good english and we learned a lot about Crete. She was really friendly and informative about everything. Thank you. Chania old town was just incredible. You can walk around or just have good food with lovely view to sea. Kourna lake was amazing. Water is crystal clear and those mountains on back makes you feel like youre in paradise. Paddling boats are really cheap and water is warm. Deffinately reccoment to do both. Thank you Cretan Odyssey for incredible awesome day trip.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Galahad24
Oct 24, 2023
Stunning West Crete - West Crete Tour is exceptional. Tour guide Elizabeth is very helpful and this is a very informative tour. Chanai is a busy area full of tourist as this is the cruise ship docked. This is area you expect that the prices much higher than the other stop. Busy high street with full of souvenir shops. The 2nd stop of the tour is Kournas lake. You can enjoy your lunch here and cheaper compared to Chanai. Enjoy the paddling boat 3 persons for only 15 Euro in an hour. This is a breathtaking lake and we love the fresh air- kids enjoy this area. My opinion is better to have more time in Kournas Lake. Rethymno is another busy high street with many souvenirs shop tiny compare with Chanai . There is s seaside port as well . With Rethymno should less hour . Overall this really good just for a day able to see the west part of crete
Review provided by Tripadvisor
F1cars
Oct 13, 2023
Worth the long day - The travel to and from the venues was planned well except if you were the early pickups, this made the trip into quite a long day. However the venues of Chania and Rethymo were splendid and culturally rich in architecture, history and ambience. The lake was OK, but the food and pricing at the recommended Taverna was excellent. Good trip
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Adele_f
Jun 29, 2023
Chania, Kournas and Rethymnon - Good tour, but the time in each place was so short to really enjoy each place Tanya tour guide was great!
Review provided by Viator
Miakw9072ty
Nov 15, 2023
Right tour guide and no Lake will be better ... Chania and RETHYMON was wonderful - So this tour would be nice if it wasn't for the long way by bus. Chania was beautiful. Rethymon was fine too . Kournas Lake is something what they could take off this tour.But in my eyes the tour guide was not what I expected I sign up for ENGLISH tour, and I foudn myself in ENGLISH GERMAN tour . Where tour guide a lady sorry I don't remember her name was speaking fluent English and German but it was poorly executed. I felt like listening to the book reading, more than being interested in real life there. She was jumping from one language to another, in the middle of the story, so no one except German tourists were getting full story at one time. She was prone to them, the English version you could say was much shorter . She even got mad at people when they started talking, because when you switch languages this is what you get, when the part of the bus doesn't understand that language. The tour was on 21 of October. I would recommend to visit Chania and Rethymon they interesting cities but going on the bus without AC or poor AC in hot temperatures is not what I've had in mind, and not the tour guide who didn't care about English speaking people, or even telling people to stop talking when she was switching the language. Even though they weren't loud at all, but they for sure were bored like me. This tour in the right weather, and with the right tour guide might have been great. To all prepare for long ride on the bus. But it is worth to see CHANIA and RETHYMON.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sneha_r
Oct 22, 2023
Chania, Rehthymn and Lake Kournas - We loved Chania but Lake Kournas was a waste of time. Also, the food served at the taverna in Lake Kournas was below par.
Review provided by Viator
Ben_m
Sep 17, 2023
Good trip but too long of a day! - The towns of Chania and Rethymnon were interesting themselves, good old architecture and picturesque streets to explore. We had lunch at Chania instead of the scheduled lunch stop at the lake, due to the length of stop in Chania. The lake I wouldn't have been bothered not going all together. Didn't really add much and the time allocated for it's stop wasn't enough to see the lake and have lunch at the cafe. (which was haphazard during the rush) Tour guide was good at explaining the history of crete and it was most insightful. We got picked up in Hersonissos and all in all it was a 13 hour day, most of which spent on a double decker bus with asthmatic aircon! In reflection it would have been better to have hired a car and gone at our own pace instead. As it was practically straight along the motorway and plenty of parking options (which put us off originally driving as we didn't know the deal with parking) It was 4 hours from pickup in Hersonissos until we got to Chania. I felt a bit sorry for other guests who were the first pick ups / last drop offs. It would have made sense for the operator to have a few minibuses in each area collecting people then all boarding the bus at a central location.
Review provided by Viator
Scott
Sep 9, 2023
Pleasant day trip but prepare for the bus! - A great way to see Chania and Rethymnon in a day without having to rent a car or worry about driving. Rated 3 stars as you must be aware of the “air conditioned bus”. Air conditioning only works while the bus is en route (I.e. moving) and takes a while to stabilize. It’s never cool or cold and tremendously hot when boarding at each stop along the way.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Regina_c
Aug 24, 2023
Not much history, just shopping and eating - Our tour guide gave us some information on the bus as we drove these long distances. However, once at the destination, all there really was to do is shop and eat. You are dropped off in a marketplace. There is no real historic sites to visit or sites to see outside of the port. The 2 hours in Chania and Rethymnon went by very fast. You get an hour at the Lake. I don't think I truly got to see any of these cities. But just to get out to the other part of the island, it was good. And it was also really hot during this time.
Review provided by Viator
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June 2024
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