Some of the best days in Crete don’t have much of a plan. You have a coffee in the morning, get in the car, follow a road you haven’t taken before and eventually stop somewhere for lunch.
A road trip in Crete doesn’t always have to mean driving for hours to reach a famous attraction. Sometimes the drive itself is the reason for going. You stop because a village looks interesting, pull over for a view, have lunch somewhere you hadn’t heard of before and take your time getting back.
That makes for a very different kind of day.
Start With Coffee, Not a Destination
There is no reason to leave Heraklion at sunrise for this kind of trip.
Start with coffee somewhere in the city, then head inland when you’re ready. Once you leave the main roads, the pace changes quickly. Vineyards, olive groves and small villages replace the traffic, and you can start making decisions based on what you see rather than what you planned the night before.
The villages around the Heraklion countryside are particularly good for this. Routes through places such as Agios Myronas, Kato Asites and Houdetsi combine small villages with countryside roads, cafés and places to eat.
And if the first village looks like a good place for another coffee, there’s no rule saying you can’t stop again.
Follow the Roads Into the Countryside
The nice thing about driving around inland Crete is that you don’t have to follow one famous route.
You can head towards the foothills of Psiloritis, pass through smaller settlements and turn onto a road simply because it looks interesting. Some roads connect villages that are barely mentioned in guidebooks, while others lead through vineyards, olive groves and open countryside.
Around Heraklion, the area south and southwest of the city has several routes where the landscape gradually changes as you climb away from the coast. The road through Houdetsi, Metaxochori, Voria and the surrounding villages is one example of how quickly you can get from the city into much quieter countryside.
This is also where having a car makes a difference. You don’t have to decide in advance exactly where you’ll spend the afternoon.
Let Lunch Decide the Next Part of the Day
At some point, you’ll start thinking about food. That’s when we would stop looking at the map and start looking around.
A village kafeneio with several local tables occupied is usually more interesting than a restaurant chosen because it has the best photographs online. Traditional village cafés can serve much more than coffee, too, with simple Cretan dishes, meze, local cheese and cooked food appearing alongside the usual drinks.
You don’t need a restaurant reservation and a carefully planned menu for this kind of day. If a place feels busy with local people and the kitchen is clearly working, that’s often enough of a recommendation.
Order a few things for the table. Ask what was cooked that day. Take your time. Then stay longer than you originally intended.
The Lunch Doesn’t Have to Be the Destination
This is where the day becomes different from a normal sightseeing trip. You aren’t driving somewhere specifically because there is a monument, beach or viewpoint waiting at the end. Lunch is simply one part of the day.
You might stop in a village, have something to eat and then continue for another hour. Or you might decide that you’ve found a shady square and there’s no reason to go anywhere else.
Routes around the Heraklion countryside are particularly suited to this kind of wandering. One established local route, for example, connects villages, food stops and countryside attractions rather than being built around a single major sight. That’s a useful way to think about driving in Crete: the map gives you possibilities, not obligations.
Take the Scenic Way Back
After lunch, you probably won’t want the fastest route home. Take the longer road if the weather is good and you have time. Stop somewhere for a second coffee. Pull over when the landscape opens up. Walk around a village you’ve just passed.
This is especially enjoyable later in the year, when the countryside becomes greener and the temperatures are easier for spending time outdoors. But the idea works in summer too — just remember that inland roads can be much warmer in the middle of the day than the coast.
You don’t need a dramatic viewpoint every twenty minutes. Sometimes a quiet stretch of road with olive trees on both sides is enough.
A Few Hours Can Be Enough
You don’t have to turn this into an eight-hour road trip. Leave Heraklion late in the morning, stop for coffee, drive through a few villages, have lunch somewhere inland and start making your way back in the afternoon. That could be the entire plan.
One of the advantages of having a rental car is that you can make this kind of day as short or as long as you want. If the weather changes or you’ve had enough driving, you head back. If you find somewhere interesting, you stay.
There is no timetable to protect.
What Makes This Kind of Day Worth Doing?
The best part is usually what wasn’t planned. Maybe it’s the tiny café where you stop for coffee. Maybe it’s a road through the hills that you didn’t know existed. Maybe lunch turns into two hours because nobody seems to be in a hurry.
You won’t necessarily come home with a long list of sights crossed off.
You’ll just remember the day.
And honestly, that can be a much better way to experience Crete.
Continue Exploring Crete