After the Crete Marathon: Rethymno
The Route: Chania → Rethymno → Chania Airport Logistics: KTEL coach from Chania to Rethymno, about an hour, then the same coach service back to Chania or on to Heraklion. The old town is compact and almost entirely pedestrian. Marathon Month: April Duration: 1 night
Chania KTEL ──(about 1 hr by KTEL coach)──> Rethymno
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Chania Airport (CHQ) ◄──(1 hr, KTEL / taxi)┘
The Crete Marathon ends in Chania's stadium on a Sunday morning in April. Rethymno is 60 km along the north coast, and it is the easiest overnight stay from there: one coach, one hotel, and a town small enough to cross on foot in fifteen minutes.
April in Rethymno. In April the town is quiet. Some harbourside restaurants and a few hotels open late in the season, so check that your chosen hotel is trading before you book. Daytime temperatures are usually around 20°C, with cooler evenings and some chance of rain in most years. The beach is empty and the sea is cold. The streets are almost entirely yours.
The KTEL coaches between Chania and Rethymno run through the day on the national road along the coast. The journey takes about an hour. Fares and the exact departure times change with the season, so check the KTEL Chania website for the timetable that applies to the day you travel. Buy the ticket at the bus station or on board. Take the main bag with you rather than leaving it in Chania, as the hotel will hold it after checkout.
Night one: Rethymno old town
Rethymno was a Venetian possession for about four and a half centuries before the Ottomans took it in 1646, and the two periods sit side by side in the old town. Venetian doorways with carved stone lintels line the streets. Wooden Ottoman balconies hang over them, and a minaret rises beside the Neratze mosque. The harbour has a small Venetian lighthouse at the end of a stone mole.
The streets are flat, narrow and paved with old stone, and the main lanes are closed to cars. The surface is uneven in places, so wear shoes with a decent sole. The walk from the old town's western gate to the harbour is only a few hundred metres, which makes it a good first outing when the quads are objecting to everything. Sit down at the Rimondi fountain, a Venetian water feature from the early seventeenth century, and watch the town wake up.
The Fortezza stands on the Paleokastro hill above the harbour. The Venetians built it in the late sixteenth century, and it is one of the better-preserved fortresses on the island. The approach is uphill, roughly five minutes at a walking pace from the harbour. There are ramps rather than long flights of steps inside the walls, but the ground is rough, so go only if the legs are willing. Entry is about €4 (£3.50) and the fortress closes in mid-afternoon in the winter season, so go in the morning if you are still in Rethymno then. Check the current hours before you climb.
Where to stay
Hotels in the old town are mostly small converted Venetian houses. Choose one inside the pedestrian streets so that the luggage drag is as short as possible, and ask whether the building has a lift or ground-floor rooms. Taxis can reach the edge of the old town but not the lanes.
Where to eat
The harbour has a row of fish tavernas, with the day's catch priced by weight, and the lanes behind it have smaller places serving stuffed vegetables, slow-cooked lamb and the soft local cheeses that Rethymno does well. Look for a menu with Cretan dishes rather than a laminated photograph of a pizza. Ask what is local to the season, and expect wild greens in April.
Getting home
Coaches run back to Chania, where Chania Airport (CHQ) is reached by taxi or by the KTEL airport service, and the same operator runs on to Heraklion Airport (HER). If your flight leaves from Heraklion, the coach from Rethymno is the direct route, about 1 hour 30 minutes, with a taxi from the bus station to the terminal. Check timetables before relying on the last departure of the day, and allow a margin for the airport.