Excellent transfers and tours on Crete with a local!
We booked 2 day-long tours with Lefteris through Taxiservices-Crete tours. One day he gave us a tour along with our transfer from Heraklion to Chania. He also picked us up from the Heraklion airport, provided transport to Knossos (by his lovely daughter), and arranged a taxi to the Chania airport when we left Crete. We had great communication with Leftaris prior to our trip and the entire time we were with him. We learned so much about the history, people, and customs of Crete from Leftaris – we loved our time with him! He also recommended fabulous places for dinner. I was travelling with my 16 year old grandson who now quotes Lefty and says Crete is his favorite place and he intends to go back.
On our transfer from Heraklion to Chania: Lefteris drove us around part of Heraklion to see the huge defensive wall built by the Venetians who were afraid of invasions by the Turks. As we drove to a viewpoint to look over all of Heraklion where we saw the mountain that is supposed to look like the head of sleeping Zeus (Mount Juktas ) just beyond Heraklion.
Lefty stopped a couple of times and picked herbs and asked us to identify them - wild oregano, orange blossom, thyme, etc. He talked about how they eat fresh food here and have a long life expectancy. We stopped at a roadside cafe and had coffee, OJ, and the local pastry made just for Easter (it was sort of a sweet cheese in a pastry shell and very good).
As he drove, Lefteris told us about all the invasions of Crete, including the 300 year Ottoman occupation and World War II with the German invasion and occupation. He told us about the city of Rethymno, located between Heraklion and Chania. From a hill overlooking the city we could see the Venetian-era citadel, the Fortezza of Rethymno, one of the best-preserved castles in Crete. The area is full of beautiful beaches, archaeological sites, Byzantine churches, quaint villages and cosmopolitan resorts. Today's old town was almost entirely built by the Republic of Venice and has an elegant Venetian style of architecture. It is one of the best-preserved old towns in Crete. It has a very long beach bordered by hotels/condos. We had an hour of free time in Rethymno and enjoyed walking around the old town.
We continued on the coastal road to Georgioupoll to see the very long beach (6 miles long – locals claim it is the longest beach in Crete) and the small Agios Nikolaos Church built on a tiny islet in the sea.
We stopped at the Kanakis olive mill that has an ancient olive tree, one thousand years old. We had a tour of the machines they use to produce olive oil and then olive oil and raki tastings – delicious!!
We made one last stop before reaching Chania. - At a small producer of sheep milk products - we had yogurt with honey, delicious cheese, and also some ice cream, all made with sheep's milk and also very good. We really enjoyed our time on this transfer/tour.