Halfway through the week, you sit in a Rethymno square with a plate of dakos, the barley rusk piled with chopped tomato and soft white cheese, while a Venetian wall catches the last light behind a minaret. You came for Crete alone, and the island rewards that. The route runs along the north coast from Chania to Rethymno to Heraklion, three towns with three different characters, joined by a single stretch of sea.
Is 7 Days enough for Greece?
A week is enough for one part of Greece done properly, and not enough for the whole country. It suits a traveler who would rather unpack twice than five times and who wants a slow breakfast more than a long list of ports. This route spends it all on Crete, the largest Greek island by both area and population, sitting at the southern edge of the Aegean.
Crete is big enough to deserve the week. It covers 3,260 square miles and has a coastline of 650 miles, so even a trip that sticks to the north coast leaves most of the island untouched. The route keeps to three bases, each a town with its own harbor, its own old quarter and its own kitchen.
What the route leaves out is a long list. The Cyclades are not in it, nor Athens, nor the mainland sites such as Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae, Epidaurus or Meteora. The south coast of Crete and the high mountains around Mount Psiloritis, the island’s highest peak, stay for a second visit.
What the week gives you
Three towns, each a different kind of old port. Chania is a harbor town on the northwest coast whose old quarter is a maze of alleys and houses showing its Venetian and Turkish past. Rethymno has one of the best-preserved medieval old towns in Greece, with Venetian fortifications, Orthodox and Catholic churches, minarets and old hammams. Heraklion is the largest city on the island, built on the north coast and facing the sea.
The meals tie it together. Dakos, gamopilafo (a rice dish cooked in rich broth) and kalitsounia (small stuffed pastries, sweet or savory) are traditional dishes of Crete. You meet them again in each town, cooked a little differently, which is a good way to tell the places apart. The meal usually ends with a small glass of raki, the clear spirit that often arrives without being ordered.
What to leave for another trip
If your heart is set on hopping across the Aegean, give the trip a different shape and a different number of stops. If what you want is one long coast, three old towns and a table that changes every few miles, this is the shape for it.
The itinerary stage by stage
Days 1 to 3: Chania
The route starts at the western end of Crete. The night ferry from Piraeus to Chania arrives early in the morning, so Day 1 begins at the port with the whole town still waking up.
Settle into a room in the old town, around the harbor, where the alleys wind between houses that carry a Venetian and Turkish past. Spend the first day simply walking, with a coffee at a harborside cafe and a long lunch in a side street.
Day 2 is for the details of the old quarter: the alleys, the harbor, the small shops selling local olive oil and herbs, and a taverna dinner of grilled fish, greens and cheese pies. Since 2025 the Minoan palace of Kydonia in Chania has been a UNESCO World Heritage site, so the town’s story reaches back well before the Venetians. Day 3 can be left loose, for a second walk around the harbor or a slow meal before the move east.
Days 4 and 5: Rethymno
On Day 4 you travel east by road to Rethymno, which lies about 43 miles from Chania, between Chania and Heraklion on the north coast. Sleep inside the old town (the palia poli), which was almost entirely built by the Republic of Venice. The streets here mix Venetian fortifications, Orthodox and Catholic churches, minarets and old hammams, so a single walk crosses several centuries.
Day 5 goes deeper into the same streets. Look at the minarets that now stand among church bell towers, find a hammam building, and spend the evening over meze, small shared plates, in a square. If you add a Santorini day, this is the town to leave from, because Sea Jets high-speed catamarans link Rethymno and Santorini in the high season.
Days 6 and 7: Heraklion
Day 6 takes you on to Heraklion, the largest city on Crete and one of the most significant urban centers in Greece. It is a different mood from the two towns before it: bigger, busier, a working city on the sea rather than a town built around a harbor view. Stay in the center and let the day be a city day, with cafes, a long lunch and an evening stroll through the streets.
Day 7 is the last one, and the airport is close. Heraklion Airport, named for Nikos Kazantzakis, sits just over three miles east of the center, in the area of Alikarnassos. It is the second busiest airport in Greece after Athens, so many departures start here. Finish with a last plate of kalitsounia and a coffee before the road to the terminal.
Getting between stops
| Leg | How | Time or distance |
|---|---|---|
| Piraeus to Chania or Heraklion | Ferry | Departs at night, arrives early in the morning |
| Chania to Rethymno | By road | About 43 miles |
| Rethymno to Heraklion | By road | Along the north coast, between Chania and Heraklion |
| Heraklion Airport to Heraklion center | By air arrival, then by road | 3.1 miles |
| Rethymno to Santorini | Sea Jets high-speed catamaran, in the high season | Around 2.5 hours |
The main link from the mainland is the night ferry. Boats from Piraeus to Chania or Heraklion leave at night and arrive early in the morning, and ANEK Lines, a company founded in 1967 by residents of Crete, runs passenger ferries mainly on the Piraeus to Crete routes.
That makes the route flexible at both ends. You can begin in Chania off the boat, or begin in Heraklion after a flight, and run the three stops in the opposite order.
Heraklion Airport is where flights arrive, about three miles east of the center, in the area of Alikarnassos. Inside the city, urban buses serve Heraklion with 39 different routes. Between the three towns the legs are by road along the north coast. Chania and Rethymno are about 43 miles apart, and Rethymno lies between Chania and Heraklion.
Santorini is the only neighbor the route can reach by sea from these towns. From Rethymno a direct high-speed catamaran, operated by Sea Jets, links the two islands in the high season, in around 2.5 hours. Outside that season the route stays on Crete, which suits a week that is already full.
What to book before your 7 Days in Greece
Settle the sea and the air first, since they decide where the week starts: the night ferry from Piraeus to Chania or Heraklion, or a flight into Heraklion. Then settle the sites you most want to see in Chania and Rethymno, and finally the beds in the old towns where you plan to stay. Leave the evenings loose, because a taverna dinner is best kept spontaneous.
Adapting the route
For a shorter trip, drop Heraklion and spend the saved days in Chania and Rethymno, which are about 43 miles apart. That keeps the two old towns that most reward slow walking, and you leave from Chania on the night ferry or by air through Heraklion. For a longer one, add a Santorini day from Rethymno in the high season, or keep the extra days for the south coast and the mountains around Mount Psiloritis.
For a slower trip with children or older relatives, stay put longer in each base and let the harbors and squares do the work. Chania’s alleys, Rethymno’s old town and Heraklion’s center are all places to wander at your own pace over a long lunch, with an ice cream or a pastry in between. Cutting a stop is better than rushing three.
Choosing the season
The night ferry leaves from Piraeus, the port of Athens, so the Athens air in your travel month gives a first idea of the weather before the boat. These are Athens figures only and are not the weather of Crete.
| Athens | Average high (°F) | Average low (°F) | Rain (inches) | Days with rain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 56.3 | 44.4 | 2.17 | 7.5 |
| April | 68.4 | 53.2 | 1.10 | 5.5 |
| July | 91.8 | 74.1 | 0.28 | 1.6 |
| October | 75.2 | 61.0 | 1.09 | 3.9 |
In January, Athens has the most rain days of the four, so a rain jacket belongs in the bag. July is hot, with the highest averages and almost no rain, so sun protection matters most. April and October sit in between, mild with a few wet days, and suit a week of walking old towns.
Good to know before you go
Greece uses the euro, and the island is full of small harbor cafes, bakeries and tavernas where a kalitsounia or a coffee is part of the day. Keep a little room in the plan for those stops. The meal that costs nothing extra is the one that arrives at the end, a small glass of raki, so pace the evenings and let the walk back to your room be part of the night.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Ancient Greece (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, ANEK Lines (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANEK_Lines), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, Blue Star Ferries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Star_Ferries), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, Fast Ferries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Ferries), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, Golden Star Ferries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Star_Ferries), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, Greek islands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_islands), checked October 12, 2026
- Heraklion airport information (https://www.heraklion-airport.info/), checked October 12, 2026
- Visit Greece (GNTO), Crete (https://www.visitgreece.gr/islands/crete/), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, Crete (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crete), checked October 12, 2026
- Visit Greece (GNTO), Chania (https://www.visitgreece.gr/islands/crete/chania/), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, Chania (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chania), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikivoyage, Chania (https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Chania), checked October 12, 2026
- Visit Greece (GNTO), Rethymno (https://www.visitgreece.gr/islands/crete/rethymno/), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, Rethymno (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rethymno), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikivoyage, Rethymno (https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Rethymno), checked October 12, 2026
- Visit Greece (GNTO), Heraklion (https://www.visitgreece.gr/islands/crete/irakleio/), checked October 12, 2026
- Wikipedia, Heraklion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraklion), checked October 12, 2026
- Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS), climatological normals 1991-2020 for Elliniko station (https://www.emy.gr/climatic-data), monthly mean daily maximum and minimum; rain from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis, 1991-2020, grid cell of Athens (Open-Meteo), checked October 12, 2026
- ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis 1991-2020, grid cell of Athens (Open-Meteo), checked October 12, 2026
- Plan de the (duree choisie by the redaction)