Rethymno

Admission: Free

ATTRACTION Keywords:
Good Place to Relax, Off-the-Beaten Path, Town / City

1:58 AM Sunday, May 26
Partly cloudy. Mild.
7 day forecast

Many travelers miss out on Rethymno’s lovely Old Town and Venetian port, soaking up the waterfront ambiance in Hania instead. But Rethymno has just as much charm as its larger neighbor, with a Venetian fortress, pretty harbor and Turkish quarter of winding lanes and wooden Ottoman houses. Minoans also settled in this part of Crete, but it owes its grandeur to the Venetian period (1210 to 1645).

Wander around and admire Venetian monuments like the 16th-century loggia, Great Gate and wall remnants. A highlight of the Old Town is the Rimondi Fountain, with water spouting from the heads of lions. Several lovely mosques are a reminder of the town’s Ottoman past. The town also has several notable museums, exhibiting antique relics like statues and coins, folk art weaving and Byzantine artworks. Rethymno has a youthful university population, and its waterfront bars and Venetian harbor clubs get particularly lively at night. Several rural walks lead into the hinterland from Rethymno, and diving is also popular.

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Review by Anonymous, January 2010
Doing what: Santorini Island Day Trip

Santorini is stunning.

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Review by Anonymous, January 2010
Doing what: Santorini Island Day Trip

The sea was very rough on our visit, which caused not only the entire boat full of tourist to vomit for 3 hours straight but it also caused us to land late on the island. This caused a strain on time as we only had 1 hour in Oia and about 20 minutes in Fira before we had to get back on the bus and go back to the boat. I can only hope that on a more smoothly run trip that the time on the island lasts longer than that If not, then I would suggest allowing tourist much more time on the island. Leaving earlier from Heraklion would be a good start. I also wish there was a more convenient way for the tour guides to communicate with people on the bus. Listening to the same description 5 different times, first in English, then Dutch, then German, then Italian, then French, etc. etc. gets extremely tiring. You start to ignore all of it after a while. Maybe a recording with headsets would be more reasonable.

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