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Largest Greek island
Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Crete (Greek: Κρήτη / Kríti, sometimes spelled "Krete" in English) is the largest of the Greek islands and is the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea - after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. It is located between the Sea of Crete and the Libyan Sea, south of the Peloponnese. It contains the southernmost city within the European continent, Ierapetra, which is only about 645 km from the coast of Libya. Crete is approximately 260 km long and 60 km wide. The island is divided into four prefectures: from west to east, Chania, Rethymnon, Heraklion, and Lasithi. Crete's population is approximately 650,000.
By boat
ANEK Lines and Blue Star Ferries have formed a joint service which dominates ferries in Crete. There are ferries from Piraeus to Chania and Heraklion, all taking about 8 and a half hours.
By bus
com are quite trustworthy. Bus drivers usually divert from their marked routes to enter little villages if asked to do so.
By ferry
gr, to Chania with ANEK Lines or Hellenic Seaways, to Ayios Nikolaos and Sitia with LANE Lines. LANE also operates routes from Ayios Nikolaos/Sitia to Rhodes and other Greek islands.
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Heraklion · International · HER
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in Heraklion Prefecture, it is the largest city and capital of the island. It has the Minoan Palace of Knossos archeological site, the island's main international airport and cruise/ferry port, an important archeological museum, and a harbor boasting structures from the Venetian period (1205-1669).
the island's second-largest city and capital of Chania Prefecture. It has a largely intact Old Town, another airport and cruise/ferry port, numerous structures from the Venetian and Ottoman (1689-1898) period, a number of museums, and the important NATO naval base of Souda Bay.
capital of Rethymnon Prefecture. It has a cruise/ferry port, a well-preserved Old Town (at the foot of a massive Venetian fortress), which is a maze of lanes and alleys primarily reserved for pedestrians.
medium-sized harbour city on the far eastern tip of the island (within Lasithi Prefecture). It has a cruise/ferry port and airport, and access to some very unspoiled beaches.
the southernmost city of Europe (in Lasithi Prefecture). It has some of the longest and finest sandy beaches on the island, an old Venetian fort, and the small, uninhabited island of Chrysi, which is protected as an area of intense natural beauty and which shelters the largest naturally grown group of Lebanese cedar forest in Europe.
the charming capital of Lasithi Prefecture, that was once known as a partying hot-spot. It has another cruise/ferry port, a lake lined with tavernas, many upscale shops and easy access to jet-set Elounda and the historic former leper colony island of Spinalonga.
Today, Malia (Heraklion Prefecture) has taken over as the hedonistic "party capital" of the island, popular mostly with young, especially British, visitors. It has an unsavory reputation for drunken tourists staggering through the streets, music bars and discos until dawn.
A breathtaking gorge on the southern part of Chania Prefecture open for the 5- to 7-hour moderately strenuous hike from 1 May until mid-October.
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