Dan and I hadn't been on a beach holiday since Croatia in 2012. Living in our own flat in London meant we had to source something affordable yet ticked all the boxes: sunny in September, cheap flights, reasonable accommodation, somewhere we'd never been before, picturesque, nice beaches - the list goes on! In a chance conversation with my dad reliving his holiday in Crete many years ago, I looked up the flights and temperatures for September, and jackpot! I'd also been wanderlusting over Greek islands such as Santorini and Mykonos for a while so it seemed the right place to go.
The next daunting task was picking where in Crete to stay. Crete is the biggest of the Greek islands so had plenty to choose from. Aside from my dad, most people we know haven't been to Crete so it was time to consult Google. A town that came up a few times in my research was Rethymno. According to sites such as TripAdvisor, it had a great mix of beaches, restaurants, nightlife, history and culture. After an Airbnb place in the Old Town fell through, we took our chances and booked an apartment through Booking.com, that was a half hour walk from the Old Town but promised to be 50m from the beach.
The morning after our arrival, we only had to walk a minute before we were on the main front of a beautiful long stretch of sand and sea, Perivoila beach:
The main purpose of our holiday was to have a week relaxing in the sunshine, so we couldn't have been happier with this spot. With the temperature in the thirties, we either started our days on the beach, spent the entire day there or ended up watching the sunset after a day spent exploring. Sounds like such a cliche, but lying on the sand with the sound of the waves crashing provided the perfect escape from the busy hustle and grind of London life.
This will be 1 of 4 posts about Crete so hope you're not bored yet ;-)
The rest of the posts will cover the Fortezza and Venetian Harbour, the Old Town and cycling down the White Mountains so be sure to pop back!
xx
