Car or Bus in Crete?

We are coming to Crete for ten days, and we are debating about renting a car for at least six days of our time on Crete (after visiting Heraklion and Chania and hiking Samaria Gorge).

We hope you could answer our questions:

1) Does anyone know about the relative ease of travelling along the west coast. Would we be able to take a public bus from Chania over to Falassarna and up to Balos Beach and then down to Elafonisi Island before returning to Chania? Or would we need a car to easily get to these areas?

2) Are there boats from the end of the Samaria Gorge at Agia Roumeli that go to Loutro in the evening, so that we could go there for one day after hiking the gorge? Then, do you know when boats and buses run from there to Chora Sfakion and back to Chania?

3) Does anyone know if boats go from Paleochora to Loutro?

Thanks for your help!

Buses in West Crete

Hi,

1) These are spread out and would need to be visited on different days if using the local buses. Services vary between winter and summer so always check the timetables before planning a trip, especially in the autumn and spring. See below for bus info.

There is no bus to the tip of the peninsula near Balos. This is a trip on unsealed road for which one needs to rent a car, a 4WD would be best. In fact the easiest way to do it is to take the boat trip from the port of Kastelli-Kissamos. There are daily boat trips to Balos Lagoon in summer. Also there are buses daily in summer from Kissamos to Elafonisi.

Balos Lagoon

But if you are independent travellers, then you will need a car to get to Falasarna and Balos.

Kissamos Town

Falasarna Beach

2) Yes, the ferry leaves Agia Roumeli in the afternoon - see the Getting Around in Crete page and the section on Crete ferries. The afternoon service leaves around 5.30 pm in summer and goes to Loutro and then to Chora Sfakion.

3) Yes, there are ferries that run along the south coast from Paleochora and stop at various villages including Sougia, Agia Roumeli, Loutro and Chora Sfakion.

These ferries are run by Anendyk SA and timetables do change depending on the season, so check out the details at www.anendyk.gr

Check bus info and timetables here...

Kalo Taxidi! Bon Voyage!