Chania is one of our favourite places in Crete and a brilliant base for exploring the western side of the island. From the colourful Venetian Harbour and atmospheric streets of Chania Old Town to beautiful beaches, excellent Cretan food and some of Crete’s most spectacular landscapes, there is far more to Chania than simply spending a few days by the sea.

One of the biggest reasons we loved staying in Chania, Crete was just how much there is to experience nearby. Some of the best things to do in Chania involve venturing beyond the city, whether that means hiking the spectacular Samaria Gorge, visiting one of western Crete’s famous beaches, taking a boat trip along the coast or hiring a car and exploring independently.

Having recently spent time exploring the area ourselves, we’ve created this Chania travel guide around our first-hand experience. We’ll cover the best things to do, the Chania tours and day trips we think are worth considering, where to stay, the best beaches to visit, where to eat and the practical things we learnt during our trip.

If you’re planning a trip to Chania and want to know what is genuinely worth your time, this guide will help you make the most of your stay.

Chania Travel Guide: At a Glance

Is Chania Worth Visiting?

Yes, Chania is absolutely worth visiting. After spending nine nights here ourselves, we found it offered a brilliant balance of great food, beautiful coastline, relaxing days and some of the best experiences we had in Crete.

Two particular highlights were hiking Samaria Gorge and taking a catamaran boat trip to Balos Lagoon and Gramvousa. Both are completely different experiences and show just how much there is to do when you use Chania as a base for exploring western Crete.

The food was another major highlight. We ate extremely well throughout our stay, both in Chania itself and at restaurants we discovered while exploring the surrounding area. Having a car gave us more freedom to seek out some of these places, although you certainly don’t need one to enjoy Chania.

We’d recommend staying for at least five days. This gives you enough time to enjoy Chania itself while still leaving room for beaches, boat trips and some of the excellent day trips and tours available from the city.

Best Things to Do in Chania

One of the things we loved most about Chania was the variety of experiences available both in the city and across western Crete. You can spend one day wandering through Chania Old Town and eating by the Venetian Harbour, then the next hiking through one of Europe’s longest gorges or sailing towards some of Crete’s most spectacular beaches.

After exploring the area ourselves, these are the best things to do in Chania that we’d recommend adding to your trip.

1. Hike Samaria Gorge

If you’re looking for something more adventurous during your stay, hiking Samaria Gorge was one of the highlights of our entire trip to Crete.

We completed the hike in mid-July, following the route from the entrance at Xyloskalo down through the gorge towards Agia Roumeli. The walk is around 14–16 km depending on where you measure the finish, with the opening descent being one of the steeper sections. From there, the scenery constantly changes as you follow the gorge, eventually reaching the famous Iron Gates where the towering rock walls narrow dramatically around you.

Despite visiting during the summer, we found the heat manageable thanks to plenty of shade and places to refill water along the route. Reaching Agia Roumeli at the end also means you can grab some food and take a swim in the Libyan Sea before catching the ferry back along the coast.

For us, taking an organised Samaria Gorge tour from Chania made the most sense. The hike starts and finishes in completely different places, so arranging the transport independently can be awkward. Our tour handled the coach transfers and provided a professional hiking guide, leaving us to concentrate on the experience itself.

If hiking is even remotely your thing, we’d put Samaria Gorge very close to the top of your Chania itinerary.

We have written a complete first-hand guide to the experience, including the difficulty, what to take, what the hike is actually like and whether we’d recommend the tour.

👉 Read Our Full Samaria Gorge Tour Review

If you’ve already decided Samaria Gorge belongs on your Chania itinerary, you can check prices and availability for the tour we took below.

👉 Check Availability for the Samaria Gorge Tour From Chania

2. Take a Luxury Catamaran Tour to Balos & Gramvousa

Our other standout experience in Chania was taking a luxury catamaran tour to Balos Lagoon and Gramvousa. If you’re going to book one boat trip while you’re in Chania, this is the one we’d recommend.

It’s an early start, but all of our transport was taken care of. Once aboard, it quickly became clear that this wasn’t going to be an ordinary sightseeing boat trip. The catamaran itself was extremely spacious and felt genuinely luxurious, with snorkels and flippers, paddle boards, floats and even slides available to use throughout the day. Breakfast and lunch were served on board, with non-alcoholic drinks also included, and the crew were excellent throughout.

One of the biggest advantages of the tour was the timing. The crew knew exactly what they were doing and managed to get us to Balos Lagoon before the crowds arrived. Having the famous shallow turquoise water and pink-tinted sand with relatively few other people around was an incredible experience and, for us, made the premium tour worthwhile on its own.

We also stopped at Gramvousa, where you’ll find a striking shipwreck just off the coast and an impressive Venetian fortress overlooking the island. You can’t swim close to the shipwreck for safety reasons, but those willing to make the climb up to the fortress are rewarded with fantastic panoramic views.

As beautiful as Balos and Gramvousa are, the catamaran itself was arguably the highlight. There was so much space and so much to do on board that some guests actually chose to stay on the boat rather than get off at every stop and simply enjoy everything the catamaran had to offer.

We’d happily recommend this experience to couples, families and groups of all ages. It costs more than a standard boat trip, but you’re paying for far more than transport to Balos and Gramvousa. The quality of the boat, excellent crew, included food and activities, and the opportunity to experience Balos before it became crowded made this one of our favourite days in Crete.

👉 Check Prices & Availability for the Balos & Gramvousa Luxury Catamaran Tour

3. Visit Manousakis Winery on a Chania Wine Tour

If you enjoy wine, we’d highly recommend taking a wine tour from Chania. We visited Manousakis Winery, set within the beautiful Cretan countryside, and found the experience offered much more than simply turning up for a wine tasting.

Our visit took us through the entire winemaking process, beginning with the grape harvest before moving onto crushing and pressing, where we learnt about some of the differences between producing red and white wine. We then covered fermentation, clarification and ageing, before finishing with the bottling process. Everything was explained in an accessible way, so you certainly don’t need to be a wine expert to enjoy the experience.

Our wine expert was Greek-American, spoke fluent English and was incredibly knowledgeable. Being able to ask questions as we moved through each stage made the tour feel personal and gave us a much better understanding of what actually goes into producing a bottle of wine.

The setting is another reason to visit. Manousakis Winery has beautiful, scenic grounds, and the relaxed surroundings fit the experience perfectly.

The tour finished with a traditional Cretan dinner accompanied by a tasting of five Cretan wines. Sitting down to enjoy local food while sampling the wines we’d just spent the tour learning about was a brilliant way to finish the experience. Of everything we tasted, our favourite was the Nostos Roussanne, a wine we’d happily order again.

For us, this was a great introduction to Cretan wine and the winemaking process, and we’d particularly recommend it to couples, food and wine lovers, or anyone looking for a more relaxed experience away from Chania’s beaches and busier attractions.

👉 Check Prices & Availability for the Chania Wine Tour

4. Visit Elafonissi Beach

We didn’t make it back to Elafonissi Beach during our most recent stay in Chania, but we have visited previously, albeit many years ago. Famous for its shallow turquoise waters and distinctive pink-tinted sand, it remains one of Crete’s most recognisable beaches and is well worth considering as a day trip from Chania.

If you don’t have a car, we’d recommend considering an organised Elafonissi Beach tour from Chania. It takes care of the transport and gives you plenty of time at Elafonissi itself to swim, explore the shallow lagoon and simply enjoy the beach without worrying about driving there and back.

For a longer Chania stay, Elafonissi is an easy way to add a relaxed beach day between some of the more active experiences elsewhere in this guide.

👉 Check Prices & Availability for the Elafonissi Beach Tour From Chania

5. Walk to the Chania Lighthouse

One of the simplest things we enjoyed doing in Chania was walking out towards the Egyptian Lighthouse at the entrance to the Venetian Harbour. We actually did the walk several times during our stay, usually after dinner as an excuse to walk off some of the enormous amounts of meat we’d just eaten.

The route takes you along the harbour and out across the long breakwater towards the lighthouse, with some brilliant views looking back towards Chania Old Town and the Venetian Harbour along the way. We particularly enjoyed doing it in the evening, when the temperatures were cooler and Chania was beginning to light up for the night.

You don’t necessarily need to treat the lighthouse as an attraction that requires a dedicated part of your day. We’d simply combine it with an evening exploring the Old Town or having dinner around the harbour.

It’s free, easy to fit into any Chania itinerary and, after a particularly large Cretan dinner, surprisingly useful.

6. Explore Chania Old Town

No Chania travel guide would be complete without spending some time exploring Chania Old Town. Its narrow streets are packed with restaurants, bars, small shops and beautiful historic buildings, making it an enjoyable area to wander around without necessarily having a particular destination in mind.

Our favourite time to explore the Old Town was at night. There’s a great buzz around the streets and restaurants – it’s busy and lively without feeling overly hectic, while the cooler evening temperatures make walking around considerably more comfortable than during the heat of the day.

Chania also looks particularly pretty after dark, with the illuminated buildings and narrow streets creating a completely different atmosphere from the daytime. We’d often head into the Old Town for dinner and then spend some time simply walking around afterwards.

Even if you’re only spending a few days in Chania, we’d recommend leaving at least one evening free to explore the Old Town at a relaxed pace.

Where to Eat in Chania

The food was genuinely one of the highlights of our time in Chania. Whether we were eating traditional Cretan cooking, fresh seafood or simply grabbing a gyro, we found the standard of food both in Chania and the surrounding area to be incredibly high.

We tried plenty of restaurants during our stay, but these are a few of the places we’d particularly recommend eating in Chania and the surrounding area.

Frosini’s Garden

Frosini’s Garden was one of the most memorable places we ate, although you’ll realistically want a car to get there. The restaurant specialises in traditional cooking and doesn’t use electricity to cook the food – everything is prepared using fire.

The setting is just as memorable as the food. You’re surrounded by beautiful Cretan scenery, with horses adding to the rustic atmosphere. If you have a car and want to experience something completely different from the restaurants around Chania Old Town, we’d highly recommend making the journey.

Kouzina EPE

For lunch in Chania, Kouzina EPE was excellent. This is somewhere we’d recommend if you want to try proper Greek and Cretan home-style cooking without overcomplicating things.

Everything we ordered was excellent, but the pastitsio is an absolute must-try. It’s exactly the sort of restaurant we’d happily return to for lunch and work our way through more of the menu.

Chrisostomos

Located close to Chania’s harbour, Chrisostomos is a must-visit if you’re looking for traditional Cretan food in Chania.

The focus here is firmly on local Cretan cooking rather than international dishes designed for tourists. Despite being conveniently located near the harbour, it still delivers the type of traditional food we’d actively seek out when visiting Crete.

If you only have time for a handful of restaurants during your stay, we’d make room for this one.

To Maridaki

Seafood lovers should consider To Maridaki, a Cretan-style seafood restaurant where we’d recommend taking a slightly different approach to ordering.

Rather than arriving with a particular dish in mind, ask the waiters what’s fresh and in season and take their advice. That’s what we’d recommend after our experience here, and we had a delicious meal.

It’s a great option if fresh seafood is high on your list of things to eat while visiting Chania.

Psitopolis

Sometimes you don’t want a long restaurant meal – you just want an excellent gyro.

For us, the best gyro we had during our stay was at Psitopolis in Agii Apostoli. It’s straightforward, incredibly tasty and exactly the kind of place we’d happily return to.

One small detail we particularly appreciated was the beer arriving with ice-cold glasses. After a hot day exploring Crete, an excellent gyro accompanied by a properly cold beer is difficult to beat.

There Is Plenty More to Eat in Chania

These are only a handful of the restaurants we enjoyed. Chania has an excellent food scene, and some of our best meals came from exploring beyond the most obvious tourist spots.

We’ll be putting together a dedicated Chania food guide with more of the restaurants we tried, what we’d order again and the places we think are genuinely worth seeking out.

For now, if you’re visiting Chania for the first time, the restaurants above are a very good place to start.

Where to Stay in Chania

Where you choose to stay in Chania depends largely on the type of trip you’re looking for. You can stay among the restaurants and narrow streets of Chania Old Town, base yourself closer to the beaches around Agii Apostoli, or choose one of the larger resorts along the coast.

We stayed just outside the centre and found this gave us a great balance between having a relaxing beach holiday and being close enough to enjoy Chania whenever we wanted.

Chania Old Town – Best for First-Time Visitors

If being right in the middle of the action is your priority, Chania Old Town is probably the best place to stay.

You’ll have the Venetian Harbour, restaurants, bars and shops within walking distance, while the atmosphere in the evening is one of the things we enjoyed most about Chania. Staying here also makes sense if you don’t plan on hiring a car and want to be able to walk out of your hotel and immediately start exploring.

The trade-off is that you won’t get quite the same resort or beach experience available slightly further along the coast.

Agii Apostoli – Best for Beaches & a More Relaxed Stay

For us, Agii Apostoli offers a brilliant alternative to staying directly in Chania Old Town.

You’re only a short distance from central Chania, but the area feels noticeably more relaxed and gives you much easier access to the coast and beaches. There are also some excellent places to eat nearby – including Psitopolis, where we had our favourite gyro of the trip.

This is the area we’d particularly consider if you want to combine sightseeing and evenings in Chania with plenty of time relaxing by the sea.

Where We Stayed: Domes Noruz Chania

During our trip, we spent nine nights at Domes Noruz Chania, an adults-only beachfront resort in Agii Apostoli.

For the type of Chania holiday we wanted, the location worked extremely well. We could spend the day relaxing around the hotel or swimming in its beautiful sheltered bay, while Chania Old Town was still close enough to visit for dinner and evenings out.

We stayed in a spacious room with its own plunge pool, while the hotel itself has two main pool areas, direct beach access, an excellent gym and several places to eat and drink. Breakfast was particularly impressive, with a huge selection and enough variety that it never became repetitive during our nine-night stay.

The beach was probably our favourite part of the hotel. The bay was calm and shallow, making it fantastic for swimming, and we never felt there was a race to secure a sunbed. Service was another major positive, particularly reception, housekeeping and the breakfast team.

It isn’t a cheap hotel, and we found some of the bar, restaurant and spa pricing expensive. However, looking at the overall experience – particularly the beach, rooms, food and service – we thought Domes Noruz Chania was worth it.

For couples looking for a more luxurious, adults-only base close to Chania, it’s somewhere we’d happily recommend.

👉 Read Our Full Domes Noruz Chania Review

👉 Check Prices & Availability at Domes Noruz Chania

Best Beaches in and Around Chania

One of the biggest advantages of staying in Chania is the variety of beaches you can reach from the city. You don’t necessarily need to travel far for a great swimming spot, but Chania is also an excellent base for visiting some of the most famous beaches in Crete.

From the calm bays around Agii Apostoli to the spectacular landscapes of Balos and Elafonissi, these are the beaches we’d have at the top of our list.

Agii Apostoli – Our Favourite for Swimming

Agii Apostoli deserves a huge shout-out. We spent plenty of time around this part of the coast during our stay and loved how calm and shallow the water could be.

The sheltered bays make it particularly enjoyable for swimming, and the water is often far more relaxed than you’d expect from an exposed beach. It’s a great choice for families, couples or anyone who simply wants to spend a few hours floating around in clear, calm water.

Another advantage is its proximity to Chania. You don’t need to commit an entire day to reaching it, making Agii Apostoli an excellent option when you want a straightforward beach day between tours and sightseeing.

Balos Lagoon – The Most Spectacular

Balos Lagoon is in a completely different category. Its shallow turquoise water, dramatic landscape and areas of pink-tinted sand make it one of the most distinctive places we visited in Crete.

We arrived as part of our luxury catamaran trip and were fortunate enough to reach Balos before the main crowds. Seeing the lagoon relatively quiet made an already beautiful location even more impressive.

If Balos is high on your list, we’d strongly consider visiting by boat. As we mentioned earlier, our catamaran experience was one of the highlights of our entire Chania trip.

👉 Check Prices & Availability for the Balos & Gramvousa Luxury Catamaran Tour

Elafonissi Beach – The Famous Pink-Sand Beach

Elafonissi Beach is another of western Crete’s most famous beaches, known for its turquoise water, shallow lagoon and distinctive pink-tinted sand.

We visited Elafonissi many years ago rather than during our most recent Chania trip, but it remains somewhere we’d recommend considering if you have enough time in your itinerary.

It’s quite a journey from Chania, so travellers without a car may find an organised day trip considerably easier than arranging the journey independently.

👉 Check Prices & Availability for the Elafonissi Beach Tour From Chania

Nea Chora Beach – Best Near Chania Old Town

If you’re staying centrally and don’t want to travel across western Crete, Nea Chora Beach is one of the easiest options.

It’s close to Chania Old Town, making it particularly useful if you want to combine sightseeing with a few hours at the beach rather than dedicate an entire day to the coast.

It won’t give you the dramatic scenery of Balos or Elafonissi, but that’s not really the point. Its biggest advantage is convenience.

Falassarna Beach – Worth the Journey

Another beach worth considering is Falassarna, on Crete’s western coast.

It’s known for its long stretches of sand, clear water and much more open coastal setting than the sheltered bays around Chania. It’s a good option if you have a rental car and want to spend a day exploring western Crete independently.

Falassarna also gives you something slightly different from Balos and Elafonissi. Rather than visiting purely because it’s a famous attraction, this is somewhere you can simply arrive, find a spot and enjoy a proper beach day.

Which Chania Beach Would We Choose?

For an easy swimming day close to Chania, we’d choose Agii Apostoli.

For the most spectacular scenery, Balos would be our pick.

For an iconic western Crete beach day, consider Elafonissi, while Nea Chora is the convenient choice for anyone staying around Chania Old Town.

If you have a car and want to explore further, Falassarna is another excellent addition to a western Crete itinerary.

Getting Around Chania: Do You Need a Car?

You don’t need a car to visit Chania, particularly if you’re staying around the Old Town and plan on using organised tours for your day trips. Chania itself is very walkable, and we found exploring the Old Town and Venetian Harbour on foot was part of the experience.

That said, we were very glad we hired a car. It gave us the freedom to explore outside Chania, visit beaches and, importantly for us, seek out some excellent restaurants that would otherwise have been more difficult to reach.

Even with a rental car, we’d still recommend organised tours for certain experiences. Samaria Gorge is a perfect example because the hike begins and ends in completely different locations, while our Balos and Gramvousa catamaran tour was as much about the luxury boat experience as reaching the destinations themselves.

For most travellers, we’d say a car is useful rather than essential. If you want complete freedom to explore western Crete, hire one. If you’d rather stay around Chania and take organised day trips, you’ll manage perfectly well without one.

How Many Days Do You Need in Chania?

We’d recommend spending at least five days in Chania. This gives you enough time to explore the Old Town and Venetian Harbour, enjoy the local beaches and still fit in a couple of the excellent day trips available from Chania.

With three days, you can certainly see Chania and squeeze in one major experience, but you’ll need to prioritise.

Five days gives you a much better balance between sightseeing, beaches and experiences such as Samaria Gorge or Balos and Gramvousa.

If you have seven days or longer, even better. We spent nine nights in the area and never felt short of things to do, particularly with so much of western Crete within reach.

Best Time to Visit Chania

We’d recommend visiting Chania between May and October, when the weather is generally best suited to beaches, boat trips and exploring western Crete.

May and June are great options if you want warm weather before the busiest summer period, while July and August are ideal for beach days but bring higher temperatures and larger crowds.

We visited in July and, although it was hot, we found it manageable – even when hiking Samaria Gorge. If we were choosing purely for the best balance of warm weather and fewer peak-season crowds, we’d consider June or September.

5-Day Chania Itinerary

If you have five days in Chania, we’d split your time between exploring the city, relaxing by the sea and experiencing some of western Crete’s highlights.

Day 1: Chania Old Town & Venetian Harbour

Spend your first day getting to know Chania. Explore the Old Town, walk around the Venetian Harbour and head towards the lighthouse. Stay for dinner and enjoy the Old Town after dark, when we think Chania is at its best.

Day 2: Hike Samaria Gorge

Dedicate your second day to Samaria Gorge. It’s a long day, but for us it was one of the highlights of Crete.

👉 Check Availability for the Samaria Gorge Tour From Chania

Day 3: Beach & Cretan Food

Have a slower day after the hike. We’d head to Agii Apostoli for its calm, shallow water before spending the evening enjoying some of Chania’s excellent food.

Day 4: Balos & Gramvousa Catamaran

Spend the day sailing to Balos Lagoon and Gramvousa. Our luxury catamaran experience was another standout and provides a completely different day from Samaria Gorge.

👉 Check Availability for the Balos & Gramvousa Luxury Catamaran Tour

Day 5: Manousakis Winery

Finish with something more relaxed and take a wine tour to Manousakis Winery, learning about Cretan winemaking before enjoying local wines alongside traditional Cretan food.

👉 Check Availability for the Chania Wine Tour

This itinerary gives you a good balance of Chania itself, beaches, hiking, sailing, food and Cretan wine without trying to cram every attraction into five days.

Chania Travel Tips

After spending nine nights exploring Chania and western Crete, these are a few things we’d recommend knowing before your trip:

• Book popular tours in advance. Experiences such as Samaria Gorge and boat trips to Balos can be extremely popular during the summer months, so we’d avoid leaving these until the last minute.
• You don’t need a car, but having one is useful. We loved having the freedom to explore beaches, restaurants and areas outside Chania independently. If you’re happy using organised tours, however, you can easily visit without one.
• Don’t underestimate the summer heat. July was hot during our visit, particularly during the middle of the day. Carry water, use plenty of sun protection and save longer walks around Chania for the morning or evening where possible.
• Explore Chania Old Town at night. This was our favourite time to visit. It’s lively without feeling overly hectic, the streets look beautiful after dark and the cooler temperatures make exploring much more enjoyable.
• Look beyond the harbour for food. There are some excellent restaurants around central Chania, but some of our favourite meals were found further afield. If you have a car, use it to explore the local food scene.
• Don’t fill every day with excursions. Samaria Gorge in particular is a long and active day. We’d recommend mixing tours with slower days at the beach or exploring Chania.
• Bring proper footwear for Samaria Gorge. If you’re planning the hike, comfortable footwear with good grip is far more important than trying to look stylish.
• Give Chania enough time. We’d recommend at least five days rather than treating Chania as a quick stop. There’s plenty to experience both within the city and across western Crete.

Final Thoughts: Is Chania Worth Visiting?

Chania ended up being one of our favourite places in Crete. After nine nights, we still didn’t feel like we’d exhausted everything the area had to offer, and we’d happily return.

What makes Chania so appealing is the variety. You can spend an evening wandering around the beautiful Old Town, eat some incredible Cretan food, relax in the calm waters around Agii Apostoli and then use Chania as a base for exploring some of western Crete’s most impressive landscapes.

For us, hiking Samaria Gorge and sailing to Balos and Gramvousa by luxury catamaran were the two standout experiences, but the food, beaches and relaxed atmosphere were just as important to how much we enjoyed the trip.

If you’re considering Chania for your next trip to Crete, we’d absolutely recommend it. Give yourself at least five days, don’t try to cram too much into each day and make time to simply enjoy Chania itself between the bigger excursions.

Chania Travel Guide FAQ

Related Reads

• Samaria Gorge Hike Review
• Domes Noruz Chania Hotel Review