Towns for Your Crete Sightseeing

Planning out any Cretan holiday can be a challenging job due to the sheer number of available options. There are several towns of significance, each having an abundance of modern infrastructure, archeological richness and natural beauty. You can choose any of these towns for your Crete Sightseeing, depending on your personal choice. Among these towns is Heraklion, the capital and the largest city of Crete. The city accounts for roughly about 15% of all arrivals into Greece through its international airport and consists of a flourishing hotel industry to add comfort to your Crete sightseeing. Heraklion is also where the Minoan archeological site called the Knossos Palace stands.

Chania is the next town for Crete sightseeing after Heraklion. With an official population of around 70,000 in the greater Chania, this second largest city of Crete has several tourist attractions to look around for. The city is roughly divided into two major elements, viz. the old and the new towns. The old one sprawls around the harbor area and carries one of the best ancient settings for holiday making in Greece and elsewhere. The town used to be encircled by the old Venetian fortifications, some of which survive even today adding to your Crete sightseeing plans. If the old town had spas, cafes and other recreational facilities carved out of the old heritage buildings, the new one will surprise you with its modern setting.

One could choose from a number of archeological places in Chania to add to one's Crete sightseeing. Most of these places lie in Kasteli, Splantzia, Halidon street, at the harbor, in Topanas and the Jewish quarter. The combined tourist arrivals of the above two cities, i.e. Heraklion and Chania, form a decent percentage of the entire Greek tourism. Rethymno is another town, which could be added to one's Crete sightseeing flavors. The town has a population of roughly 40,000 and a past dating back to antiquity. The old part of Rethymno, built during the Venetian era, is among the best preserved sites of its kind in today’s Crete.

Archeological remains have withstood the change of time, weather and man's interference in Rethymno, to continue being listed along the best Crete sightseeing locations. These included buildings and harbor from the Venetian period, and stoned staircases and arched doorways from the Hellenic-Roman and Byzantine era. The city has a Venetian castle named the Fortezza, which is one of the largest and most preserved of its kind in the whole of Crete. One more town for Crete sightseeing is Ierapetra in the eastern Crete. It holds a population of about 24,000 and is widely known for its Greek, Roman and Venetian lineages.

Agios Nikolaos is another Crete sightseeing location, which lies east to Heraklion and is widely known for its tourism potential. The town plays a regional hub for 20 odd villages and is well connected through Nikos Kazantzakis airport with the mainland Greece and the European cities. The city is widely believed to have been inhabited since the Bronze period. Crete sightseeing locations within Agios Nikolaos include, the Lake Voulismeni, the island Agioi Pantes, beaches along the coastal region, the local archaeological museum and one key flora exhibition "Iris".