Getting an early start the next morning, I snagged the last free parking space at Knossos. Fos Fonari doesn’t take credit cards, and I had no cash, so my waiter doffed his apron and led me down the street to an ATM.

The chef’s special salmon baked in vodka cream sauce with raisins and celery was tasty. A table opposite mine was claimed by a young man and five mini-clad women sharing platters of food between cellphone chats. When I arrived about 9, there was only a handful of diners, but by 11 the restaurant was filling rapidly. My twin-bed room, done in champagne and charcoal and with a balcony overlooking the Venetian harbor, was perfectly pleasant.įor dinner within walking distance, the desk clerk recommended Fos Fonari. The refurbished boutique hotel has contemporary décor, a restaurant and an inviting bar. (You’ll see Chania as Canae or Hania, among others.) But if ancient artifacts are your thing - and you’re headed to Athens for the Olympics, which are to open Friday - Crete is certainly worth a look.Ĭhecking into Lato Hotel in Heraklion - a city that will host some of the Olympics’ soccer contests - I was overjoyed to hand the bellhop my car keys and let him try to find a space on the street.

If an island vacation with beach time is your wish, there are places just as pretty that are far closer to Los Angeles and where the spellings of place names is far less confusing.

The physical degradation of coastal resorts, with their cheap holiday packages, has been matched by the dilution of traditional island culture. Less than an hour by air from Athens and served by commercial car and passenger ferries, Crete saw tourism jump 50% between 19, taxing its infrastructure and choking its towns with traffic.

That disappeared when the number of annual visitors to this island 100 miles south of the Greek mainland reached 3 million. Somnolent villages still exist on the southern, less tourist-trammeled side of Crete, I’m told, but the north coast, with the island’s three major towns - Heraklion, Chania and Rethymnon - is anything but quaintly ethnic.

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