| Lively Lassithi | |
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Crete gets busier every year, as more and more travelers discover its charms. The Lassithi region of Eastern Crete offers expansive vistas with fields stretching out to the horizon, whirling windmills, charming small ports, and the ruins of a Minoan palace appearing unexpectedly around a bend in the road. Eastern Crete is also the southernmost part of Europe, marking the major land boundary between that continent and Africa and the middle East. As such, the region has always enjoyed strategic importance for both war and trade. Now, it's seizing a strategic role in tourism.
A great base for your Lassithian adventures is Sitia (Siteía), an atmospheric town occupying a location that dates back to the Minoan period. Less expensive than popular Agia Nikolaos, less developed than Ierapetra, it offers many attractions of its own. It's still skipped by some major guidebooks - it won't be for long. Go now while you can still "discover" Sitia.
Spotting that visitors enjoy cultural festivals, the municipality of Sitia is adopting them at a swift rate. July and the first two weeks of August see the cultural juggernaut of the Kornaria, which offers in its six weeks of existence theater, photographic exhibitions, athletic competitions, and special events held in small villages nearby, such as a festival of fortune-telling in Klidonas. This precedes the older, vibrant musical festival called the "Feast of Sultana", where the folk music is accompanied by free wine. Is a feast of a "sultana", the name for a wife of a Turkish sultan, a strange subject for a festival in happily and finally sultan-free Greece? No, not at all - the term here refers to a raisin, not a ruler, a rich seasonal export for Sitia.
| Sitia is a small city with the best of a village atmosphere, plus the amenities of a larger town. |
In spring, Sitia enjoys its own version of Carnival, picking up the tradition only a few years ago but attacking it with vigor. For the year 2003, it will peak on March 9th, and in 2004, on February 23rd.
Getting Around Lassithi
If you don't feel financially or emotionally up to renting a car, most buses in Crete are inexpensive alternatives, quick enough for short journeys, often hugging scenic coastal roads where most of the population is centered.If you do want to drive, Crete is a large, roughly eagle-shaped island, and as a dear friend of mine used to say, "You can't get lost on an island - eventually, you come back to where you started." I'll modify that to say that you can't get as lost on an island. In the interior of Crete, even the National Highway often takes meandering paths, clinging to crests for a time, then plunging into valleys or shooting straight across the plains. The mountain roads of interior Crete are not for everybody, and the "secondary" roads, while generally paved and in good condition, may be too steep and curving for drivers without a bit of local kri-kri goat blood in their veins.
You can also hire a car and driver to get you where you want to go; these end up costing about the same as a rental car per day (approximately $35-50), though you usually only have their services for a few hours. These drivers will invariably know all about the local area, but may not be "professional" drivers or licensed to transport passengers. However, they will definitely be more comfortable on the local roads than most visitors will be.
Treat their restaurant and lodging recommendations with caution - they will generally take you to their "Uncle's" restaurant or inn. If Uncle is a good cook or innkeeper, you'll be in for a marvelous time and treated almost as one of the family. If Uncle really should have followed a different profession, and just jumped on the tourist-gouging bandwagon, you may be disappointed.
Sitia has a small airport linked to several islands, and Agios Nikolaos provides ferry service to and from Piraeus with a stop at Milos.
Useful Links
Events in Lassithi
Excellent compilation of local festivals in Agios Nikolaos, Sitia, and elsewhere in Eastern Crete. Must reading to easily enhance your trip with a special moment celebrating with the Cretans.
Interkriti Map of Eastern Crete
Map showing major roads plus some minor, and interesting villages between Chersonissos and Agio Nikolaos. Thickest red lines are easiest roads; thinner ones are curvier than indicated.
Interkriti Map of Eastern Crete II
The far east of Crete, including Sitia and environs.
Kalimera Kriti Hotel
In the town of Sissi. Marble-lined bathtubs in every room - need I say more? Discounted luxury rates through Hotels in Greece (an outstanding resource for hotels throughout Greece, by the way.)
Explore Crete
Articles, information, and assistance for travelers to Crete.
