Chania

Topanas lanes, the Balos boat and the Samaria descent in three days

Give Chania three days: one for the old town, walking the breakwater to the lighthouse, the Mosque of the Janissaries, the lanes of Topanas and Etz Hayyim Synagogue; one for a boat to the Balos lagoon from Kissamos; and one for the Samaria Gorge descent when it is open, from May to October.

Day one: the old town. Start early with a walk along the breakwater to the lighthouse, when the harbour is still quiet and the light falls on the domed Mosque of the Janissaries. Lose an hour in the lanes of Topanas, then climb Kondylaki Street to Etz Hayyim Synagogue. Cross to Splantzia for coffee under the plane tree. In the late afternoon, walk west to Nea Chora for a swim and fish at a beach taverna, and come back for the harbour after dark.

Day two: the far west. Take the KTEL bus to Kissamos and go on to the Balos lagoon, or catch the single morning bus to Elafonisi for its shallow water and pinkish sand. Either way it is a full day; pack food, water and shade.

Day three: the gorge or the villages. If the Samaria Gorge is open, start before dawn with a KTEL bus or organised transport to the trailhead on the Omalos plateau and walk down to Agia Roumeli on the Libyan Sea, returning by boat and bus. If it is closed, hire a car and drive the inland villages instead, stopping at a kafenion for raki, or tour the monasteries on the Akrotiri peninsula.

Boureki, staka and snails in the lanes behind Chania harbour

Western Crete keeps dishes rarely found elsewhere, and Chania is where to try them. Order Chaniotiko boureki, baked courgette and potato with mizithra and mint, kalitsounia pies with cheese or greens, staka, a rich cream from sheep's milk, and snails, all in the lanes behind the harbour away from the waterfront menus.

Chaniotiko boureki is a baked layering of courgettes and potatoes with soft mizithra cheese and mint. Kalitsounia, small pies filled with cheese or wild greens, come fried or baked. Staka, a rich cream skimmed from sheep's milk, is spooned over eggs or cooked into rice. Dakos, the barley rusk topped with tomato and cheese, appears on every table, and snails cooked with rosemary are a Cretan favourite.

For atmosphere, the harbour front is hard to beat, but the food is better a lane or two back, where small tavernas cook for locals as well as visitors. Fish is at its best at the beach tavernas of Nea Chora, a short walk west. Out on the Akrotiri peninsula, village tavernas in places such as Kounoupidiana cook traditional food for a mostly local crowd.

Breakfast means a slice of cheese-filled bougatsa with sugar. Evenings finish with raki, poured free with fruit after most meals. In the villages, the kafenion is the place for raki and a game of tavli, though it remains largely a male space.

Rainless summers, wet winters and the Samaria Gorge season

Chania is close to rainless from May to September, with highs rising from 25C in May to 31C in July and warm nights near 21C. October is still warm at 23C but brings the first rain, and winter is mild and wet. The Samaria Gorge opens from 1 May to mid-October, conditions permitting.

Chania has two distinct halves to its year. From May to September it is close to rainless, with 11 mm in May and barely 1-2 mm a month from June to August. Highs climb from 25C in May to 31C in July, and nights stay warm at around 21C. Winter is mild but wet: from December to February highs sit at 14-16C and January alone averages over 120 mm of rain, more than any other month.

That pattern decides when you can walk the Samaria Gorge, the main reason many people base themselves here. The gorge is inside a national park and opens only in the dry season, usually from around May to October, and it closes on days with storms or heavy rain. The walk drops about 16 km from Xyloskalo on the Omalos plateau down to the village of Agia Roumeli on the Libyan Sea, where boats take you along the coast to meet buses back to town. Start early: midday in July in the lower gorge is fierce.

Spring is the best compromise, with the hills green, the sea warming and the charter crowds yet to arrive. September and October repeat the trick with warmer water.