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Zakros Gorge

We hiked the Zakros gorge on our most recent trip to Crete, in May 2015. Although our home away from home in Crete is situated near Chania, in Western Crete we usually drive around the island while there. This time we decided to explore more of the Eastern end of the island. On our previous trip we'd only been as far East as the Dikteon cave which is quite close to the infamous holiday village of Malia.

On our first day we drove all the way to Agios Nikolaos, stopping at Heraklion on the way. It was a long day of driving but it got us pretty far to the east so we didn't have to drive that much on the following day. At Ag. Nikolaos we stayed in a small hotel outside the city. Faedra Beach hotel is okay if you get a good deal. Staff was very nice and the location good for guests arriving by car as car park was good.

On the next day we drove through Sitia to Palekastro, Hiona beach to be precise Now we were in the "deep east". Palekastro was a nice low-key village surrounded by mountains on one side and the beach on the other. There are quite a few things to see around so I do recommend you stay 1-2 nights here. Let's see if I write another blog post later about Palekastro.

On our third day at Eastern Crete we hiked the Zakros gorge. It was wonderful! So full of scent of the herbs, spices and flowers in the gorge. And so many colorful flowers everywhere. It is the most rich gorge I have been to in Crete. The name Valley of the Dead is so wrong for this place (although I did see one dead kri-kri). Zakros gorge was once an ancient burial site and thus the name. Actually you can still see the numerous caves dotting the walls of this canyon.

Zakros Gorge has a very rich flora & fauna. And the scent of the herbs and flowers, lovely!
 The Zakros gorge is about a 7km hike between the village of Zakros and Kato Zakros. Of these two villages, Kato Zakros is the fishing one on the beach. You can start your hike from either end. We parked our car by the beach and walked the gorge on both ways. If you start from the village of Zakros, you can choose between entrance A and B. B is perhaps easier as there's less descent but A is more interesting. We got out of the gorge from A and then walked on the road to entrance B where we got back into the gorge. The round-trip took us about 4,5 hours.


The Zakros gorge belongs to the European hiking route, E4. Actually it is the end of the route. Out of the three gorges I've been to, Zakros was the easiest as there's almost no rocks on the path and descent as well as ascent aren't very steep or long.

From entrance B back into the gorge.

Hiker's trainers
For more information on Zakros gorge try this: http://www.cretetravel.com/guide/kato-zakros/
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