Crete: the Samaria gorge end to end, and a table in Splantzia after

Chania, Omalos, Samaria, Agia Roumeli, Chora Sfakion

1. 6:15 am1

   The 06:15 KTEL bus to XyloskaloChania

   Buy this ticket the day before at the station. The 06:15 sells out in season and the next departures put you into the hottest part of the gorge; it is also the only one that comfortably makes the afternoon boat. Sit on the right for the climb onto the Omalos plateau.

   24 min by train or taxi · 24 km
2. 8:05 am2

   Pay in at the park gateOmalos

   They log every walker in and out and the stub is checked again at Agia Roumeli, so keep it somewhere dry. Park is open May to late October only — outside that the whole day is impossible, not merely quiet.

   13 min by train or taxi · 8.2 km
3. 8:30 am3

   The wooden staircase down, and on to the Iron GatesSamaria

   A thousand metres of descent in the first three kilometres, and it being downhill is exactly the trap — this wrecks knees, not lungs, so bring poles even if you never use them. There are spring taps the whole way, so carry one litre and refill rather than three. The Iron Gates are three metres wide and three hundred high and everybody stops dead there; walk on twenty minutes and you get the riverbed to yourself.

   8 min by train or taxi · 2.2 km
4. 1:05 pm4

   The last flat stretch into Agia RoumeliAgia Roumeli

   The park gate is not the sea. There is another two to three kilometres of open, shadeless gravel to the village and it is the part people are unprepared for. Nothing drives out of Agia Roumeli — no road reaches it — so the boat is not one option, it is the only one.

   3 min walk · 0 m
5. 2:50 pm5

   Black pebbles, cold water, one beerAgia Roumeli

   Swim before you sit down or you will not get up again. The Libyan Sea here is colder than the north coast and it is exactly what six hours of descent needs.

   9 min walk · 650 m
6. 5 pm6

   ANENDYK ferry to Chora SfakionAgia Roumeli

   Tickets on the quay, cash, an hour before. This is the sailing that connects with the Chania bus; the later one does not always, and if you miss the last boat you are staying the night in a village with four rooms.

   16 min by train or taxi · 16 km
7. 6:30 pm7

   Bus over the Sfakia mountains to ChaniaChora Sfakion

   It waits for the boat — the driver counts the ferry off. Sit on the left going up out of Sfakia for the drop to the sea, then sleep.

8. 9 pm8

   Late dinner at ChrisostomosChania

   Eleven hours on your feet ends five minutes' walk from where the bus drops you. Old-school Cretan cooking at the quiet east end of the harbour — order the gamopilafo, the wedding rice cooked in goat stock, which is the thing to eat in Chania and almost never on menus aimed at visitors. Book from the bus; it is small and it fills at 21:00.