Rethymno is the city people discover on their second trip to Crete.
On a first trip, everyone visits Chania. It’s famous, beautiful, and on all the postcards. But when people return and explore a bit further east, they discover Rethymnon — and soon they’re telling everyone they picked the wrong city the first time.
I was one of those people.
I thought it would be a smaller, quieter, and less exciting version of Chania. Instead, I found a city with an old town that felt bigger, more colorful, and livelier than I expected.
The streets invite wandering instead of rushing through a checklist. There’s a restaurant with a stone courtyard and candlelight that might serve the best meal in Crete.
Plus, there’s so much history packed into the old town that you could spend days exploring without leaving its walls.
Then there’s what’s around it.
There are monasteries with tragic histories, a potter’s village that’s stayed much the same since Venetian times, a palm-lined beach where Allied soldiers hid during WWII with monks helping them escape by submarine, a lake so blue and calm it almost seems unreal, and a tiny chapel standing alone on a narrow strip of land where the river meets the sea.
This guide covers all of it.
The essentials
- Rethymno is 60km east of Chania (about 1 hour by car), 80km west of Heraklion (about 1 hour)
- Old town is largely pedestrianised — park outside the walls
- Car essential for day trips around the region, compare prices with Discover Cars
- Best season: May–June and September–October
- If you’re planning a bigger island trip beyond Rethymno, my full Crete travel guide helps you connect Chania, Heraklion, and the south coast
- If you want a stay as charming as Chania but in a smaller town, Rethymno is your best choice
- Where to stay? Avli Lounge Apartments or Palazzino Di Corina
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The Old Town: A Morning Itinerary
The old town deserves a full morning. Possibly a full day if you let it.
The itinerary below is roughly the route the guidebook recommends — and it works. Start at the harbour, work your way up through the old town, and finish at the fortress above the city.
Start at the Venetian Harbour
It’s smaller than Chania’s (and if you’re still deciding where to stay first, my guide on Heraklion or Chania helps with that choice) but has the same layered history — Venetian, Ottoman, Greek, all compressed into one small port.
Fishing boats at the quay, a lighthouse at the end of the breakwater, tavernas on the waterfront that do excellent coffee.
The outer breakwater ends with a lighthouse. Walk out to it.
The view back over the city, with the minaret rising above the rooftops and the Venetian fortress on the hill behind, is one of those sights that instantly shows why people have fought over this stretch of coast for three thousand years.
Best time: early morning, before the tour groups. The light on the water is extraordinary.
The Rimondi Fountain (1626)
Walk back from the harbour into the old town and you’ll find it within minutes.
Three lion heads still spout water after four centuries. The Venetians built drinking fountains at the heart of their cities as a mix of civic infrastructure and a sign of power and care. The Rimondi is the best-preserved Venetian monument in Rethymno and easy to miss if you’re not paying attention.
Don’t walk past it.
Porta Guora
The only surviving gate of the original Venetian city walls.
The Lion of Saint Mark is carved above the arch — Venice’s symbol, marking the edge of the Serenissima’s territory. Four hundred years ago, leaving through this gate meant leaving the safety of the city. Now it marks the boundary between the modern town and the old, and you pass through it without thinking about any of that.
Stop and think about it.
The Mosque of Neratze
Three minarets survive in Rethymno. This is the most impressive.
It was originally a Venetian church — built in the 17th century, converted to a mosque during Ottoman rule. The Ottomans added the minaret. It’s now used as a concert hall, which means the interior is sometimes open and sometimes not depending on programming. If it’s open, go in.
The vaulted ceiling alone is worth the detour.
Don’t overlook Rethymno’s Ottoman heritage. It’s more visible here than in Chania and gives the city a unique layered feel — you’re really seeing two civilizations stacked within the same buildings.
The Old Town Streets
This is where I lose the ability to give you a precise itinerary.
Wander. That’s the plan.
Rethymno’s old town surprised me with how many beautiful sights are packed into every corner. You turn a corner and find a restaurant courtyard painted in five colors.
Turn another and see an artist painting outdoors, with an old tower behind her — the whole scene looks like a painting itself.
That specific street — I still don’t know its name. I would recognize it immediately if I saw it again. If you find it, let me know.
What you’re looking for: the streets that run up toward the fortress, slightly away from the main tourist drag. The Venetian loggia on Arkadíou Street (17th century, now an art gallery). The small mosques tucked into residential streets, worth stopping into if open. The working craft shops — ceramics, lace, leather — where actual things are being made.
The Archaeological Museum
Housed inside a Venetian bastion — worth seeing even if you’re not a museum person, because the building alone is remarkable.
The collection includes a Neolithic figurine estimated to be around 9,000 years old, and here’s the part that surprises many — fossils of dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants that lived on Crete before humans arrived. They evolved in isolation over thousands of years and shrank to the size of large dogs. They’re long gone now, but their fossils are on display in this room.
Around €2, verify current hours.
The Venetian Fortress (Fortezza)
Finish the morning here. Come for the views, stay for the Mosque of Sultan Ibrahim.
The fortress is enormous and star-shaped, built by the Venetians in the 16th century to defend against Ottoman attacks. It didn’t succeed — the Ottomans took Crete in 1648 after a 21-year siege — but the structure is impressive.
Walking along the perimeter walls offers views over the city, the sea, and the mountains inland.
Inside the fortress, the Mosque of Sultan Ibrahim Khan is the standout. The Ottomans converted the Venetian cathedral into a mosque — the dome is magnificent, the interior serene, the acoustics strange in the best way.
They use it for concerts and exhibitions. If there’s a concert on while you’re there, go.
Around €4, verify current hours.
Here’s the honest truth about the fortress: it’s partly in ruins and partly restored, so it doesn’t have the polished feel of some tourist sites. That’s actually a good thing. There’s plenty of space to sit and gaze at the sea between crumbling Venetian walls, and almost no one else takes the time to do it.
Bring water. There’s nowhere to buy anything once you’re inside.
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Lunch in Rethymno
You’re back in the old town by now, probably hungry.
Avli is the answer to where to eat dinner (more on that below), but for lunch: wander away from the harbour. The streets running up toward the fortress have honest tavernas — the tell is whether they have a handwritten menu or a laminated one with photographs. Go for the handwritten one.
Look for dakos (the Cretan rusk with tomato and mizithra — simple, extraordinary), grilled vegetables, whatever the daily special is.
Dinner: Avli
If you eat at one restaurant in all of Crete, make it Avli in Rethymno.
We ate in a small stone courtyard with clay pots of herbs climbing the walls, candlelight, the sound of the city fading to nothing outside. The chef came to our table and recommended what to order. My husband had a lamb dish that was quietly, simply perfect. The kind of meal you reconstruct in your head on the flight home.
Avli is also a hotel. Guests wake up to breakfast in this same courtyard every morning. When the chef came to talk to us at dinner, I was genuinely envious of the people staying upstairs.
If you’re looking for a place to stay in Rethymno, I can’t find one better to recommend than this!
Book ahead. This is not a walk-in restaurant. Around €35–50/person with wine. It’s in the old town — you’ll find it.
Around Rethymno: The Day Trips
This is where the Rethymno region becomes extraordinary.
A car is essential for all of these.
The Monastery of Arkadi (Moni Arkadiou)
The monastery is situated at 23km southeast of Rethymno. About 30 minutes.
You need to understand what happened here before you visit. If you don’t, it’s a pretty building. If you do, it’s one of the most moving places in Crete.
In November 1866, several hundred Cretan civilians — men, women, and children — fled to the monastery as Ottoman forces attacked the island’s uprising against Ottoman rule.
They barricaded themselves inside. When the walls were finally breached, the abbot Gavriil Marinakis made a decision: instead of surrendering, he ordered the gunpowder stored in the magazine to be detonated.
The explosion killed hundreds of people — Cretans and Ottoman soldiers alike. It shocked Europe. It became the defining moment of the Cretan resistance movement and, ultimately, accelerated international support that led toward Greek independence.
There is a small room on the site where you can see the remains of the magazine. There’s a memorial to the dead. There’s a museum with documents from the period.
And there’s the main entrance gate — an extraordinarily beautiful piece of Venetian baroque architecture, two storeys, ornate and white against the Cretan sky — that you see on every photograph of the monastery without knowing what it’s framing.
Now you know.
The monastery is still active. Monks live here. Dress respectfully — shoulders and knees covered.
Entry around €3. Open daily — verify hours before going.
The drive there, through the Cretan hills, is beautiful. If you go in spring, the wildflowers on the roadside are extraordinary.
Full guide: Visiting the Monastery of Arkadi →
Margarites Village
20km east of Rethymno on the road toward Arkadi. About 25 minutes.
Margarites is a ceramics village. It has been a ceramics village since the Minoan era — the clay deposits in the surrounding hills are some of the finest on the island, and the tradition has run, more or less unbroken, for four thousand years.
Today the village has a handful of potters’ workshops, most of them on the main lane that winds through the old settlement.
The pots and vessels outside the workshops are hand-thrown and often hand-painted in traditional Cretan patterns — geometric, botanical, animal. You can watch the potters work. You can buy directly from the maker.
It is not a museum. It’s not performing itself for tourists. It’s a small village where people have been making ceramic things for a very long time, and some of those things are for sale.
Combine with Arkadi on the same day — they’re on the same road and the detour adds only about 20 minutes. Stop in Margarites first (morning light, potters’ workshops open early), then continue to the monastery.
What to buy: the smaller pieces travel better. A small amphora, a traditional oil lamp, a set of cups. The larger statement pots are beautiful and completely impractical to get home.
Preveli Beach and Monastery
38km south of Rethymno. About 50 minutes.
This one requires a bit of effort. It’s worth every minute of it.
Here’s the story: During the German occupation of Crete in WWII, thousands of Allied soldiers were stranded on the island after the Battle of Crete. The monks at Preveli Monastery hid them, guided them to the beach below, and arranged for British submarines to rescue them.
The monastery sits on a cliff above the Libyan Sea — pale stone buildings, a courtyard, an extraordinary view. It’s still active. Entry a couple of euros; dress respectfully. The museum has documents and artefacts from the WWII period including photographs of the evacuation.
Preveli beach, on the other hand, is one of the most unique spots on the island, and I also included it in my full guide to the best beaches in Crete.
The path down from the car park to the beach takes about 15 minutes of rough terrain. Alternatively, you can reach Preveli beach by boat from Plakias (€5–8 return, about 30 minutes) — easier if you don’t want the climb, and the approach by sea with the palm trees visible from the water is spectacular.
The beach itself features a river, the Kourtaliótikos, which flows from a gorge directly onto the beach and into the sea. The palm grove on both sides of the river mouth creates one of Crete’s most remarkable landscapes: palm trees, fresh water, and the Libyan Sea all in one view.
You can swim in the river, which is cooler, or the sea, which is saltier. The pebble beach isn’t as comfortable as sand, but no one comes here for comfort.
Get there early. By 11am it fills up. By 1pm, the boat tourists arrive and in the afternoon the beach has no sun.
No facilities on the beach itself — bring food, water, and reef-friendly sunscreen.
Georgioupolis: The Chapel on the Water
24km west of Rethymno. About 20 minutes.
Georgioupolis is a small beach town. It’s pleasant enough with long sandy beach, tavernas on the waterfront, a relaxed pace. Not a destination in itself.
But there’s a reason to go.
Walk along the river estuary, past the eucalyptus trees, to the point where the river meets the sea. There, standing on a tiny spit of land reached by a small wooden bridge, is the Chapel of Agios Nikolaos.
A tiny whitewashed chapel. Blue dome. Entirely alone, with the river on one side and the sea on the other, and the mountains of western Crete visible behind it.
It’s one of those sights that stops you in your tracks. Not because it’s famous — it’s not really — but because it’s exactly itself. Small, solitary, perfectly placed, with the light reflecting on the water around it.
Stop. Take the photograph. Sit on the bridge for a while.
The chapel is usually open (it’s a working place of worship) and takes about two minutes to look inside. The point isn’t the interior — it’s the view from the bridge with the chapel in it.
Georgioupolis makes a good half-day combined with Lake Kournas (3km inland, see below) — easy 20-minute drive from Rethymno, both done by midday, rest of the day free.
Lake Kournas
3km inland from Georgioupolis. About 25 minutes from Rethymno.
Crete’s only natural freshwater lake.
It sits in a bowl of hills, turquoise-green and completely still, ringed by reeds and backed by mountains. In spring the water is cold and clear and the colour is extraordinary — somewhere between turquoise and jade, depending on the light and the depth.
You can rent paddleboats and kayaks from the small café on the shore. You can swim from the pebbly beach at the water’s edge. You can do neither of these things and just sit on the terrace and look at it over a coffee.
The lake is small enough that you can circle it on foot in about an hour. The path is rough in places but manageable. The views back over the lake from the far side, with the village of Kournas visible on the hillside above, are worth the effort.
Freshwater turtles live in the lake and can often be seen near the shore, especially in the morning. While sightings aren’t guaranteed, they happen often enough to mention.
When to go: Spring and early summer, when the water level is highest and the colour most intense. By August the water recedes and the green edges dry out. Still beautiful, but the spring version is better.
Combine with Georgioupolis on the same morning — it’s 3km up the road and adds 30 minutes to the trip.
A Note on Bali
People sometimes ask whether Bali is worth a day trip from Rethymno.
Bali is a small resort town about 30km east of Rethymno, built around a series of small coves. It’s pretty. The water is good. There’s a modest fishing port with tavernas on the quay and a relaxed, slightly faded feel that’s not unpleasant.
But as a day trip? Not really. The coves are nice but not spectacular. The tavernas are okay but not memorable. The drive there and back takes 40 minutes each way on the highway, which isn’t scenic enough to make the trip worthwhile.
Where Bali does make sense is as a base. Accommodation there is noticeably cheaper than in Rethymno or Chania, and its location puts you about 30 minutes from each city on the highway. If budget matters and you plan to day-trip to both places, staying in Bali is a practical choice.
We actually based ourselves in Bali for part of our 20-day trip, which is how we know this. It works well as a base. It doesn’t work as a destination in itself.
How to Structure Your Time
One day in the city: Do the old town itinerary above — harbour, Rimondi fountain, Porta Guora, the mosques, the side streets, the fortress. Lunch in the old town. Dinner at Avli.
Add a second day: Choose between Arkadi + Margarites (inland, history + craft), or Preveli + Plakias beach (south coast, monasteries + swimming). Both are full days.
Add a third day: Georgioupolis + Lake Kournas in the morning, then a slow afternoon at whichever beach suits you — Rethymno’s town beach is long and sandy and perfectly accessible on foot.
If you’re based in Bali: Rethymno old town is an easy 30-minute drive. Do it as a day out. Come back for sunset.
If you’re working with limited time, my full 5-day Crete itinerary helps structure this much more realistically.
Practical Information
Getting there: Rethymno is on the main E75 north coast highway between Chania (60km west, about 1 hour) and Heraklion (80km east, about 1 hour). KTEL buses run frequently in both directions — Chania around €7, Heraklion around €8.30.
Parking: The old town is pedestrianised. Park on the edges — the area near the harbour has paid parking, or use the car parks just outside the Venetian walls.
Car rental: Essential for the day trips. Agencies in the city centre and at the Heraklion and Chania airports. Book ahead in summer.
If you’re renting a car for west Crete as well, especially for Balos, read my guide on the best ways to get to Balos Lagoon first (as you are usually not allowed to get there in a rental car).
Where to stay in Rethymno : The best options are boutique hotels in the old town, on the streets around the Rimondi Fountain or up toward the fortress. Avli takes hotel guests — rooms from around €120 — and breakfast in that courtyard every morning is the best argument for booking it.
How This Fits Into Your Crete Trip
Rethymno works as either a base for 2–3 nights or as a day trip from Chania (60km, easy drive, allow a full day).
It’s at its best as part of a longer trip where you split time between western and central Crete — arriving in Chania, moving to Rethymno after 3–4 days, and using it as the launch point for Arkadi, Preveli, and the south coast before heading east toward Heraklion.
And if you’re still planning the bigger picture of your trip, my full Crete travel guide and detailed 3-week Crete itinerary will help you connect places like Rethymno, Chania, and the south coast into a trip that actually flows well instead of spending half your holiday repacking and driving.
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