Crete continued

 2. Loutro

The drive from Chania in the north, through the Lefka Ori mountains then alongside the mighty Imbros Gorge, to the village of Hora Sfakia in the south is spectacular; views, goats, villages, winding roads, panoramic mountaintop cafes, and a stunning descent into the tiny village of Hora Sfakia.  Hora Sfakia is  a small collection of tavernas, shops and holiday rooms but it is also the very busy little port for ferries, sailing boats and water taxis to and from the villages along the remote and wild south coast of Crete and to the untouched bays and beaches between those villages.  It is here that we stay one night before we park the rental car for five days, in a dusty carpark overlooking Vrissi beach, and take the morning ferry to Loutro.

Loutro is special, just as we discovered in 2015 and 2017.  It's tucked away in a sheltered bay on the sparkling Libyan Sea and the only way to arrive at Loutro is to take a boat, or to hike there along part of the E4 European path.  Surrounded by steep rocky mountains the colour of dried Cretan herbs, Loutro is the perfect crescent of white and blue apartments and guesthouses nestled around the clear turquoise water.  Since our last visit some things have changed in Loutro. This year we noticed more sunbeds and more sun umbrellas lining the pebbly beach and many more boats delivering day visitors to this little paradise.  Gratefully, some things also stay the same in Loutro - same lovely tavernas run by the same families delivering delicious food, same dreamy pastel sunsets, same sunshine, same impossibly blue water and the same blissful holiday-in-a-holiday vibe.  This year we stayed 'on the hill' and from our terrace there is not a better view over the whole picture postcard vista. 

As always, five days passed far too quickly.

Look at that Sfakian landscape! And
the concrete tetrapods reinforcing the
seawall of Hora Sfakia's busy, little
harbour.

Perfect little Loutro

We've been coming here over the
past decade - it's more popular,
but from this view from our 
terrace up on the hill it hasn't
changed a bit.

The clearest water

This little boat will deposit you for
a few hours, or a day, at one of the
bays along the coast

Our favourite coffee/mountain tea &
backgammon playing location

This is Mamara beach and that 
taverna on the low cliff is perhaps
the best beach taverna anywhere!

Taverna Dialeskari - the best of Cretan

food and hospitality.  And if you feel

like a walk after lunch, the Aradena Gorge

rises up right behind.

Not sure there's a better lunch view.
Do get a table overlooking the water.
JLo and her entourage were having
lunch here when we last visited in 2017!