Loutro, Crete

Looking down at the Old Phoenix Hotel in Loutro, Crete.

First off let me say Loutro is damn cool and if you get the chance to go there, you owe it to yourself.

It is one of those places where the water is so beautiful that people will ask you if you altered your photos, even when you haven’t. One of those places that you can’t drive to, you must take a boat or hike it. One of those places where you don’t run into any American tourists. One of those places that really seem authentic.

Treat yourself.

It started when I asked my girlfriend Trish if she could go to any place in the world which three spots would she pick?

1). Galapagos Islands

2) Patagonia

3) Greek Islands

So thinking about the Greek Islands I started looking at Crete. The more I read the better it sounded. Then I started looking at and reading about Loutro. It is on the southern coast of Crete and in an area of other things we wanted to do anyway, like hike the Samaria Gorge.

So I booked a hotel called the “Old Phoenix”. I had read somewhere that there was a 10-15 minute stroll to the hotel, this is inaccurate. The picture of the hotel on the main page though, is in fact how it looks. http://www.old-phoenix.com/

We rented a small Peugeot 208 http://www.peugeot.co.uk/showroom/208/3-door/ this is a tiny car with a tiny engine, but it was a good choice. There were places while Creteing it, which we drove through, which were so amazingly narrow I thought this tiny toy-sized car would scrape on both sides! Next, we drove cross country to Hora Safkion. On the town webpage it is described thusly,

“This is the southernmost part of Europe, still the wildest and most natural part of Crete, once the cradle of European culture, today a place to recover away from masstourism, surrounded by the Libyan sea and home country of people, whose hospitality is legendary”

Sounds good no? 

Here we parked the car for a long term park and caught the ferry to Loutro. When we got off in town we looked around for a path to our hotel or maybe a sign? I saw a road looking thing heading left out around the point, right near the ferry dock, was this the way to the Phoenix? It turned out it was, but we found that out later. There is the short right-over-the-top route and the “beautiful path”. Of course if we would have simply called the hotel they would also have sent a boat to pick us up. (20-20 hindsight). As it turned out we asked an old man in town and he said to go down to the second alley heading uphill and take a left. It looked like a narrow stairway to someone’s apartment, I was immediately suspicious.

“I think that old man was fucking with the touristas” I remember stating. But, the trail curled around back and starting climbing rather steeply. In no time we were 100 feet above the town with a great view. I should say here I was carrying Trish’s suitcase in my hand and it was VERY heavy, very quickly. It was a switch back trail with a couple of goat-gates. After more climbing (and me cursing) (goodhearted cursing), we ran into a German woman. So we had two suitcases, mine, which was small and light Trish’s which was larger and heavy and we both had back packs, and cameras of course, we were tourists on vacation after all. This woman said we were crazy to hike like that, but yes eventually we would get there assuming we didn’t keel over first.

When we got on top there were abandoned old stone ruins which was cool, and various plants and wildflowers and a great view. (see title photo)

We meandered down and finally got to the cool insides of the hotel itself. When we went to the desk to check in they gave us an odd look like “how did you get here”? But we checked in and went to our room. It was Spartan, with three hard little beds in a row and no tv, or air conditioning. There were French style doors opening on a small patio and a million dollar view of crystal clear azure water. It was perfect. The only sound was goats and goat bells on the hill and waves lapping the beach.

The dining room was open air and the menu was quite simple and straightforward. I remember thinking while eating the Greek salad that if you have excellent ingredients, like fresh, ripe, local tomatoes that things can be extremely simple and plain and yet be so delicious it is shocking to the palette.

The next morning we took the path around the point, it is a longer walk but easier. It is very pretty and we really felt like we were getting the experience we came for. This trail literally ends right where the ferry docks. We boated up the coast and hiked the Samaria Gorge from the bottom up to the “Iron Gates” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samari%C3%A1_Gorg

I would call this a “must do”. We will never forget it, there was so much to see from the town of Agia Roumeli to the gorge itself, to the cat with kittens in the hollow of a tree…it goes on and on. And then beck to the beach and a dip in the sea of Libya before hopping on the ferry back to Loutro.

If you want the “Greek Islands Experience”, without a lot of noise, and tourists, no smog, no traffic and just have your senses swept away, try Loutro on the Grecian Island of Crete, you will be awash with the sublime.