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How to hike the Samaria Gorge | Crete’s Most Famous Hike
Updated: 5 days ago
Having spent two months in Chania, Crete, we used quite a lot of our weekends to get out of the city, and head into nature. When looking for hikes we found loads of options, and we usually try to find a balance of must-see’s, and relatively undiscovered spots. However, according to most, when visiting Crete, being an outdoorsy-type, it would be impossible to not hike the Samaria Gorge.
We were debating quite a lot whether we should visit the Samaria Gorge. Mostly because, no matter how beautiful a place is, having hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people there can take away a little from the experience for us. We ended up doing the hike, and we will tell you everything about the hike, how to get there and how long it takes, so you can decide for yourself if the Samaria Gorge is worth your while.
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The Samaria Gorge Hike itself
For most people, the Samaria Gorge is a point-to-point hike, starting next to small town of Omalos, in Xyloskalo. The gorge runs through the White Mountains (Lefka Ori), from the Omalos Plateau down to the south coast of Crete. The gorge was formed by tectonic movement more than two million years ago, as Crete gradually took its present shape. Today, it is part of Samaria National Park and one of the island’s best-known hiking routes.
Starting at 1200m, the hike is 16km long, and ends up all the way down at the coast, in Agia Roumeli. 13 of these kilometers, you’ll walk in the gorge, the last 3km is to get from the end of the Gorge, to Agia Roumeli. You can also take a shuttle for this last stretch. If you really want a challenge, you can hike back up as well, but that makes for an extremely long day, and simply adds 16km and 1200 meters of elevation gain. In general it’s advised to not turn back after half of the hike. The hike on average takes 4-7 hours, depending on fitness and the amount of stops. We arrived in Agia Roumeli a bit quicker, in a bit more than 5 hours, including some photo stops, and a little snack stop. Since it’s only downhill, the hike can be quite strenuous for the knees, so hiking poles may can come in handy.
We did it as a one-way hike as well. As the distance, combined with descending 1200 meters, makes for quite tired legs, and especially knees. However, since you’re not ending up at the point where you started, you’ll need to do a bit more planning then you would for a regular circular hike. The benefit on the other side, is that you’ll end up in a beach town, where you can end the hike with a nice lunch, a dip in the sea, and have a boat tour as a bonus, before heading back to the starting point. Since we struggled a bit with finding out how to arrange this logistically, we’ll explain this in detail.
Logistics of the Samaria Hike
The hike starts in Xyloskalo, which is an hour drive from Chania, and approximately two hours from Rethymnon. To get there, you have multiple options. You can take public transport, local buses leave regularly from Chania, which is definitely the most economical option. You can also opt for a guided tour, there are plenty of organized tours and shuttles leaving from most places on the island. Some of these included entrance, ferry and a guide. Or you can choose the last option, and rent a car to drive to Xyloskalo. We opted for this last one, since we had a nice address for a car rental company next door (Udrive Chania). This admittedly cost a bit more than the bus, but it did give us the flexibility of leaving whenever we wanted, and having a car waiting for us when arriving back in Xyloskalo after a long day.
When driving up to Xyloskalo, you have parking options right next to the entrance. However, when parking a bit further up the road (400m), there is free parking at the side of the road. We arrived early (07.45) at the end of October, and there was plenty of space. On the big parking lot right next to the entrance, we bought our bus tickets from Sougia back to this parking lot (€8.50).
After the hike, you’ll end up in a small beach town, called Agia Roumeli. During the afternoon, almost everyone who hikes the Samaria Gorge, ends up here. From here on, you can take multiple ferries to other coastal towns. Agia Roumeli is not reachable by road, which is why you cannot take a bus back to Xyloskalo from here.
Ferry options:
Agia Roumeli - Sougia (12eu, 45min) - Busses back to Xyloskalo
Agia Roumeli - Hora Sfakion (15eu, 1hour) - KTEL Bus to Chania
Agia Roumeli - Loutro
When arriving in Agia Roumeli at the end of the hike, we first bought our boat tickets to Sougia. These can be purchased at a small ticket booth in town, which is found here. After that we had plenty of time for lunch, a swim, and a little nap on the beach, before the ferry left around 17.30. The trip took around 45 minutes. In Sougia, it was quite chaotic, since there were tons of shuttles, buses, etc. So it took some time finding the right bus. We simply went around, showing our tickets to bus drivers, until we found the right one.
The bus ride back to Xyloskalo took another hour. Around 20.00 we were back at the entrance of the park, where we could go to our car start our drive back to Chania.
The Big Question - Is Samaria Gorge worth it?
So, it’s not the most straightforward hike - you will have to arrange some things. It cost some planning and money (transport, entry free, boat back to Sougia, bus back to Xyloskalo). But we were most afraid of the crowds. Nevertheless, we decided to do the hike, because we were at the end of the season (it was actually the last weekend that the gorge was open). So luckily the crowds were not too bad. But even at the end of the season, and especially the first couple of kilometers, which are paved and fenced, it was quite busy. It was a good thing we had managed our expectations beforehand, but seen how busy the last weekend of October already got, we probably wouldn’t want to be here in the peak of high season.
The hike itself is beautiful, and since it follows a one-way route, there's no need to constantly look out for trail markers or wonder which way to go. To us, the prettiest of the entire hike was the view from just 50m after setting off. The 15.5 km that followed took us through beautiful natural scenery, but nothing quite extraordinary enough to explain why this gorge attracts so many more visitors than others (that's thousand people every day in July and August). However it was quite different from the hikes we normally do. But that’s mainly because of everything you have to undertake to actually do the hike. We did love ending the hike at the beach, cooling off in the sea, and having a nice lunch and cold beer afterwards. Also the boat ride was very scenic in golden hour, and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip to Souglia. But at that point, we were quite tired, and the busride in the dark felt quite long, only having to drive for another hour after that (even more if you’re based in Rethymnon or Heraklion).
So all in all, it was a very pleasant day spent on the southern side of Crete. And we also think that should be your goal when coming here. If you only care about the hike itself, we think there are better hikes, away from the crowds.
