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Crete

Knossos

Lonely Planet Crete
Paul Hellander, Jeanne Oliver
Unlock the Mediterranean treasure-trove that is Crete, with its stunning natural beauty, ancient Minoan ruins and sun-drenched beaches. This indispensable guide is your key to exploring this fascinating island.
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Crete West: Rother Walking Guide
Gert Hirner, Jakob Murbock, G. Round
This Rother hiking guide presents hikers with a wide variety of entertaining tour recommendations which include all regions of the western part of the island: from strenuous excursions to hidden bathing bays, to hikes through solitary mountain regions in the 2000-metre category, to the perhaps most spectacular hiking destination on the island: the massive, well-visited Samariá gorge. - The trips are selected so as to take all interests into account. Thus, equal attention is paid to hikes leading along the sunny coast, up to the peninsulas, surrounded by the sea, as well as to hikes to delightfully -located ancient sites or deserted monasteries. Other paths lead through the mountainous interior of the island, through deep gorges and up high mountains. Many of the 50 trip suggestions can be undertaken without hesitation by families with children or by older hikers. An excellent guide, equipped with colour photos and colour map excerpts.
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Crete

Crete is 257km (159 miles) long with a surface area of 8,259sq km (3,138sq. miles) - making the island two and a half times the size of Majorca. Crete is 62km (38 miles) wide while the narrowest distance between north and south is a mere 12km (7 miles). Inland mountain ranges dominate the Cretan landscape, dropping steeply into the sea on the southern coast but but more gently through the coastal plains of the north. Not surprisingly, tourist accommodation is concentrated on the north coast. According to Lonely Planet Crete:

"The best times to visit Crete are in late spring/early summer and in autumn. Winter is pretty much a dead loss. Most of the tourist infrastructure goes into hibernation from November until the beginning of April - hotels and restaurants are closed and bus and ferry services are either drastically restricted or cancelled."

In common with the rest of Greece, Easter is a major festival and this coincides with the arrival of the first tourists who can take advantage of the generally pleasant climate until early June. This is a good time to look at the historic sites, unlike mid-June to August when temperatures hit 40 degrees centigrade in the shade and the main sites are swarming with tour groups.

Travel guides are available through the following links:

The Rough Guide Map Crete
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