The pressure was on- my travel girls were arriving, and I wanted to show them the best of Crete. None of them had been to Greece so I knew they would love it, but we only had a short time to get in the highlights. First, we did a few days on Crete. They stayed in downtown Heraklion at The GDM Megaron Hotel, it was a really nice hotel with great views of the harbor. If you have a ferry trip planned, I recommend it since you can easily walk to the port. Make sure you spend the extra money for the water view rooms, otherwise, there is a noisy club behind the hotel that might keep you awake. We did the usual eating and shopping around and tried the Hop-on-Hop-off bus to show off the whole city. The bus is an easy way to get around and it does go to Knossos, but the bus routes end a bit earlier than I would recommend going to avoid the big crowds. We did hit a beach one day using the city bus, but was talked out of the beach I had planned so we ended up at an average beach – luckily the girls were just happy to dip their toes in the water. An average beach on Crete is still pretty nice – also we all agreed we shouldn’t start out with the best beach- we needed to build to it. After dinner I took them to Toucan, a rooftop bar in downtown, great for viewing the city or sunset. Close to the hotel, they started their days with walking the seawall, highly recommend for a nice walk that’s about 5 km out and back. Locals call this the Bypass – the story is after you have bypass surgery the Dr tells you to walk this wall to stay healthy. It’s also a favorite sunset photo spot.

We were still missing one member of the travel crew and once she arrived, we hit the ground running. Dinner at Ippokampos the first night was perfect for our reunion dinner. It’s right along the water in downtown, the food was amazing, and Amanda realized her love for Ouzo. Highly recommend this restaurant.

Time to brave the roads. I had been wanting to see the Kourtaliotiko Gorge for months but the crowds and the weather on previous attempts made it unappealing. I suggested this adventure for our group since I knew we would see beaches and the amazing blue waters when we went to Paros – we had a boat day scheduled there. So, we headed out to Kourtaliotiko Gorge. It’s about 1 hour 30 mins from Heraklion and the drive was super easy, no gravel paths or super skinny village driving. We arrived and the crowds had thinned out since it was September, we found a parking space along the road since getting up to the public parking lot was a hill I wasn’t comfortable taking the car up. We headed down and after making some wrong turns we found the hesitant crowd standing around the opening that obviously led to the waterfall. The water is an average of 57F/17C and you have to swim to get around the corner and see the famous waterfall so not everyone braves the water. Your body does adjust but Sonja and I made the mistake of jumping in too quickly and it was shocking how cold the water was. We had to come back out and take a minute to catch our breath. We decided to dip in deeper and deeper slowly to allow our bodies to acclimate, it was a little scary for a bit and I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it but eventually, we swam in. It was a bonding experience for those going in at the same time, we celebrated with strangers once we saw the waterfall and then could stand up and take it all in. We did it!

As you can see, this view was totally worth the hike and the cold water. The next day we headed to Paros as my vacation officially began and my role as tour guide was put on pause.

Be on the lookout for my next update on the ferries and our time on Paros and Naxos!

Women’s friendships are like a renewable source of power- Jane Fonda