Rethymno or Chania: which one should you choose?
I live in Rethymno old town and I have walked visitors up this hill since 2009, so read what follows knowing where I sleep. I have also spent a great many days in Chania, and there are people I send there instead. This page is the argument as I actually make it to clients.
What Rethymno has that Chania does not
The beach. That is the honest headline. Rethymno’s beach starts at the edge of the old town and runs east for kilometres, and you can walk to it from the Venetian harbour in a few minutes. For a Cretan old town that is unusual, and with children it changes the shape of the day: you see the Rimondi Fountain in the morning and you are in the sea by eleven without moving the car.
Then the Fortezza. It is a Venetian citadel on Paleokastro hill, built between 1573 and 1580 on the Italian bastioned system, with 1,307 metres of wall around four demi-bastions. You walk the whole circuit, stand on the ramparts, go into the mosque that used to be a cathedral and sit in an open-air theatre built on a bastion. Two hours, about €5, entirely under your own control. Nothing in Chania gives you that. The inventory of what is inside is worth reading before you climb.
And the scale. Rethymno is Crete’s third-largest town, after Heraklion and Chania. The old town is a Venetian street plan with Ottoman work laid over it, and the layers show up in the same building on the same street: a Venetian doorway under an Ottoman upper floor, a minaret over a church plan. You can walk the full extent of it in under an hour. Small enough to learn in a day is a real advantage when you have four.
What Chania has that Rethymno does not
A better harbour photograph. The Venetian harbour in Chania is the picture most people mean when they say they want to see Crete, and Rethymno’s harbour, with its Egyptian lighthouse, is a smaller and quieter version of the same idea. If your trip is built around one evening on a waterfront, Chania wins that evening.
Chania is also larger, which means more restaurants, more shops open in winter, and more to do on a rainy day. Visitors on the Chania, Lake Kournas and Rethymno day trip say this without being asked. Paula from the United Kingdom wrote that the old town in Chania was the highlight for her and that she would come back to the city. That is a fair verdict and I would not argue with it.
What works
- Rethymno: old town and beach in the same ten minutes
- Rethymno: a walkable 1,307-metre fortress above the town
- Rethymno: small enough to know by the second day
- Chania: the harbour everyone has seen in photographs
- Chania: more places to eat, more open out of season
Worth knowing
- Chania is bigger, so the centre is busier in August
- Rethymno has fewer wet-weather options
- Both towns are hot and shadeless on the fortifications
- There is no boat between them; the road is the route
Which side of Crete is nicer?
West, if you are choosing on landscape and old towns. Chania and Rethymno are both in the west half, roughly 60 kilometres apart, and the north-coast road links them all day. Heraklion is the eastern anchor and it is a working city with a great museum rather than a place to walk in the evening. The practical point is that Rethymno sits between the two airports, about 60 km from Chania and about 80 km from Heraklion, so it is the easiest base if your flights do not match. Fares and times are on the getting-there page.
Which is the prettiest town in Crete?
People asking this usually have Chania’s harbour in mind already, and if prettiest means one view at sunset, it is Chania. If prettiest means the town you enjoy walking through at ten in the morning with no plan, I would say Rethymno, because the streets are narrower, the Venetian and Ottoman work sits closer together, and there are fewer people between you and it. That is a preference, not a fact, and I have told you why I hold it.
Is it better to stay in Chania or Rethymno?
Stay in Rethymno if you have children, if you want to swim without driving, if you want a fortress you can spend a morning in, or if you are splitting your time between the two airports. Stay in Chania if you are flying into Chania for a short trip, if you want the widest choice of restaurants, or if you are going on to the west of the island for the gorges and the beaches out there. Either way, do not try to base yourself in one and see the other as a day trip more than once. The bus is fine, but it is 1 hour 15 minutes each way.
Seeing both in one day
It can be done, and it is done every day in summer by coach from the Heraklion resorts. Be clear about what that day is. The Chania, Lake Kournas and Rethymno trip covers 340 kilometres, picks up between 07:00 and 09:30, gives you Chania from 10:05 to 11:30, an hour and a half at Lake Kournas, and reaches Rethymno at 16:15 to leave at 16:45. That is 1 hour 15 minutes here, which is enough for the harbour and one street, and not enough to go inside the Fortezza. Keith from the United Kingdom put it plainly in his review: the trip was amazing, the only downside is you spend a lot of time on the coach. It is honest value at €40 and it is not a fortress tour. The full account is in the day trip review.
My verdict
Rethymno for a first trip, Chania for a second one, and both if you have a week. If you are basing yourself here and want the town explained properly rather than guessed at, the two-hour walk is the tool for that; the options are compared on the old town tours page.
Most bookedCrete: Chania, Lake Kournas and Rethymno Tour
Old town classicRethymno: Guided Walking Tour in the Old Town Area
Highest ratedRethymno: Old Town Segway Tour
Frequently asked questions
Is Rethymno nicer than Chania?
For a first visit, I think so: it is smaller, the beach starts at the old town, and the Fortezza gives you a 1,307-metre fortress to walk. Chania has the better harbour view and more choice of restaurants. Neither answer is wrong.
Can you get a boat from Rethymno to Chania?
No. There is no scheduled passenger ferry between them. The KTEL bus along the north coast takes up to 1 hour 15 minutes and costs up to €7.10, running daily from 06:00 to 22:00.
How far apart are Rethymno and Chania?
Chania is about 60 kilometres west of Rethymno, roughly an hour to an hour and a half by road. Heraklion is about 80 kilometres east, which is why Rethymno works as a base between the two airports.
Is Rethymno worth staying in for a week?
Yes, if you use it as a base rather than as a single sight. The old town takes an afternoon, the Fortezza takes a morning, and the beach and the villages take the rest. Start with what to do in the old town.