Yassas to you all!,

Finally summer kicked in in Holland, 30+ degrees, too hot, too humid! I also have heard about the developments west of Chania. When I travelled by bus from Chania to Paleochora (south west coast) some years ago, I noticed the developments too. Luckily, this is not the place where I stay. Paleochora is developing very slowly and my wife noticed in may that new buildings are at least surround as much as possible by green! My advise would be: Go ECO! Interested to see where this will all end with the ever rising oil prices. People who can afford an airline ticket in 5 years time must be pretty rich...
Question, has anybody ever driven by car from western europe to Crete? Which harbour did you drive to?

See you in Paleochora august 22nd!

Thanks for the replies. The apartment we have rented for the last couple of years is a unique place and we are going to rent it in 2008 again!

Hi all,

I'm facing a small dilemma. I have a feeling that if I go to Crete without booking anything up front I can negotiate a much better deal then if I book up front. I'm still in a luxury position to travel outside normal holiday periods so I see a lot of vacancies in Paleochora where I and my family (wife and daughter) always go. We always stay for around 18 nights and payed an average of 45 Euros a night for a 2 bedroom appartment. This was because the people, non Greek, renting us saw the value of a guaranteed upfront booking of 18 nights meaning a guaranteed income. Now we were trying to find something else and whenever you mention you would like to stay 18 nights it seems that they fix the price and think 'hey they must be in great need so let's not give them a lower price....'
Since we are with a kid we need a guaranteed reservation because we cannot permit ourselves wandering through the village at 22:00 hours with 2 heavy suitecases and all being tired.
Greeks seem deaf for the argument that we really quarantee them a small 1100 euros. Instead they rather seem to want to loose money by renting out a place for a few days, than a few days empty and so on and so on which in the end gives them less income. Does anyone have the same experience? Any advise?

Hi,

Just a comment on the litter issue. I have seen many examples as well but the worst I witnessed just outside Paleochora where it seems people have created a scrapheap in pure nature...In one of the small valleys people literally have dumped all their waist, washing machines, refrigerators and so on..unbelievable. In the village itself things are fine when you walk in the populated areas. In the places where there are no houses, the harbour area for instance at the most southern point, there is a lot of litter and it is never cleaned there. This is one thing. Another thing is that along the east coast line a pedestrian walkway has been created a few years ago. On the other side of the road...just dirt! According to locals this area should have been paved as well but it seems one ran out of money and now it looks very untidy and unfinished. There are a lot of hotel owners in that area and they all complain. I asked: Did you ever try to unite and complain together to the local authorities? The answer is no. It seems to me that they do not want to unite against these things for unknown reasons. I have also raised the topic of traffic safety in a topic. Have not had any reactions yet!

I amended my profile, even added a picture...

In this topic I would like to discuss the safety of Paleochora's citizens and its tourists related to the traffic in the village and around it.
Since 2000 I visit Paleochora every year and my wife visits the same for more than 20 years. This shows how much we love Paleochora but this year something awfull happened.
We were already surprised, visiting from august 27 till september 14, how much traffic has grown in the last couple of years but this year it seemed it had even grown substantially. This is probably caused by the ever growing popularity of Paleochora but has a number of big negative side effects, for example:
The boulevard stretching from the harbour towards the south point of the peninsula (west side Gavdiotika area) is nowadays completely occupied by parked cars, even on the side were it is not allowed cars are just parked on the pavement/pedestrian area, completely blocking it from pedestrians trying to safely make their way to the village via this route. In general the situation for pedestrians is very unsafe in Paleochora because the pavements are of un-even hights and sometimes very narrow which forces them to go on the mainroad. Even the police is parked on the pedestrian area. Now this is where the real danger starts because a lot of cardrivers and mopedriders (motorcycles) behave very dangerous not to say mad!
Another very dangerous situation is with the road leading to the camping/paleochora club and Gialiskari beach (aka Anidri beach). My wife was this year nearly hit by a car while she was walking as far to the side as possible. A car coming towards her and steared in her direction and nearly hit her. This almost seemed like a delibarate try to either kill or hurt her. This road should be marked as VERY DANGEROUS for pedestrians and walkers who come and go to either the beach, Anidri and or Sougia. There really needs to be done something about this.
Traffic is a negative point in Paleochora which from other perspectives is one of the safest places I have ever been! Nowadays nobody in town on a motorcycle wears a helmet, they speed and drive recklessly. This cannot and should not be tolerated. I spoke to a taxi driver who brought us from Chania to Paleochora and also discussed the safety situation. He said that in Chania the police is very strict about wearing safety belts etc. As soon as we entered Paleochora he put off his belt and said sarcastically: In Paleochora NO police.......
What are your comments?

Hi,

I'm Frans and I travel to the beautifull Crete every year. I visit Paleochora every year together with my wife and daughter. I live in the Netherlands, Amsterdam to be precise!

Cheers,

Frans