I never was that person that liked laying on the beach and drinking cocktails. Well, sometimes I am that person, but let me explain.
I'm definitely not that type of tourist that likes passive recreation. I'm more about visiting new places and exploring something new, and it doesn't matter if I'm just in another city or another country.
In the first Greece post I showed you some photos from the Knossos Palace and Rethymno. In this one I want to share with you a place where we lived - Ammoudara, a bit of Heraklion and just some details I captured.
Let's explore with me! :)
Ammoudara
Ammoudara is a small tourist town (or maybe even a part of Heraklion or its suburb) with a lot of hotels, souvenir and jewelry shops, cafes and restaurants. There are wonderful sand or pebble beaches and beautiful clear Sea of Crete (which is Mediterranean, I guess).
Actually, there's nothing special about this town, cause [for me] it's just a place where our hotel was located, with many tourists and nothing interesting to see.
It's very hot in summer in Greece, so in a daytime pretty much everything is closed (especially in such places as Ammoudara) and you have nothing to do except for going to the beach. All the action starts in the evening when the temperature cools down and all the restaurants are open.
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| View from Ammoudara beach at night |
Heraklion
There's going to be a very bit of Heraklion, cause... there's actually nothing special about it haha.
Heraklion is the capital of Crete and it's one of the biggest cities on the island.
My list of recommended places to visit includes only 3:
Archeological Museum of Heraklion
The Knossos Palace (which is not actually in Heraklion)
Pier and Heraklion Fortress
Heraklion is a good place for shopping (especially if you like shopping as much as I do haha). There are such stores as Sephora, Zara and Zara Home, The Body Shop, Marks&Spencer, Nike Factory Store and these are just ones I can remember now.
Also, there is such a beautiful church in the centre of Heraklion.
I definitely can recommend Heraklion for walking and exploring it by yourself. Small streets, cute tiny restaurants and street national cuisine, blooming trees and flowers and friendly Greeks who always glad to help you :) I am sure you'll find something for yourself in this city.
WaterCity
Okay, there's no vacation without a waterpark. But who knew what a journey will it be?
First, we went to the Aquarium which is located at the ex-military base of the US. It's a huge building full of aquariums (wow huh) with different kinds of fishes, jelly-fishes, turtles and other marine creatures. Well, you know how it gets.
And then we've been on our way to the aqua park called WaterCity.
Note: we didn't have a car there, and there are no buses direct to the waterpark. So please, if you are going to visit it, rent a car or take a tour. Don't be like us.
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| Kokkini Hani |
We were going there on our own, walking and almost climbing the mountain hill. WaterCity is located pretty high on the hill and it took us about 45 minutes to get up there and then we spent almost the same amount of time walking down from there. 45 minutes under the scorching sun. Ugh, what a bliss.
But as a bonus, there is that view on a town called Kokkini Hani. Not worth it guys, not worth it.
After visiting waterpark we still had a couple of days of our holiday left and we spent them walking, swimming in the sea, eating ice cream and capturing some memorable moments. Here are some of them :)
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| Uh-mazing Italian ice cream, yum! |
I wish I could go back to Greece one day, as there are still some places that I really want to visit, like Athens and Santorini.
But what comes to Crete... I would return there for a few days to see places that I couldn't see this time. And really I enjoyed our vacation and time spent on this beautiful island.
P.S. and oh, Greek salad, of course
There's also a video I've made from some places that we've seen :)
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xx, D
