Published on Jul, 2019
I took this trip with my mother on our visit to Crete and it really was a highlight. Our lovely guide Vincent was an excellent careful driver, and even though air con was an option we drove with the windows down so that we could smell the beautiful thyme/pine/herb-y mountain air of Crete. Margarites was wonderful, and Vincent was careful to make sure we arrived in between busloads of other tourists so we had the whole village to ourselves, and the demonstration was done in the best, most traditional pottery in town. We weren't keen on doing the whole gorge hike as we're not very athletic and wanted a chill day, so we stopped off at the Eleftherna museum in addition to everything else. The Arkadi Monastery was incredibly moving, and Vincent told us the history of the place before we went in, which made it all even more meaningful. He's a natural storyteller and makes everything so interesting and emotionally resonate - a really fantastic guide. Last, we did the gorge, including lunch in the most wonderful traditional taverna. You can also visit the little church in the gorge and, if you're spiritually minded, I recommend taking a little something as an offering - or, as we did, some change for the candles. The gorge was shady and full of streams, and we did a short hike that wasn't too taxing but did go fairly high up. I would thoroughly and wholeheartedly recommend taking this tour, and if we had had time to take more tours with this company we would do again. Being just us and the guide was a real luxury as well, as we could follow al our little whims and curiosities about the places we were in without having to rush. Eleven out of ten, what a great day!
