Escape the bustle of mainstream Malia for a day to explore the fascinating Old Town. It’s the best kept secret in Malia, and so remains peaceful even during the summer months.
The old town of Malia is well worth strolling around. Like a labyrinth, the small streets lead you to unexpected places, such as beautiful old churches and small squares with restaurants, some of them with live music.
In old Malia there are still old houses with courtyards full of flowers, children play in the street in the warm summer evenings, and adults bring their chairs outside and sit with the neighbors, chatting about the village news, a bit of gossip, a few jokes and teasing.
Lasithi is a different angle of Crete just 20 minutes distance from Malia. This is an almost perfect level with a maximum length of 10 km and 5 km wide! It is full of vegetable gardens and has about 10,000 windmills! It is the largest and highest plateau of Greece!
On the way to plateau, you can also visit the small mountain village Mochos, where you can walk on picturesque streets or just have a cup of traditional Greek coffee in local kafenion.
The beautiful Kera Kardiotissa monastery with its famous icon of Holy Mother as well as frescoes from 13th and 14th century, is 15 minutes driving from Malia.
Because of its fortified position, during the Cretan revolutions, the monastery of Kera served as the revolutionary center of the local province and thus suffered many times of Turkish attacks. Today Kera serves as a nunnery and it is worth a visit, especially if you combine it with a visit to Lassithi Plateau.
After Kera, stop at the traditional village Krasi, where in the centre of this place you will see centuries old oak the biggest tree in whole Crete.
Agios Nikolaos is an international cosmopolitan seaside resort that attracts thousands of visitors each year located approx. 30 km from Malia. Many myths surround the lake, the jewel of the city, dominating its center with its imposing beauty. Some myths suggest that it is bottomless or linked to the Santorini volcano through an underground passage.
Elounda is located 8 km from Agios Nikolaos and nowadays is a traditional but cosmopolitan village, a picturesque fishing village in the lovely Mirabello Bay. The inhabitants live from farming, fishing and tourism and every summer welcome thousands of visitors.
Spinalonga is a small island near Elounda, also known as the Leper Island, as that is where lepers from Crete and the rest of Greece were quarantined until 1957. Today thousands of tourists visit Spinalonga each summer by boat for a tour of its ruined buildings.
Chrissi island or Gaidouronisi is located 8 miles south of Ierapetra city, in the open Libyan Sea.
It might not be so close to the Malia but it is definitely worth the drive!!
Chrissi takes its name (golden in Greek) after the white sand that covers the entire island and comes mainly from shell debris.
It is a flat islet very famous for its tropical blue water that cover all possible palette hues of blue and green, the protected forest with large juniper trees and the thousands of broken shells that make the sand pinkish.
Another great place to visit during your stay in Crete! One of the largest and most modern aquariums in Europe! Sixty aquariums and more than 2,000 creatures of the Mediterranean bottom await you to discover them in the state-of-the-art facilities that reproduce underwater landscapes of Crete and the Mediterranean.
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