We started early on our fourth day in Chania and by early I mean 11 in the morning. We had our breakfast at the cafe just below our hotel so it’ll be easier for us to get back to our room to freshen up before heading out to Loutro, our beach destination of the day. From Chania, we drove for about an hour and a half to Sfakia port to take the boat to Loutro which is the only way to access this hidden gem. I didn’t do much research about this trip because I’ve always relied on The Greek Mister’s trip planning whenever we’re going to his home country. Also, as trip planning is my day job it’s nice to have someone else to plan my holiday for me. :p
I’ve researched about Loutro the day before and I fell in love with it instantly so when I saw the signs “BOATS ARE NOT AVAILABLE” when we arrived in Sfakia Port, I was so devastated as I thought I’d actually miss seeing it. Apparently, the sea is too rough for a boat to sail to Loutro but the Greek perseverance is quite impressive specially if they’re on a holiday. We walked towards the end of the port and found a lone boatman sitting in one of the ticket booths. We asked him if he would take us to Loutro and he said that if there will be enough people to take he’ll do it. Luckily for us, there were quite a few tourists who were also looking to do the same thing. The boatman agreed and arranged two stops for all the tourists there – first stop was to the Sweet Water Beach and the second stop’s Loutro. We paid EUR9 for a return journey per person for a 15-min boat ride.
We boarded the boat and only when we’re in the middle of the sea did I realize that it might be a poor judgment on our part. The sea was very rough, the waves were high. I actually thought we might die there and we can only blame ourselves for not following the rules. Alas! We reached the first stop, Sweet Water Beach is a small bay in between Sfakia and Loutro. There were some sunbeds and one taverna in the whole area. Some of the passengers got off the boat here as we continued our journey towards Loutro.
My heart leapt for joy when we approached the bay of Loutro, the whitewashed buildings with the rough mountain as a background and the clear blue water of the sea is a picture perfect island that we all have in mind when we think of Greece. It was beautiful! I couldn’t get out of the boat fast enough to explore this tiny seaside town and jump into the sea. We scouted for the perfect place to base ourselves in and found this cozy little cafe/bar. It was quite hot that day so we immediately jumped into the cold water to refresh ourselves. The entire afternoon was spent sitting in the cafe/bar, drinking coffee then beer, jumping into the sea and do it all over again.
We had lunch at one of the seafood tavernas along the beach and it was only then did we discuss about our boat ride back to Sfakia. Will the guy actually pick us back from Loutro to Sfakia? Or will he just leave us there because he wasn’t supposed to sail anyway? Loutro isn’t such a bad place to get stuck in anyway as there’s quite a few accommodation options in the area. Worst come to worst, we’ll sleep by the beach and so we continued on stuffing our face with seafood. Whatever will be, will be.
Thankfully, at the agreed time of 7pm our boatman arrived ready to take us back to Sfakia. It was heartbreaking to leave Loutro as I definitely wouldn’t mind spending a few nights there. This should be in everyone’s itinerary if you’re in Chania.
We went back to Chania’s Old Town after dinner and had a walk around to look for a place where we’ll have our last drink in Chania. We are checking out of our hotel the next day to transfer to Rethimno to spend our last 2 nights in. I am already dreading the end of our Cretan holiday. :-/ We passed by a restaurant with live music and traditional Cretan dancing being performed much to the delight of diners and passersby. We found a small square with tables under a tree and made that our base for our last night in Chania.
On a different note, a lot of people have been asking me what camera I use for photos and videos and you’ll all be surprised that it’s just a camera phone. I am using Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro which is amazing! Camera’s wonderful, the memory’s huge and the battery lasts the whole day even if it’s being used constantly. Here’s a link where you can buy this phone from: Huawei Mate 10 Pro (Single-SIM) 128GB BLA-L09 SIM-Free 4G Smartphone (Titanium Grey)
. Just to remind you, if you do buy it from this link I’ll get a small commission from it at no extra charge to you. Thank you in advance if you do decide to buy it from my link. 🙂
Here’s a short video of our full holiday in Crete:
