Crete is the largest
island of Greece and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean.
It has an area of about 8300 sq.km.
A mountainous island, it lies south of the Aegean Sea, a link
between Europe, Africa and Asia. This geographical position,
being at the junction of major civilisations and cultural currents,
influenced its history throughout the past 5000 years.
Crete has an elongated shape, 260 km long from east to west and
between 15 and 60 km wide. The coastline is over 1000 km long
and consists of both sandy beaches and rocky shores. The high
mountains are a characteristic of the Cretan landscape. They
form three mountain complexes, each with its own ‘personality’.
Between the ranges lie semi-mountainous zones which cover the
greater part of the island. There are also a few low lying plains
as well as a number of high plateaux.
Satellite image of Crete
Our hotel is situated right on the coast, about one km outside of the village of Hora Sfakion, a village which is the "capital" of the region of Sfakia. This region of high mountains, plateaux and wild coastline is famous for its respect of old traditions and intact nature.
| Click on the map to see where we are situated in West Crete. Larger maps can be found here |
You cannot expect to
visit a place as large as Crete, with such varied nature and rich
past, in a few weeks holidays. Likewise it would be a huge undertaking
to present all the available information about Crete on these pages.
Instead we have provided links to relevant pages and sites, listed
by categories.
The
links will open in a new browser window
Region of Sfakia (where the hotel is situated)
sfakia-crete,com a web site that has just about everything you need to know about the region: practical info, photos, culture, history and a lot more
Wolfgang Kistler's Sfakia and Crete Pages offer very nice photographs of our region
General information web sites on Crete
west-crete.com is an information site for visitors to West Crete. Plenty of info, maps, photos
Crete Tournet has great information about history and geography
Municipality of Hania lots of good info about the Hania region
About the climate
Cretan climate a description of the Cretan seasons, best times to visit, temperature charts
Weather Heraklion pretty good weather site
Weather Chania pretty good weather site
Current weather in Hania
Photos of Crete
west-crete.com many good landscape photos of West Crete
Wolfgang Kistler's Sfakia and Crete Pages offer some very nice photographs of our region.
minico lots of photos of Crete
More information
A commented list of links is at west-crete.com All the main Cretan sites (of interest to visitors) are listed and you will be able to surf to your heart's content.