Crete · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
A 260-kilometre island with cheap buses along the north coast and gorges at the end of them.
Splantzia, Chania
The old Turkish quarter behind the Venetian harbour — hostels, cheap tavernas and a square of bars, all walkable from the KTEL station.
What a day costs
Around €40–60 a day, roughly $45–70: dorm €15–25, bakery and gyros €10–18, intercity buses €5–12.
Getting around cheap
KTEL buses run the north coast hourly — Chania to Rethymno to Heraklion in about three hours total. Overnight ferries reach Piraeus by morning.
Free by day
Chania's Venetian harbour and lighthouse walk, Heraklion's city walls and the Kazantzakis tomb, and the pink shallows at Elafonissi.
Where travellers meet
Splantzia square in Chania fills with hostel groups from nine; car-shares to Samaria get organised on the same tables the night before.