Cramming Crete (aka the fear of missing out on Crete’s attractions)
For some a holiday means plonking yourself on a sunbed and roasting for a week or two, with the occasional visit to a bar, a nearby restaurant or your hotel room.
At the other end of the holidaymaking spectrum you have the indefatigable tourists rushing from attraction to next “must visit” spot from morning to evening with barely a moment to relax.
It could be just my subjective perception but I get the sense that the second type of visitor is becoming more prevalent in Crete (and elsewhere of course but this is a blog about Crete) and I believe that the internet is playing a big role in it.
We are being assailed by lists and listings. For example just yesterday I read that Crete was the 4th of the 25 top world destinations (Tripadvisor Travelers Choice). Dig deeper on the same Tripadvisor site and you’ll find a list of Crete’s popular destinations (Chania at #1) and 10 best beaches (Elafonisi of course at #1 and unfortunately Kedrodassos at #3 – next place to get entirely messed up).
Every travel site has their top place list of general attractions, best outdoor, top hidden places and on and on.
Naturally, when people plan a visit and want to do more than grill on the beach (and even then, they might want to do it on the Best Beach!) they start making their own list and will eventually end up with something long and not dissimilar to what’s on many other people’s lists. This leads to two issues:
- Everybody ends up going to the same “top places” which get hopelessly crowded and therefore not that great anymore.
- People are trying to cram far too much in their holiday. It becomes a race to tick off the attractions that you decided (or were told) are a must do. You end up spending more time driving to and from these top attractions on busy roads (because many others are doing the same) than actually enjoying being in Crete.
For some reason it seems that American visitors are the ones trying to cram the most stuff in. Maybe that’s because they’re not given much holiday time or because they have come a long way and are trying to make the most of it. Often just reading their holiday plan makes me feel really tired and in need of a holiday.
The problem is that by rushing around in your rented car and ticking things off the list you’ll be missing much of what Crete can be about: a place where you can slow down and rediscover simple pleasures such as good tasty food, crystal clear seas, open vistas and friendly people.
Just accept that you will not be able to see all the ancient sites, great beaches, cute villages and monasteries in a week or two – and not in a year or two either, it’s a vast island.
By all means, make a list of things to see and do but use it only as a broad guideline. Don’t lose sight of the fact that you are on holiday and it’s not a visiting race but time to slow down, appreciate and enjoy.
