Walks

Organisers of walking and hiking programs, such as the ASI (Alpine School Innsbruck) have made their choice of Istron Bay as the location for their walking tours in eastern Crete.

Due to its somewhat hilly environment in the midst of nature, the hotel is a magnet from which many visitors can undertake hikes or mountain tours ranging from easy to moderately difficult all by themselves with the aid of maps and the appropriate guidebooks and without any need for transport.

Some of the walking tours that we organise:

•  Botanical walking tours with picnic service
•  The view from the hill of Vrokastro with a Minoan fortress, around 1½ hours
•  Up to the monastery of Faneromeni that is perched on a rock, and back down again, around 4 hours.
•  Up to the village of Kalo Chorio and back again, around 3½ hours.

Tours of Discovery

And also sightseeing tours, such as to the excavations of the Minoan relics at Kato Zakros and Malia, the Byzantine church of Panagia Kera and the Doric settlement in Kritsa, the Lassithi high plateau with its famed "Zeus cave" and its windmills on the plateau, the monastery of Faneromeni at Gournia or Moni Toplou at Sitia with the very popular palm-fringed beach of Vai.

Also Agios Nikolaos, a pulsating town with its picturesque harbour, from where you can make an excursion with a ship to places such as Spinalonga, and its marina that is a meeting point for yachtsmen in the south-eastern Mediterranean. And a small centre if you want to go shopping for traditional jewellery, hand-painted icons, teas and herbs, needlework and museum replicas made to the highest standards. The archaeological museum, modern churches, exhibitions of local paintings, concerts with the lyre and the singing of ballads reflect the cultural background of the place.

You can a take a public bus from the bus stop just in front of the hotel to travel westwards to Agios Nikolaos and Heraklion or eastwards to Sitia and to Ierapetra (Southeast).