Agia Galini and Spili

From the holiday house VILLA Maquis one can easily make a day trip to one of the most beautiful villages on the southeast of Crete. Take a look at the vacation villa :

A very good road will take you through the mountains to the South of Crete. You will make several stops to enjoy the fantastic views.Stop at the little waterfalls in Spili for some refreshments, next stop is AGIA GALINI. The fishermans village is build agains the mountain and together with the many bars and restaurants make it is very photogenic. For those who want the extra drive of 30min, there is MATALA, the beautiful bay is well know because of the weet smoking gipsies in the '60. total drive to Agia GALINA from the villa is 2 h.

Of all the villages that you will find on the southern coast of Crete, the fishing village AGIA GALINI, partly built on cliffs, is definitely one of the most beautiful places with many lounge bars and restaurants.

AGIA GALINI is an example of how the transformation from a simple fishing village to a tourist village need not be accompanied by a total mutilation of the appearance of the village. Those who visit AGIA GALINI will experience that the Crete feeling has not been dispelled here by the arrival of the tourists. I read on a site that the name AGIA GALINI means "Holy Peace" in Dutch. Anyone who walks through the streets of the village will agree that this name is still largely correct. Calm is only occasionally disturbed by a Greek or tourist who gets a little noisier as a result of too much raki after a good meal.

Anyone who goes out for dinner in AGIA GALINI will notice that a large part of the menus here mainly features real traditional Cretan cuisine. Delicious dishes with rabbit, lamb and goat supplemented with local products are straight from the pots of the local kitchen princesses. It is also recommended to eat fresh fish at this place. Each of the restaurants offers the fish caught earlier that day in the waters south of Crete.

If you stay in AGIA GALINI and you are lucky, your accommodation has a beautiful view of the sea. After all, AGIA GALINI is partly located on high cliffs. The houses at the end of the cliffs have a phenomenal panoramic view.

The two most popular spots of AGIA GALINI are the fishing harbor and the beach. The few hundred meters between these places are bridged by means of a pedestrian boulevard along a cliff. At the harbor there are several tavernas that mainly focus on local cuisine and fish specialties. On the beach there are some restaurants that also offer the more international dishes.

At the southwestern tip you will find an amphitheater and two statues. These two natural stone statues represent the mythological figures Ikaros and Daidalos. Because these statues and the amphitheater are higher, you have a nice view from here on AGIA GALINI. A perfect place to take some pictures of this beautiful village on CRETE!

Those who still feel like it can drive for half an hour to MATALA.

MATALA is a special village on the south coast of CRETE. It is known for the chalk cliffs in which caves were probably already made during the new Stone Age.

It is certain that the caves in the chalk cliffs of Matala have been used as Roman or early Christian graves. During Roman times, MATALA was the port of the historic city of Gortys. Before that MATALA served as the port of Phaestus (written in Greek as Phaistos). One of the caves has the name Brutospeliana. That is because, according to legend, the Roman general Brutus would have stayed here regularly.

Centuries later, the burrows were repurposed. They served as cave houses for the hippies who settled here. This happened in the 1960s. Later, the hippies were driven out by the church and the military junta that held power in Greece. Although the last original hippies left MATALA in the 1970s, MATALA is still known as the hippy village on CRETE. From a tourist (and commercial) point of view, every effort is made to maintain this image. There is a hippy market that has been here since 1973 and you see all kinds of paintings on the street that are a clear reference to the hippie era in MATALA.

Those who want to visit the caves have to pay an entrance fee nowadays. In the summer season, when MATALA is frequented by tourists, you can only enter the chalk rock where the caves are located after purchasing an entrance ticket.

Besides being a tourist attraction, MATALA is also just a nice place to chill out. The village has a beautiful "Blue Flag" sandy beach of no less than 250 meters long and a maximum of 45 meters wide. MATALA is still a fishing village, so you can eat delicious fresh fish in the tavernas. Also not unimportant is the price level, which is certainly not bad for Cretan concepts. This is despite the fact that MATALA is really a popular tourist destination.