With all our Bavarian daytrips, many readers and viewers recognize NearFromHome as a Munich based travel blog and YouTube channel. However, our reach sometimes spans beyond the limits of the Bavarian Bundesland, and more broadly into Europe. Aside from the simple fact that it is nice to leave one’s country of residence to travel abroad, we also like to gain and provide useful travel insight on Bavarian travel trends, as it is actually quite common for Münchners and Bavarians to travel pretty extensively in Italy, Austria, and Greece during the numerous school and public holidays. Although we have (in true Bavarian fashion) adapted to taking numerous smaller trips to neighboring countries, we’ve featured these travels less on our YouTube channel, as we are typically focused on taking some healthy separation from work. Although I don’t regret these breaks from filming, I can’t help but wonder on the content that could have been. If there’s no Youtube video, or blog post documenting our trips, they didn’t happen, right? While this is obviously a ridiculous feeling, the idea is especially hard to shake when reminiscing on our time in Crete as we have no videos to show for our fun in the ancient harbor ton of Chania, or the numerous beaches and gorges we came to love. However, so compelled were we by the three monasteries of the Akrotiro Penninsula, that we decided to break our relaxation to create the first of a rare subset featuring non-Bavaria content. As a cute relic from our less than sparkling early days, (of which I am quite frankly pained to watch) the video still packs a ton of useful information about one of my favorite day trips ever.

Like many islands and towns in southern Europe, Crete has garnered a reputation as being a popular vacation spot for Germans during the summer holidays. Following the trend, we returned to the island, staying in Crete’s second largest town of Chania. After spending a few days doing some trips outside the town and discovering the town’s best bars, cafes, and restaurants, we headed to the Akrotiri monasteries for some unfinished YouTube business.

This trio of remote monasteries can be daunting to those accustomed to purely city travel, so I like to conceptualize the different accessibilities of these monasteries with a metaphor, equating the level of independent travel required for each site with a different color on a traffic light. The green signal represents first monastery of Agia Triada as the easiest and most accessible of the three. The second monastery of Gouverneto is slightly more challenging for independent travel, being represented with the yellow signal for some off road cliff-side driving. Finally, Kathaliko, the third, and my personal favorite monastery is a ruin deep within a gorge, requiring a proper hike with an elevation gain of 288 meters. Thus Katholiko represents the final red signal, and most difficult of the three monasteries. With this metaphor in mind, visitors can confidently “build your own monastery daytrip” according to their independent travel level. Once you’ve decided your itinerary for the day, it’s time to talk transportation.

Not much thought is needed for transportation, as for the Akrotiri Peninsula, the only option is a rental car. On Crete in general, the public transportation ranges from quite patchy to completely insufficient, especially when traveling outside the largest towns. The three monasteries on Akrotiri represent the extreme inaccessible end of the public transit spectrum, as they are incredibly remote, leaving us with car rental as the only option. I have had a lot of luck renting cars from the numerous rental companies dotted around the Chania main square. This square is near the Chania bus station, surrounding the Ottoman Fountain. There are several companies, but be aware, that you must have an EU or international driver’s license to rent. Some shadier companies will look the other way, but you really don’t want their business. Trust me. The rental cars in the square (especially the automatics) are rented up quickly, so plan ahead. No worries, though, as if you don’t have an EU license, obtaining the international driver’s license is easily done. In the US (and many other countries) the process takes about half an hour, and is under 50 dollars. We (irresponsibly) popped into a AAA the day of our flight out of the United States, and had two international licenses quickly made. It’s just a simple booklet, translating your license into multiple languages.

After the thirty minute drive through the remote hills, we crossed into the Akrotiri Peninsula, and arrived at the first stop on our traffic light metaphor, the Agia Triada Monastery. Representing the green light, tourists sometimes even frequent this monastery via giant tour bus, as visualized in the bus sized parking lot. As the parking lot, public restrooms, and shops indicate, this monastery is easily accessed by visitors with even a low travel independence level. Once inside the walls, we wandered through the labyrinth of awnings, gardens, museums, chapels, and criss-crossing staircases. Always taking care, respect the ‘do not enter’ signs, as many monks still live in this tangle, with their personal quarters hidden within the architecture. If you’re visiting in the warmer months, be aware that the monks do not allow women to wear short shorts into the building, and provided my friend and I with scarves to tie around our waists. If you would like to avoid the uncomfortable scratchiness of the modesty scarves, perhaps bring your own, as I found myself wishing I had. After taking many pictures and, of course, petting the numerous cats, we exited and hooked left to visit the gift shop featuring products created at the monastery. I soon found myself wishing I had brought a checked bag for all the delicious wines, olive oils, jams, and vinaigrettes produced on site. The Agia Triada olive oil is especially renowed, as was evidenced when I returned to Germany, spotting the brand in several specialty grocery stores. If you’re especially interested in their house-made products, be sure to ask the employees for a tasting. The employee who conducted our wine tasting was a British immigrant, who had lived on Crete for several years, so he provided us with many interesting stories and perspectives.

After sampling a meal’s worth of free samples, we headed towards the next monastery, our yellow light in the metaphor, Gouverneto. Requiring more independent travel skills, the ten minute drive to this site involved harrowingly narrow and unmaintained roads winding up the mountains. As Ben focused hard on driving safley, I filmed out the window, gawking at the sheer drops dotted with wandering goat herds picking their way through the arid landscape.

After the road dead ended at a gravel parking lot, we exited the car, and walked through the nearby wooden gate denoting the Gouverneto entrance, following the stone path with a clover field on your left. After a two minute walk, we arrived at the Gouvernetto entrance. Like the road, Gouverneto itself also offers significantly less in the way of tourist infrastructure, providing no bathroom or gift shop. The monastery itself was built in 1537 in the architectural style of a Venetian fortress with Baroque accents. At one point it was one of the oldest and biggest on the island, housing about 60 monks. This is somewhat surprising, as unlike the previous monastery, Gouverneto is now only partially inhabited by monks. However, don’t let the half abandoned state fool you, as these monks take their rules seriously and will strictly enfore the “no photography” signs at the entrance. After seeing that we were a small travel channel, the on duty monk did allow us to discretely film so long as we didn’t record any of the inhabitants.

Next it was time for the final and most difficult monastery, the ancient ruins of Kathaliko. As I mentioned earlier, this red light monastery involved a 30 minute hike deep into a gorge, and while the hike down was not incredibly strenuous, (288 meters) do remember, every step down, is a step up later, so wear proper hiking gear and plenty of sunscreen. We exited Gouverneto, turned right, and passed through another gate. At this point we admired the views, and began the winding trail downward, along the mountain ridge admiring the sparkling ocean in the distence. Around the halfway point between Gouverneto and Katholiko, hikers can turn off to the right, walking through some ruined structures to the Cave of the She-Bear. Named for the central pillar in the cave, said to resemble a giant bear, the cave is also rumored to have historical evidence of Artemis cult worship. From there, we returned to the path, continuing the descent. As we began the final leg of the descent, with a cliff wall on our left, and the gorge on our right, we began to see glimpses of the enormous ruins with several buildings, and a giant bridge connecting both sides of the gorge canyon.

This monastery was founded in the 11th century, and is considered the oldest on Crete. It was founded by St. John the Hermit, who lived in one of the many caves in the complex. Upon his death in 1027, the cave he inhabited was converted into a temple, and more monks came here to live in his image. The monastery flourished from that point until the 16th century, at which time, pirates began raiding the coast, and eventually forced the monks to relocate in 1632.

We passed through the monastery’s ruined archway stopping for a small picnic lunch in the shade of a ruined building, admiring the huge olive tree growing several floors through the center of the ruin. Take some time to stare into the surrounding hills, as there are several caves dotted throughout that the most reclusive monks most likely inhabited. After lunch, we explored the site, clambering on top of the ruins, and even following some spooky indoor stairways leading to a storage room under the bridge. Walking accross the giant bridge, and glancing to the left, I saw a trail descending down, next to the bridge and under. We descended, and followed the path for about a mile before arriving at Katholiko beach. Many tourists were sunbathing here and admiring the ocean, but unable to swim due to the rough waves, and razor rocks. I have read online reviews where visitors claim to have gone for a swim at the beach, but alas, that was not the case during our visit.

With that being said, I hope you feel empowered to explore this truly stunning set of monasteries in the Akrotiri hills. This day trip is truly one of my fondest travel experiences to date, so much so, that we have actually returned twice to experience the wonder. If you do embark on this daytrip, don’t be like me, and be sure to bring planty of extra luggage for bottles of wine and olive oil ;)