This was our first visit to Crete. We chose to stay in Rethymno as we like basing ourselves within walking distance of larger towns that we can explore on foot. We booked a package deal through TUI for a half board stay at the Aquila Porto Rethymnon Hotel and flew into Chania airport from Birmingham, UK.

Rethymno is an historic city, on the north coast of Crete, known for its well-preserved Venetian and Ottoman architecture, Fortezza fortress, and Venetian Harbour. It offers a mix of cultural sites and sandy beaches, making it a popular tourist destination. There’s much more information on Rethymno here.

We arrived to lovely warm sunshine and clear blue skies and Chania airport was a real treat. It’s the smaller of the two airports on the island and a lot less busy than the usual tourist hubs. With no queues at Border Control and a really quick baggage reclaim we were soon on our coach for the 90 minute transfer to our hotel.

The hotel was situated across the road from a large sandy beach. A short walk away from the Old Town, Old Port and modern commercial area of the town. The hotel is classed as five stars which impacts on the amount of tourist tax the Greek government charges you. The more stars, the more you pay. A week cost us just over £100 in tax.

I’m not sure the hotel was quite five stars but it was really nice. Our room was great, the hotel staff were lovely and the food, for an all inclusive, was superb, especially the desserts. Tripadvisor Auila Porto Rethymno

Rethymno was everything we hoped it would be and we had a great time there, although it didn’t end the way we’d have liked, more on that later. The old town and old port were really lovely to wander around. The old town streets were a mix of cafes, shops and restaurants although there were quieter residential areas if you wanted a break from the crowds.

Passing the Old Harbour, we enjoyed walking along the coast road that skirts the Fortress. The road takes you around to the back of the town and the small beaches in this area were quiet and occupied mostly by locals. We found a Saturday market here as well which was nice to browse.

There are a couple of museums in the old town and some impressive churches. We spent half a day walking around the Fortezza fortress. It covers a large area and wasn’t too crowded. I’d recommend a visit there and its good value for a small entrance fee.

We split our time between walking the town and coast road in the mornings and evenings and taking advantage of the hotels beach front sunbeds most afternoons. Our week ended on a bit of a bummer (literally) after we both picked up a Norovirus. We suspected there may be a problem in the hotel when a bottle of hand sanitiser was left in our room by the cleaner. The same bottles started appearing on the dining room tables the next day.

We’ve experienced Noro Hell on a previous holiday and were hyper careful anyway. However, we still picked up this bug and spent 24hrs laid up in our hotel room, incapable of doing anything other than sleep after the initial affects of the virus.

Horrendous virus that it is, Norovirus is quickly over and 24hrs after our symptom’s first appeared we were feeling much better again, although eating anything wasn’t that appealing. We had time to recover, thankfully, before flying back to the UK. The hotel staff confirmed that they had a problem with the virus when we were leaving and lots of guests and hotel staff had succumbed to it.

All that aside, we had a great holiday and really enjoyed Rethymno. So much so, we’ve booked to go back next May.

Photography Notes: I had done some photography research before our holiday using stock agency sites and WordPress blog searches. I did pick off a few locations to look out for but generally most of the images I’ve returned with I found by just walking around the town.

Lens wise, I didn’t use my longer zoom much and most of the pics were taken using my 18mm-55mm or 10mm-20mm zooms. My Samyang 8mm fisheye lens was really useful on a few occasions. Although it’s manual focus, it’s so wide that at f8 everything is in focus anyway.

I did ask a few of the locals if I could take images of them when we were out and about. They were all polite but said no. My experience in Rhodes over the years has been quite the opposite, so that came as a bit of a surprise. In the churches, shops and bakeries, when I asked for permission to take photos they were fine.

Finally, a note re the camera. As I was swapping lenses frequently my sensor became quite dirty as the week went on. I could see sensor spots clearly, even on my ipad on a few images I transferred whilst we were there. No matter how careful I am this just always happens.

I clean my own sensor using kits I buy from Amazon. I’ve never had any problems or damaged my cameras doing it myself. However, I’d left my sensor cleaning kit at home and couldn’t source one anywhere in the town. In the end I went to a local pharmacy and the pharmacist sold me some ‘near pure’ Isopropyl Alcohol, once I’d convinced him that I just wanted it to clean my sensor. They also gave me a new glasses cleaning cloth to apply it with.

I did intend to clean the sensor with my home made kit, but in the end I didn’t use the Isopropyl Alcohol. Instead, I used my Sony RX100 for anything where I didn’t need the really wide lenses and then we became ill anyway. I’ve now put a few sensor cleaning wands and a small bottle of sensor cleaner in one of our suitcases where it can stay. They’ll be there if I forget again.

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All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.