Heraklion to Rethymno: Private day trip

Main attractions

• One of the best-preserved Venetian old towns in Greece — Rethymno's historic center is a dense network of narrow lanes, Ottoman fountains, Venetian loggia, minarets and Renaissance doorways that accumulated across four centuries of successive rule without any single era erasing what came before
• The Fortezza — a massive Venetian fortress built between 1573 and 1580 on the headland above the harbor in response to repeated Ottoman raids; the largest Venetian castle in Crete, its walls enclose an entire hilltop with the Ibrahim Han mosque, cisterns and bastions largely intact within

Things to do

• Walk the old town lanes between the harbor and the Fortezza — the Rimondi fountain (1626), the Neratze mosque (a converted Venetian church with the finest minaret in Crete) and the Venetian loggia on Arkadiou Street reward unhurried exploration
• Visit the Archaeological Museum of Rethymno, housed in a former Ottoman prison adjacent to the Fortezza — Minoan, Mycenaean and Classical artifacts from across the Rethymno region with good contextual labeling
• Climb to the Fortezza ramparts for panoramic views across the harbor, the old town rooftops and the White Mountains rising to the south — the scale of the fortification only becomes apparent from within the walls

What to eat

• Dakos (barley rusk topped with crushed tomato, mizithra cheese and olive oil) and lamb with stamnagathi (Cretan wild chicory) at one of the old town tavernas away from the harbour front; the lanes behind the Rimondi fountain have better food at better prices than the waterfront; Avli restaurant in a Venetian courtyard on Xanthoudidou Street is the most atmospheric option for a longer lunch