Crete rewards travellers who get out of the resorts. The Minoan palaces — Knossos above all, but also Phaistos, Malia, and Kato Zakros — are the obvious historical draw, and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum holds the finds that make sense of them. Equally compelling is the wild interior: the Samaria Gorge, a 16-kilometre hike from the Omalos plateau down to the Libyan Sea, is one of the great walks in Europe and open from May to October.
Beyond hiking and ruins, Crete offers superb diving along the southern coast, sea-kayaking around the eastern shore, and quiet driving tours through mountain villages where life still revolves around the kafenion and the olive harvest. The Lassithi plateau, the Amari valley, and the Sfakia coast are all worth a day each. Boat trips run from Kissamos to the lagoon at Balos and to the abandoned Venetian fortress on Imeri Gramvousa.