My personal top 7 in West Crete OR "Good road, asphalt"

First, let me explain the title of this story. On our first day in Viglia we asked our hostess Irini about different places to go. The two I wanted to see for sure were Balos and Elafonisi. Irini said that although Balos is actually very close to the hotel itself, the road there is not too good – it is unpaved, so the driving will be quite slow. After hearing this, we decided to leave Balos for later, when we have gotten used to local driving realities. 

“And what about Elafonisi?” – I asked Irini.

“Oh, it’s a good road, asphalt” – she replied.

And so we decided to go to Elafonisi on our first day in Crete. Now, please keep in mind that my driving license was only half a year old during that time. I bravely started driving, got green the face after reaching the first mountain, then almost fainted when some goats jumped out on the road, and at last got out of the car sweaty and trembling after some 30 minutes (which felt like 30 hours to me) and let Zsolt drive the rest of the way. Since then “good road, asphalt” is a saying in our family, describing the road, which is really far from being easy.

So, enough of the introductions. Let’s see where we actually went.

1. Falassarna

Falassarna is a beach on the Western side of Crete, and is famous for “amazing sunsets”. It was also a short drive from us, so we went there on the evening of our arrival to be amazed by the sunset. It was nice, but we were not amazed.

In fact it was there we realised that Lithuanian sea coast actually does have pretty good sunset. It doesn’t excel in many things, like sea temperature, water transparency, aquatic life or others. But it does have great sunsets: Lithuania is facing directly West and is placed high up North enough to have nice slow sun-setting speed, which allow you enough time to sit in the cozy dunes, open a bottle of wine and actually finish it with a serving of smoked fish.

Here we had in fact have just enough time to jump out of the car, unbuckle Mark from his seat, appreciate the view, realise that the batteries of both our phones are dead and no pictures of this historical moment will be taken. And that was it. Good we didn’t bring our fish dinner with us.

2. Elafonisi

Crystal clear water

As you know, reaching it was not easy, but after I took the passenger seat, I really enjoyed. We were staying in Crete in April, so it did have advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantage – really cold sea. Advantage – not too many tourists. 

Pink sand of Elafonisi

Western Crete, Time-machine trip back to April 2016

The summer is the only decent season in Lithuania, so we don’t plan any big travels for June, July and August. This is the time when the garden grows, the sandbox and the swing can be used and friends come from abroad to stay with us. Summer is a great time, but if you have self-proclaimed yourself a travel blogger, what can you then blog about? Do I take a break? Do I blog about the sandbox? This would be too macro even for me.

I have two strategies: 1. Hop on a time machine – I’ll tell about the travels of the past, for now undocumented and almost forgotten. Before they get forgotten completely, let’s try to remember them and describe them. 2. Many small travels and discoveries are still happening – new running routes, new picnic locations, new favourite coffee places in Vilnius. Also, we are planning a couple of small road trips around Lithuania and neighbouring Latvia. It won’t be boring, and I can keep my fingers trained and the keyboard in use.

So the journey today goes back to April 2016, Crete, a little hotel by the sea in the middle of nowhere called Viglia Beach Apartments.

I found the hotel on booking.com, and then double-checked it for reviews from young Brits and Scandinavian, to make sure this is not a party-disco-drink-all-you-can destination, as many other locations in Crete. Not that it was likely to be such anyway in the middle of April, but for our first trip with our first baby we didn’t want to take second chances. 

I found a car online as well. We decided to go for a slightly risky, but much cheaper option of renting a car from a local company, rather than established international one. The price difference for an automatic car was almost double for a week, and luckily we didn’t have any trouble in the end of it.



The car rental company representative met us in the airport with my name on a sheet of paper and took Zsolt to get the car just outside the terminal building, while me and Mark stayed outside the airport and absorbed the sun and the sight of palm trees after all the never-ending winter we had for the past half a year.

We passed the town of Kissamos, took the road further along the coast, and after one more turn, when the landscape around us became quiet deserted, we saw our little hotel – just by the sea, on a little slope of the hill, white terrace and the owner Irini standing up to meet us and give us a hug, as if we just came home after a long trip away. And we actually felt just like that - homely.

This was my first experience, when the hotel actually looked and felt even better in real life than in booking.com photos. Every day we were greeted by a cheerful Kalimera, orange juice and strong Greek coffee, followed by a bread-based Cretan breakfast with a view to the sea. And we consulted with Irini on what is the best to see, where would be a good place to go, and then every evening she was there waiting for us and asking about our day trips.



We had no fixed plan, just some ideas about what we want to see, and we were also planning to give ourselves a chance to be lazy and stay by the pool the whole day. Staying by the pool and swimming in a rather cold even for my Baltic taste April sea we did sometimes in the morning or in the evening. And when we planned to spend a whole day being lazy, the maximum we could do was 3 hours. After that we were ready to jump in the car and go exploring again. 

During this week we went to the following places: Falassarna, Balos, Elafonissi, Milia traditional village, small villages of Platanos and others on our way, some very well-hidden Aspri Limni beach and lagoon near Chrisoskalitissas Monastery, Topolia Gorge, wine + olive oil production factory for a tasting and Lake Kournas. I will write a more detailed post about those places in a couple of days, and for now will stick to a general impression of the trip as a whole.

As Mark was very little, he slept quite a lot during the day in the car, and we could do the driving in his nap times. The carrier helped a lot and we ended up using it more than a stroller. And the biggest help was that Mark at that time was breastfed exclusively, so I didn’t need to bring any bottles, sterilisers and heaters on the trip. This saved the time and hassle, and I could chose some scenic places for his feeds, where I would also enjoy this time.

During this week, we actually eaten more oranges that throughout the rest of the year, as well as more bread, yogurt and olive oil. And we packed our suitcase with some 5-6 litres of the dark and heavy olive oil in very homely plastic bottles wrapped in tape for the way back as well. That lasted until winter and when we ran out of it, the store-bought didn’t taste the same.

Crooked Nose & Coffee Stories

The journey today is very short one - it takes around 6 km from my house to get to the Crooked Nose & Coffee Stories coffee place in Vilnius. But all the other "ingredients" of this perfect day travel much longer.

First of all, there is my friend, who travels all the way from Jerusalem to spend this (and a couple of others) day with us in Vilnius. And second is of course the coffee, five different types of beans travelling from all the parts of the world as far away from Lithuania as possible.

Eating Jerusalem

Let's jump into the food straight away. For my Lithuanian taste the food in Jerusalem was as amazing as it was expensive. Which is very.

On the day of arrival the first thing we visited was Mahane Yehuda, the main food market in Jerusalem. It was actually surprising to find "the market", and not many local markets, which I somehow was expecting. But it was good to have it all there in one place.