Our summer family holiday to Crete

Our summer family holiday to Crete was everything we could hope for from a trip to this beautiful island. There was history and sunshine, myths, legends and plenty of good food. And lots of family time to really relax and have fun. Greece is always a great choice for a trip at any time of the year but in summer it really buzzes with the best of the season – the sun is bright and warm and the Aegean Sea glistens a beautiful blue.

*AD / Press trip. To read more please see my Disclosure Policy.

Our summer family holiday to Crete – Arriving

We started our travels in Crete at Chania Airport where we picked up our hire car and travelled east. Snaking along the motorway with waves crashing along the shore beside us.

It was wonderful to be back in this yellowed land which rolled in hilltops through the centre, down to the milky sea at its edges.

The children spotted the sights as we drove. From goats jostling for position under the shade of an olive tree to swimmers bobbing up and down in the water as we whizzed by.

It wasn’t long before we pulled in to our home for the week at Paradise Island Villas, just 15 miles outside of the capital Heraklion.

We couldn’t have picked a better base for our time. The accommodation was beautiful and also perfectly family friendly.

We had our own pool and there were also two large resort pools on site. We immediately felt at home here and unpacked and relaxed immediately.

Relaxing family holiday in Crete

Family holidays can always be a tricky balance between those activities the children want to do (swimming in the pool, visiting the beach) and those we want to do (exploring the history and culture).

We quickly settled in to a routine that worked for all of us.

Mornings spent out exploring and adventuring, soaking up all that Crete had to offer. And afternoons back at Paradise Island Villas relaxing by the pools with the children splashing about in the cooling water.

Knossos

Our first trip out was to Knossos, the amazing archaeological site on the outskirts of Heraklion that has been described as being Europe’s oldest city.

It was first inhabited in the Neolithic period and was to become the centre of Minoan civilisation.

Today the remains of the series of palaces that once dominated the landscape here can be explored by their foundations. And little glimpses of the grandeur that once existed.

It was fascinating to walk in the footsteps of the ancient Greeks.

We gazed at the art work, marvelled at the colours, sat on the theatre seats and wondered at the different rooms and what they would have once housed.

We all really enjoyed Knossos and the insight in to this lost world.

Heraklion Archaeological Museum

It came alive even more a few days later when we stepped in to The Heraklion Archaeological Museum where most of the artefacts found during the excavation of Knossos were taken.

Some of our favourites of which were the original paintings which were so enigmatic and fascinating.

The museum was packed with other items too.

I loved seeing the “poppy goddess” statues from 1300 BC. And all the wonderful clay figures dancing and playing musical instruments from the same period, alluding to a colourful, melodic world.

Visiting Heraklion with kids

Heraklion was a surprise hit for us.

I was expecting an urban, concrete city but actually I loved the charm here.

The Morosini Lions Fountain in the middle is a Venetian fountain which dates from the 17th century and was somewhere the children loved.

And we all enjoyed walking the streets, picking up bagfuls of biscuits from the bakery and enjoying gyros (flat breads stuffed with cooked potatoes, salad and tzatziki) in the centre.

We found a shady playground for the children to burn off some energy and shopped for souvenirs in the shopping streets.

We loved Heraklion and it is somewhere to not overlook in favour of the more picture-perfect towns of Crete.

Spinalonga on our family holiday to Crete

We also took a trip to Spinalonga, Greece’s former leper island which I had read about and really wanted to see.

The island just off the coast in the Gulf of Elounda was abandoned in the 1950s. But it had previously been home to the country’s inflicted.

The remains of their houses, treatment rooms and hospital are still visible.

Crumbling and overgrown with a tangle of weeds wrapping through the buildings only added to the allure of this intriguing place.

The Lissithi plateau

One of the children’s favourite trips was up high to the Lissithi plateau of the island. 900 metres above sea level in the Dikti mountain range which tower above the centre of the island.

We wound our way through twisting roads to the top where old windmills beckoned us in to this interesting land which lay surprisingly green and flat.

Visiting Zeus’s Cave

We were here in search of Zeus’s cave where legend had it that he was born.

Right at the top we found the opening in the Dikteon Cave in the small village of Psyhro. Here we clambered our way down deep in to the earth where twisted stalagmites and dripping stalactites created an eery spectacle.

The children loved it, spotting faces in the structures and breathing in the cold, damp air.

The villages on the drive back down were worthy of a stop off too and the children wrapped their hands around a “1000 year old tree” (maybe not quite that old, no one is sure but it was certainly impressive) and a small chapel with 14th century paintings that took our breath away.

Paradise Island Villas – a family holiday to Crete

There’s no doubt that the family’s favourite time was back at Paradise Island Villas though.

Here we could really relax as the crickets called and the heat beat down. Inflatable doughnuts and bouncing lilos were dropped in to the water as the children jumped and splashed and cooled off in the beautiful pools here.

For the most part we ate in as our villa was so well kitted out and we bought huge spanakopita, the Greek specialty we all loved, bowlfuls of olives, rustic loaves of bread and interesting Greek cheeses.

We also ate at the restaurant at Paradise Island Villas where we tried their baked feta, honey soaked pancakes and fresh dakos covered in tomatoes and the local olive oil. The food here was so good.

We even managed a few sunsets at the local beach at Agkisaras.

Here the impossibly large and wonderfully orange sun would sink slowly in to the azure sea.

As the children ran barefoot along the sand, leaving footprints and taking with them wonderful memories we could all reflect on a holiday where we truly relaxed, revelled in the local scenery and fell in love with this picturesque island.

Read more with our guide to Crete with kids.