Crete

The most beautiful town on the island, with a crescent harbour lined with pastel houses, the Egyptian-style lighthouse at the end of a long breakwater, the domed Küçük Hasan Mosque, and Venetian arsenals. Behind the waterfront lie the narrow lanes of the old Jewish quarter and Splantzia, with small squares, craft shops and tavernas.

TipWalk out along the breakwater to the lighthouse at sunset, then eat a street or two back from the harbour, where prices drop.

At the tip of the Gramvousa peninsula in the far north-west, a shallow lagoon of white sand and turquoise water sits between the mainland and Cape Tigani. Boats from Kissamos port stop first at the island of Imeri Gramvousa, where a steep path climbs to a ruined Venetian fortress, then at Balos. You can also drive the rough dirt road to a car park and walk down, a steep climb back up in the heat. The area is a protected Natura 2000 site.

TipThe view from the path above the lagoon is the classic photograph; go early or late to avoid the boat crowds.

A beach and islet in the south-west, joined by a sandbar you can wade across in shallow, warm water. The sand is tinted pink by crushed shells. Elafonisi is a protected nature reserve with fragile dunes and rare plants: keep off the dunes, take nothing away, not even sand or shells, and use the areas set aside for umbrellas and sunbeds.

One of Europe's best-known gorge walks, inside a national park in the White Mountains. The trail starts at Xyloskalo on the Omalos plateau and descends about 16 kilometres to Agia Roumeli on the south coast, passing the abandoned village of Samaria and the Sideroportes, the "iron gates", where the walls close in to only a few metres apart. There's no road out of Agia Roumeli, so walkers take a ferry to Sfakia or Sougia to meet buses back north. Allow five to seven hours.

TipThe gorge usually opens from about May to late October; the exact opening date is set each year after safety inspections, and the park closes it on days of rain, high wind or fire risk. Buy tickets on the official NECCA e-ticket site and check its notices on the morning you go.

A lively university town with a well-preserved Venetian and Ottoman old town, the Rimondi Fountain, minarets, wooden balconies and a tiny lighthouse harbour. Above it all stands the Fortezza, a huge sixteenth-century Venetian fortress with views along the coast.

A fortified monastery in the hills south-east of Rethymno with a richly carved Venetian Renaissance church front. In 1866, during a revolt against Ottoman rule, hundreds of Cretans besieged here chose to blow up the powder store rather than surrender, and Arkadi became a national symbol. The old powder magazine and an ossuary are part of the visit.

On the south coast, the Kourtaliotis river runs through a ravine lined with palm trees and out onto a beach, forming a freshwater lagoon. Steps lead down from a car park above, or boats come from Plakias and Agia Galini. The nearby monastery helped hide Allied soldiers during the Second World War.

The second great Minoan palace, on a ridge above the Messara plain with Mount Ida behind. Its ruins are left largely unreconstructed, with grand staircases and courtyards, and it was here that the mysterious Phaistos Disc was found. The Roman city of Gortyn, with its great inscribed law code, lies a short drive east.

A small bay on the south coast whose sandstone cliffs are honeycombed with man-made caves, used as tombs in Roman times and famously lived in by hippies in the 1960s. The caves are fenced and can be visited during the day; the beach below is good for swimming and the sunsets are memorable.

Crete's capital and main port is busy and not especially pretty, but its Archaeological Museum holds the world's finest collection of Minoan art: the Phaistos Disc, the snake goddesses, the bull's-head rhyton, gold jewellery and the frescoes of Knossos, including the bull-leapers. Afterwards walk the Venetian walls, the Koules fortress at the harbour and the Morosini Fountain.

TipVisit the museum before Knossos; it makes far more sense of the ruins.

The largest Minoan palace, a maze of courtyards, storerooms and staircases a short bus ride south of Heraklion, linked in legend with King Minos and the Minotaur. Arthur Evans excavated it from 1900 and rebuilt parts in concrete, with copies of the frescoes, which helps you picture it but remains controversial. Entry is by timed ticket booked on the Ministry of Culture's official e-ticket system.

TipBook the first entry slot of the day; by late morning the site fills with tour groups and there's little shade.

A high, fertile plain ringed by the Dikti mountains, once famous for thousands of white-sailed windmills used to pump water. A few survive alongside quiet farming villages. Above Psychro, a steep path climbs to the Dikteon Cave, where in myth Zeus was born, with stalactites and a lake in the depths.

Agios Nikolaos is a cheerful harbour town on the Gulf of Mirabello, built around Lake Voulismeni, a small deep lake joined to the sea by a channel. To the north, Elounda is a quieter bay of luxury hotels, fishing boats and a sunken ancient city at Olous.

A small island fortress built by the Venetians in the late sixteenth century at the mouth of Elounda bay, which held out long after the rest of Crete fell to the Ottomans. From 1903 to 1957 it was a leper colony, and walking its single street of houses, the church and the tunnel entrance is moving. Boats run from Plaka, a few minutes away, and from Elounda and Agios Nikolaos.

At the far eastern end of the island, a sandy beach is backed by Europe's largest natural forest of the Cretan date palm. The grove is protected and fenced, so enjoy it from the beach and paths. The Toplou Monastery and the Minoan palace of Zakros are within reach.