Explore Crete island

Agia Roumeli - Crete, GREECE

Agia Roumeli is a very special and unique place with its genuine cretan background. It has strong character and soul surrounded by breath taking, wild mountains and a long beach of fine pebble by the clear Libyan sea. The village is remote and a little isolated. You can only reach it on foot or by boat.
There is no road. A few lucky visitors have discovered that Agia Roumeli is a superb place to spend their holidays in and they tend to return again and again. In Agia Roumeli and its surroundings you can relax, you can switch off the outside world. You almost forget it exists. Here you can watch all the stars, the galaxies. The natural geographical position of Agia Roumeli aids this tranquil sensation. Here you also find the point where the Samaria gorge ends. Many people pass through our village every summer and the majority even forget its name. Agia Roumeli lies in the shadow of this great gorge!

Every person who has made the long walk through the gorge of Samaria knows that this spectacular experience in nature combined with sore feet and exhaustion are a little too much for them. Agia Roumeli becomes merely a place where you get some refreshments. Here you wait for the ferryboat to take you back to a tour bus which will bring you to your departure point. But Agia Roumeli is so much more than this!! Once the last boat has left, the village becomes again a restful, calm community between wild mountains and the deep, blue sea. Agia Roumeli has no nightlife, no cinemas and no entertainment. However anyone who can relate to nature can find plenty to do besides enjoying the almost deserted beaches. The village is situated in one of the wildest regions of Crete and you could spend weeks exploring the region on foot. In the whole of Crete, there is no other place which is right by the sea and so close to the steeply rising mountains. Accordingly this provides Agia Roumeli with two magnificent sources of activity: the sea and the mountains. Most visitors are content with the clear sea and the dramatic mountain backdrop and will mainly relax on the pretty beach of fine pebble right by the village. 

You can have this lovely beach more or less to yourself both before noon and in the late afternoon. In the midday hours we share it with the "Samaria gorge walkers" but the beach is long and walking a few minutes away there is peace and silence. There are rocks at the western end of the beach for those who want to dive or snorkel. Going towards the West, there are other beaches, seldom visited by anyone. These can only be reached by boat or very strenuous hiking. We sometimes assist our guests with a boat trip, if the circumstances allow it. You can also walk along the eastern shore, following a coastal path along a deserted beach to the ancient Byzantine chapel of Agios Pavlos. This is the spot where St. Paul is said to have landed on Crete on his voyage to Greece. Further on, this path takes you to the beach of Marmara, the village of Loutro and eventually Hora Sfakion which is about 7 hours walk from Agia Roumeli. You can then take one of the frequent boats back to Agia Roumeli. With the mountains so close you might also want to walk up to the two ruined castles, situated on the nearest western hillside of the village.
The view from the castles is superb. If you want to explore more of the mountains on foot you will be able to get information from Roussos or his brother Spiros who will willingly share their valuable knowledge of the region with you. They were born here, in the old village, and know the mountains and the surroundings like the palm of their hand.  Last but not least, you will want to have a look at the gorge of Samaria. It is not difficult to walk upwards from Agia Roumeli and if you go in the early morning you will have this beautiful gorge almost to yourself. Walk as long as you want, you can turn back any time. Of course, if you keep walking up you will come across walkers coming down from Omalos and walking to Agia Roumeli.
After about two km walking towards the gorge you will pass the old village of Agia Roumeli. Here you can see the more recent history of the village. It is interesting to see how old it looks but it was a big and lively place until only 40 years ago. The inhabitants of old Agia Roumeli started to leave the village in 1954 when the river flooded and many houses were more or less destroyed. At that time the new Agia Roumeli was slowly built up down by the edge of the seaside.  Right after after Old Agia Roumeli you enter the National Park of Samaria.