CHANIA OR RETHYMNO: WHICH SHOULD YOU CHOOSE IN CRETE?
Two Venetian harbours, two old towns full of shuttered wooden balconies and cats snoozing on warm stone, two places that get mentioned in the same breath by almost everyone who’s been to Crete.They’re not the same town.
We know because we stayed in both, and had strong, sometimes contradictory feelings about each. Rethymno is the smaller and more romantic of the two – a place you settle into within a day and don’t feel any urge to leave. Chania is bigger, brasher, and better connected, the sort of town that encourages you to stay up late.
This post is our attempt to actually separate the two: what each town does better, where the beaches and the food and the nightlife differ, what day trips open up depending on where you base yourself.
By the end, you should know which one is right for you. Although, we still can’t agree on which one we loved more.
Chania & Rethymno: key differences
The easiest way to explain the difference is that Rethymno is somewhere that you can arrive and quickly settle into. It has a wonderful holiday vibe and lends itself to slow wanderings. Conversely, Chania has more “ins and outs”. It is more lively, and feels like somewhere you can continue exploring, without getting bored.
Rethymno is smaller, more compact and, despite being a very popular destination, somehow manages to feel intimate. It certainly isn’t quiet – the old town is absolutely buzzing at night – but the atmosphere felt cosy rather than hectic. The narrow lanes, hidden courtyards and candlelit restaurants give the whole place a gloriously romantic feel, and it’s easy to understand why so many couples choose to stay here.
At the same time, it doesn’t feel exclusively geared towards couples. We saw plenty of families, and because everything is so walkable, it’s actually a very easy place to base yourself for a few days.
Chania, meanwhile, feels considerably bigger and more sprawling. It attracts a much broader mix of travellers. There are couples on city breaks, families spending a week by the sea and plenty of solo travellers using the city as a base for exploring western Crete.
There’s also something undeniably practical about Chania. The bus station is incredibly useful, the transport connections are excellent and it works brilliantly if your idea of a holiday involves spending one day on the beach, another hiking a gorge and the next taking a bus somewhere completely different.
Some people describe Chania as a budget destination and we can understand where that reputation comes from. It’s popular with independent travellers and there are plenty of affordable food options. But we’d hesitate to call it cheap because, in reality, you could spend as much money in Chania as you could almost anywhere in Greece. There are oodles of upmarket bars and restaurants and plenty of opportunities to luxuriate.
One of the main difference is the size – Rethymno is much more compact. After a few days, we had quickly found our regular routes and short cuts. Whilst Chania took us a little longer to get the hang of.
Chania or Rethymno: beaches
Neither town has the sort of spectacular beach that makes people fly to Crete in the first place. You’re not going to step out of your hotel and find anything comparable to Elafonisi or Balos. But both do offer easy access to the sea.
Chania has a small but perfectly formed city beach that’s ideal if you simply fancy a quick swim or an hour in the sun. Then there’s Nea Chora, around a twenty-minute walk from the old town, which feels more like a proper beach day destination.
The real advantage of staying in Chania, though, is how many other beaches are within easy reach. You can hop on a bus, hire a car or simply spend several days beach-hopping your way around western Crete. You can find a detailed guide to the best beaches near Chania here.
Rethymno’s town beach is also around twenty minutes from the old town and stretches for a surprisingly long distance. We enjoyed spending time there, although it didn’t quite have the same picturesque setting as some of Crete’s other beaches. A road runs behind much of it and the sea can occasionally feel a little rougher and choppier.
However, Rethymno does have one particularly practical advantage that we absolutely loved.
Many of the beach clubs offer free sun loungers, with the understanding that you’ll order drinks or lunch while you’re there. It sounds like a small thing, but we found it made beach days feel wonderfully easy. We’d settle into a comfortable lounger, order a cold drink and a bite for lunch, and stay for hours without feeling as though we were constantly spending money.
Chania or Rethymno: food & nightlife
This is perhaps where we found ourselves most divided. The simple answer is that both towns are excellent for food. We ate exceptionally well in both and would happily return to either. But the atmosphere around dining felt quite different to us.
Rethymno seemed to have more traditional tavernas and more restaurants tucked away in pretty squares or hidden down narrow lanes. Almost every evening became an exercise in indecision because there were simply too many places we wanted to try. The restaurants became one of our favourite things about staying there. We loved Othonas taverna, Lemonokipos Restaurant (both super romantic) and Μεζεδοπωλείο Αστέρας (a relaxed and local place.)
Chania has huge amounts of choice too, perhaps even more than Rethymno, but oddly we didn’t feel quite as drawn to specific places. The restaurant scene felt slightly more modern and upmarket, with several places attracting queues that suggested they were all over Instagram.
There are some lovely spots to eat, of course, but the experience somehow felt less intimate than sitting in one of Rethymno’s tiny squares with tables spilling onto the cobbles.
When it comes to nightlife, though, Chania probably has the edge. There are more bars (our favourite was Vermuteria,) more late-night spots and the atmosphere feels a little less tourist-focused. Because Chania is a proper city where lots of people actually live and work, the nightlife has an authentic buzz to it that we really enjoyed.
Rethymno certainly isn’t quiet and there are some fun bars there too, including one wonderfully quirky Irish pub that looked more like an antiques shop than a pub at all. But overall, evenings in Rethymno felt a little more relaxed and romantic.
Chania or Rethymno: budget
Neither destination is especially cheap. Restaurant prices felt broadly similar and drinks cost roughly the same in both places. However, neither destination needs to be expensive either. For context, you can expect to pay between €4-6 for a large beer (sometimes less in a happy hour) and around €3-6 for a local wine, in both places.
There are plenty of inexpensive kebab shops, pizza places and casual restaurants where you can enjoy dinner without spending very much at all. We regularly ate out for €10 for two of us, enjoying souvlaki or a takeout slice.
Both towns also have supermarkets and both work brilliantly for travellers who want to use public transport for day trips.
The biggest difference we noticed was accommodation. During our searches, Chania generally felt slightly more expensive and we found more affordable options in Rethymno. The difference wasn’t enormous, but if budget is an important consideration, Rethymno may just have the edge. For context, for budget accommodation we paid around €60 per night in Rethymno, compared to €80 in Chania.
Chania or Rethymno: day trips & hiking
This is where Chania starts to become very tempting.
Staying there opens up much of western Crete. Day trips to Elafonisi, Phalasarna, Kissamos and countless smaller beaches and villages are all much easier from Chania than they are from elsewhere on the island.
If hiking is high on your list, it’s also the obvious base for visiting Samaria Gorge.
Rethymno, however, is wonderfully positioned if you want a little bit of everything. You can explore both east and west from here and, if you’re prepared for a long day, even visit Chania or Heraklion.
The surrounding countryside is beautiful too. Mili Gorge is an easy excursion from town, while Kotsifou Canyon and Patsos Gorge make excellent day trips if you have a car.
Imbros Gorge sits roughly between the two towns, making it an option regardless of where you stay.
Our top tips
One thing we’d personally skip is booking self-catering accommodation if you stay in either of these towns. Part of the joy of staying in either Chania or Rethymno is wandering through the old town each evening and deciding where to eat. There are so many affordable and delicious options that we found ourselves wanting to eat out every single night.
As for how long to stay, we think four or five days in either destination is ideal.
If we had a full week, though, we’d probably split our time. Both Chania and Rethymno are beautiful and both have plenty to keep you busy, but they can also feel quite bustling, particularly during the height of summer.
After several days of busy streets and lively evenings, we always find ourselves craving somewhere a little quieter.
A few days in one of these wonderful towns followed by a few days in a sleepy coastal village or mountain retreat feels like the perfect way to experience Crete. During our trip to Crete, we split our time between Chania, Rethymno and Kissamos.
Written by Emma
Wine Lover. Yogi. Hiker. Writer.
British travel writer and long-distance hiker, native to Kent. Emma has walked the Camino de Santiago more than ten times, completed trails across Europe from the Corfu Trail to the Fisherman’s Trail, and covered thousands of kilometres on foot. She always writes from first-hand experience. Her goal? Inspire just one person to go on their first long-distance hike.
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