Crete Botanical Gardens
Greece Travel Secrets visits the Crete Botanical Gardens near Chania
and finds a wonderland of colourful plants, trees, and flowers filling a lovely
valley.
The View from the Crete Botanical Gardens
Visiting the Crete Botanical Gardens - or the Botanical Park
and Gardens of Crete to give it its full title - was one of the best things we
did on our last visit to Crete. We didn't expect such a colourful and
fascinating display of plants, flowers and trees from around the world. We
should have known better, as our fantastic guide Isi of Go-Crete never steered
us wrong.
Passiflora Quadrangularis in the Crete Botanical Gardens
Live Music at the
Crete Botanical Gardens
The gardens actually started because of a disaster, as we
found when we spoke to one of the owners, Nikos, after our tour. There's so
much to see that it was getting dark by the time we finished, and we had to
race to get out before the gardens closed. We decided to stay and eat there,
and we're so glad we did as it turned out to be one of their live music nights.
I video'd some of it for our YouTube channel:
The Roots of the
Crete Botanical Gardens
Nikos told us that the gardens only exist because of an
awful fire which devastated his family's olive trees in 2003. They lost over
45,000 trees to the fire, which was obviously a major blow both personally and financially.
The land had been in the family since at least the 1930s.
Nikos worked the land with his three brothers, and it was
one of the brothers who suggested that instead of replanting the olive trees
maybe they could create a botanical park on the land. The brothers and their
father agreed, and the park was opened in 2009. Their father died three years
later at the age of 85, but lived to see the botanical park become a success.
Map of the Crete Botanical Gardens
Where Are the Crete
Botanical Gardens?
The gardens are about a half-hour drive south-west of
Chania, beyond the village of Fournes, after a very zig-zag uphill road.
Rose of Sharon in the Crete Botanical Gardens
Visiting the Crete
Botanical Gardens
As you enter the gardens you have no idea what wonders lie
beyond. It's like entering Paradise. From the entrance the path zig-zags down
one side of the valley, with the view regularly opening up to show olive groves
on the opposite slope. Lizards rustle in the dry leaves on the ground,
occasionally appearing to add to all the colour, and birds sing constantly
from the trees. To the creatures who live here it probably is Paradise!.
Lime Tree in the Crete Botanical Gardens
Organic Cultivation
What's impressive is that everything is cultivated
organically. It clearly works well as you don't just come across individual
examples of plants or trees but often whole terraces of them.
If I listed everything I wrote down it would go on forever, so I'll make do with a few highlights, and some of the hundreds of photos we took.
Palm Trees in the Crete Botanical Gardens
There was a Peruvian cherry tree, and I was dying to try the
ice-cream bean from Central America, but thought I'd better not. The fruit of
the Barbados cherry tree contains 30 times more Vitamin C than an orange (yes,
there's plenty of information about the plants). I was definitely starting to
get hungry, having seen the strawberry guava plant opposite the tropical
apricot.
There was a pineapple guava, a Malabar plum, a Japanese
raisin tree, wild garlic plants, passion fruit, avocados, and walnut trees. The
Mediterranean herb garden section had lovely scents of coriander, cumin, thyme,
fennel, rosemary, and oregano. ‘Nature is the largest pharmacy in the world’
says a sign.
There's a Surprise Around Every Corner in the Crete Botanical Gardens
We see dozens of beehives across the valley and wonder what
their honey must taste like with this feast just a short flight away for them.
There's quince, honeysuckle, eucalyptus, mastic, pistachio, pomegranates, white
mulberry, aloe, and a huge prickly pear cactus at least 3 meters (10 ft) tall.
A Prickly Pear Cactus in the Crete Botanical Gardens
The main path is about 1 km (0.6 miles) long and they say it
takes about an hour to go round. We took two hours because we were all three
constantly stopping to take photos. At the end of this path there an optional
extension to add another kilometer, but by the time we got to the divide it was
starting to get dark, so we looped around back up to the entrance.
Palm Trees in the Crete Botanical Gardens
Dining at the Crete
Botanical Gardens
Our dinner in the restaurant after our tour was
exceptionally good. It was served buffet-style, with tzatziki, fava, Greek
salad, bread, zucchini pie, and vegetable stew. The main course was chicken
cooked in orange and lemongrass. It was incredibly zesty and tasty. On top of
this was all the red or white wine you could drink. Highly recommended!
The View from the Restaurant in the Crete Botanical Gardens
Our Pick of the Crete Guides
Some other Crete pages
Rethymnon is the third-largest city in Crete and has a Venetian fortress, Archaeological Museum, Old Town area and Venetian harbour,
Icon painting is a centuries-old tradition in Crete and the rest of Greece, and Greece Travel Secrets meets a modern-day icon painter in Elounda on Crete.
Lonely Planet Crete is an excellent and thorough guide of almost 300 pages to the largest of the Greek islands.
Greece Travel Secrets page on Phaistos or Faistos, the site of one of the finest Minoan palaces on Crete and is where the mysterious Phaistos Disc was found.
Greece Travel Secrets chooses ten of the best beaches on Crete including the beautiful beaches at Vai and Elafonisi.
How to see eastern Crete in five days, with its beaches, Minoan palaces, timeless villages, unique churches and mountain and coastal scenery.
Driving central Crete in three days gives you time to see the highlights including the Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, the beaches and the Diktean Cave.
Visiting Knossos near Iraklion is one of the best things to do on Crete, and this page has a history of the site with visitor information.
Crete festivals and events include Carnival Easter, Whitsun, Christmas, many other religious feast days and public holidays.
The travel tale Our Hire Car in Crete describes what it’s like when you go driving in Greece and get off the beaten track, resulting in kindnesses.
Is someone from Crete a Greek or a Cretan? They are both, of course, but most will tell you that they are Cretan first and Greek second.
Greece Travel Secrets recommends where to eat in Eastern Crete including restaurants and tavernas in Elounda, Agios Nikolaos, Sitia, and Kato Zakros.
This Amari Valley drive in southern Crete starts and ends in Ayia Galini, takes four to five hours and cover 100 kilometres or 62 miles.
The best Crete hotels include 5-star luxury hotels, historic and romantic Venetian palaces, and several hotels in Hania and Iraklion.
Greece Travel Secrets discovers Sitia, the main town in eastern Crete, with its relaxing waterfront, inexpensive hotels, good food, and nearby ancient sites.
We visit and tour the Manousakis Winery on Crete with a wine-tasting and a chance to buy their tsikoudia, sea salt, olive oil and other goodies.
Western Crete in five days allows time to visit Chania and Rethymnon, enjoy the beaches, hike the Samaria Gorge and see the monasteries at Arkadi and Preveli.
The Samaria Gorge is one the longest gorges in Europe and doing the hike is one of the best and most popular things to do on Crete.
Matala Beach on Crete is a guest blog for Greece Travel Secrets from the We Love Crete website, inviting you to Awaken Your Inner Hippy in Matala, Crete.
Greece Travel Secrets suggests where to stay in Eastern Crete with our favourite hotels in Zakros, Elounds, Sitia, Agios Nikolaos, Istron Bay, Myrtos, Neapolis.
This olive grove walk from Limnes to Vrises on Crete also takes you through orchards and gives close-up views of some of the island’s windmills.
Greece Travel Secrets recommends where to stay in Central Crete including hotels in Matala, Ayia Galini, and Zaros.
Elounda on Crete's north coast is a popular holiday town with a pretty harbour, from where you can take day trips by boat to see the island of Spinalonga.
The largest of the Greek islands, Crete has four ENUESCO sites, which are Sitia, Psiloritis, Asterousia, and the Gorge of Samaria.
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