Rethymno sits midway along Crete's north coast, between Chania and Heraklion, and it is the town that gets chosen by people who have been to both. It has the best-preserved Renaissance old town on the island, an enormous Venetian fortress on the headland, a minaret above the rooftops, and a university, which is the detail that changes everything about how the place feels.
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THE UNIVERSITY IS THE REASON RETHYMNO IS NOT A SEASONAL TOWN. The University of Crete's humanities faculties are here, so there are several thousand students in term, which means the bars and tavernas in the old town stay open through the winter and the place has an ordinary life rather than a shuttered one. If you have ever arrived in a Mediterranean resort in November and found three things open, this is the opposite of that. Our Greece travel guide for women covers the country.
THE SECOND THING IS THE FORTEZZA, and it is genuinely enormous. The Venetians built it between 1573 and 1580 after Ottoman raids had shown the town was indefensible, and the circuit walls enclose an entire headland rather than a castle. Inside is mostly open ground with a few surviving buildings, the largest being the SULTAN IBRAHIM MOSQUE, which was built as the cathedral and converted after 1646. You can walk the whole circuit in an hour and the view along the coast is the best in town.
AND THE THIRD IS THE LAYERING, which Rethymno shows more clearly than anywhere else on Crete because less of it was bombed. A Venetian loggia, a Venetian fountain with lion heads, an Ottoman mosque with THE TALLEST MINARET ON THE ISLAND, a city gate, and streets of houses with Venetian doorframes and Turkish wooden balconies on the same facade. It is a small old town and you can walk all of it in a morning.
The Fortezza, the Old Town and the Gorges South
A fortress on a headland, a Venetian fountain, a monastery that blew itself up, and a palm beach.
THE FORTEZZA is the main sight and is ticketed. Go late in the day: it is open ground with no shade and the light along the coast in the last hour is the point.
THE OLD TOWN is the pleasure and it is small. The RIMONDI FOUNTAIN of 1626, with water still running from three lion heads, sits in the middle. THE NERATZE MOSQUE was a Venetian church, became a mosque, and is now a music school and concert hall, with the minaret climbable for a view. THE GUORA GATE is the last fragment of the city walls. THE VENETIAN HARBOUR, with its small Egyptian-built lighthouse, is a near-circular basin lined with fish restaurants, and it is pretty and thoroughly commercial.
ARKADI MONASTERY, 23 kilometres inland, is the most important thing in this region and it is not a pretty day out. In November 1866, during the Cretan revolt against Ottoman rule, several hundred Cretans, most of them women and children, sheltered inside. When the Ottoman force broke through, THE POWDER MAGAZINE WAS DETONATED, killing almost everyone inside along with many of the attackers. It became the symbol of Cretan resistance and brought European opinion behind the Cretan cause. The monastery is still there, the magazine room is preserved, and 8 November is commemorated. Go knowing what it is.
SOUTH OVER THE MOUNTAINS, the KOURTALIOTIKO GORGE drops to PREVELI, a beach at a river mouth with a genuine palm grove behind it, reached by a steep stepped descent or by boat from Plakias. The palms burned in a 2010 fire and have substantially regrown. It is the best beach day from Rethymno and the walk down is harder than it looks.
THE AMARI VALLEY, inland under Mount Ida, is the Crete people mean when they talk about the real Crete: a ring of villages, Byzantine chapels with frescoes, and almost no visitors. MARGARITES is the pottery village, with working wheels rather than a display. ELEFTHERNA has a serious archaeological site and museum that almost nobody visits.
AND THE BEACH IN TOWN runs east for about twelve kilometres from the old town, sandy, developed and perfectly serviceable, with the hotels thickening the further you go.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Getting There and Where Rethymno Sits
No airport of its own, and that is the only real inconvenience.
RETHYMNO HAS NO AIRPORT. You fly into Heraklion, which is an hour east and the island's main airport, or into Chania, which is an hour west, and both have frequent KTEL buses along the national road as well as taxis and transfers. That is the whole of the disadvantage, and in exchange you get the midpoint of the north coast.
BEING IN THE MIDDLE IS THE PRACTICAL CASE FOR RETHYMNO. Chania is an hour, Heraklion an hour, Knossos an hour and a quarter, the Samaria Gorge trailhead about two hours, and the south coast beaches an hour over the mountains. Nothing on the north coast is far.
A CAR IS WORTH IT HERE more than in Chania or Heraklion, because Rethymno's best days are all inland or over the mountains: Arkadi, the Amari valley, Preveli, Margarites and Eleftherna are none of them practical by bus. The old town itself is pedestrianised and walked.
ELSEWHERE: the Crete packing list covers the island including the Samaria Gorge day and its footwear rule, and the Greece packing list is the country overview. On the mainland, Athens is an hour's flight from Heraklion, and the Peloponnese packing list and Delphi packing list carry the classical thread.
When to Go
May, June, September and October. The town works in winter in a way most of Crete does not.
North-coast Cretan climate: 12 to 16C in January and February with real rain, 28 to 33C in July and August, and a sea reaching about 25 or 26C in late August and September. The swimming season runs comfortably May to early November, the longest in Greece.
MAY, JUNE, SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER are the right months, and for Rethymno specifically the shoulder seasons suit the town's character: the old town is at its best when you can sit outside without seeking shade, and the inland valleys are green in spring and harvesting in autumn. THE GORGE WALK TO PREVELI AND THE KOURTALIOTIKO DESCENT are both far pleasanter below 28C.
JULY AND AUGUST are hot and busy, and the MELTEMI northerly blows, taking the edge off the heat on this coast while making the sea choppy and the beach umbrellas unreliable. The old town's narrow lanes hold heat in the evening.
NOVEMBER TO APRIL IS WHERE RETHYMNO IS GENUINELY DIFFERENT. Because of the university the old town stays open and populated: tavernas, bars, bakeries and the market all keep working, which is not true of Elounda or the resort strips. Expect rain, days at 15 to 18C, the Fortezza almost empty, and MOUNT IDA AND THE WHITE MOUNTAINS UNDER SNOW on either side of you. It is a real option for a winter week rather than a compromise.
ONE DATE: the Rethymno CARNIVAL, in the weeks before Orthodox Lent, is the largest in Crete and one of the biggest in Greece, with a parade and a treasure hunt and the town genuinely full. It moves with Easter, so check the year.
Is Rethymno Safe for Women Travelers
Very. The hazards are the gorge descents, the sea and the sun.
US State Department travel advisory: the Greece advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/greece, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Greece and no country-level warning. The named risks are seasonal and practical. Wildfires, extreme heat and flash floods, and one legal point worth knowing: starting a forest fire in Greece is a criminal offence even if unintentional, so a discarded cigarette or an unattended barbecue is not a minor matter. Earthquakes, which Greece gets regularly. Drowning, because people die every year in the sea and in swimming pools, and the beach flag system and the presence or absence of a lifeguard are the things to check rather than how calm the water looks. Quad bikes and mopeds, which the FCDO singles out because every year people suffer serious injury and death on them. And theft of passports, wallets and handbags, which is common on the metro and in crowded tourist places and is concentrated in central Athens rather than spread evenly.
GREECE HAS NO REGIONAL-RISKS PAGE AT ALL, which is the finding rather than an omission: the FCDO publishes one only where it has area-specific advice, and for Greece it has none anywhere. Crete carries no designation.
THE GORGE DESCENTS ARE THIS DESTINATION'S SPECIFIC RISK and they are underestimated constantly. The path down to PREVELI is a long stepped and partly unstepped descent on loose rock with a serious climb back, and people attempt it in sandals in the middle of the day carrying no water. The KOURTALIOTIKO GORGE steps are steep and wet in places. Neither is technical and both are a genuine effort in heat, and the FCDO's advice about steep, slippery and unfenced ground applies in full. Go early, take water, wear real shoes, and consider the boat from Plakias for the return.
THE SEA: the FCDO is blunt that people drown in Greece every year, in the sea and in pools. Rethymno's town beach shelves gently and usually has lifeguard cover in season, which makes it one of the safer options on the island. PREVELI AND THE SOUTH COAST ARE DIFFERENT: river-mouth currents at Preveli, no lifeguards, and the Libyan Sea can get a swell with nothing to stop it. Check the flag where there is one and treat an unmanned beach as unsupervised.
WILDFIRE CARRIES LEGAL WEIGHT IN GREECE, and this region has burned: starting a forest fire is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE EVEN IF UNINTENTIONAL, and the Preveli palm grove itself burned in 2010. Keep the 112 emergency alerts on between June and September, because that is how a wildfire warning reaches your phone.
QUAD BIKES AND MOPEDS ARE SINGLED OUT BY THE FCDO because people are seriously injured and killed on them in Greece every year. The mountain road south from Rethymno has gravel on the bends, blind corners and no barriers, and it is exactly the road people take a rented quad up.
THE OLD TOWN STREETS are worn stone and marble, stepped unpredictably and poorly lit in the lanes, which is the commonest way a visitor here actually gets hurt.
HEAT AND SHADELESS GROUND: the Fortezza is open ground with essentially no shade, Eleftherna and the archaeological sites are the same, and the FCDO names extreme heat among Greece's seasonal risks. Do the fortress late rather than at noon.
ORDINARY CRIME IS LOW and violent crime against visitors is rare. The FCDO's theft warning for Greece is concentrated on the Athens metro and central Athens. Rethymno is a university town where people are out late as a matter of course and a woman walking home alone is unremarkable; normal care with a bag in a crowded harbour-front bar is the whole of it.
Greece is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident. That is not the same as free and it does not cover repatriation or a private clinic, so travel insurance sits on top of it rather than instead of it. The practical issue on the islands is not quality but DISTANCE: most islands have a health centre rather than a hospital, serious cases are transferred to Athens, Rhodes or Crete by ferry or air ambulance, and on a small island that transfer can depend on the weather. A farmakeio handles minor problems without an appointment. Tap water is drinkable on the mainland and on most larger islands, and on smaller ones it is often desalinated or cistern-fed and worth asking about.
RETHYMNO HAS ITS OWN GENERAL HOSPITAL, which puts it in a different category from a small island: Crete has real hospital provision at Chania, Rethymno, Heraklion and Agios Nikolaos, with Heraklion's university hospital the island's referral centre an hour away.
Socially the town is relaxed and used to visitors without being defined by them. Beach clothes belong on the beach; ARKADI AND THE MOUNTAIN MONASTERIES ENFORCE COVERED SHOULDERS AND KNEES and Arkadi in particular is a memorial as much as a monastery, so dress and behave accordingly. Cretan hospitality is real and the raki at the end of a meal is not usually optional.
The Rethymno Packing List
Shoes you can descend a gorge in
Walking shoes with a real sole, and this is the first item for a reason specific to Rethymno: the Preveli descent and the Kourtaliotiko steps are loose rock and worn stone, and the old town's lanes are polished marble. If you intend the Samaria Gorge as well, read the footwear rule in the Crete packing list, because a 16km river-stone descent is a boot problem.
Sun protection, for a fortress with no shade
A wide brim sun hat, a long sleeve sun hoodie and high factor sunscreen. The Fortezza is open ground, the gorge paths are exposed, and the hoodie is what works for two hours without reapplying.
A rain shell, because winter here is a real season
A packable rain jacket for women. Crete gets proper rain from November to March, the old town lanes channel it, and a shoulder-season afternoon can turn. It doubles as a windproof layer on the Fortezza when the meltemi is up.
A warm layer, which the mountains justify
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women covers the specific range this base gives you: a 16C winter evening in the old town, a drive up into the Amari valley where it is several degrees cooler than the coast, an early start for Preveli, and a meltemi evening on the harbour. It stays wearable across several hot days without holding smell, which is the argument on a walking trip.
Water, and more for the gorge
An insulated water bottle. Tap water is drinkable in Rethymno town. There is nothing to buy on the Preveli descent and the climb back out is where people get into difficulty.
A quick-dry towel
A quick dry travel towel, which matters here because the best swims are opportunistic: a river mouth at Preveli, a cove on the south coast, the town beach after the fortress.
Something for Arkadi and the monasteries
A light long-sleeved shirt and a scarf or sarong covering the knees. Arkadi enforces it and keeps wraps at the gate, and it is a memorial as well as a working monastery.
The small things
Sunglasses, protective rather than decorative over pale stone and sea. A high factor lip balm. Rehydration salts for the gorge days. Cash in euros in small notes, since the Amari villages, Margarites and the mountain tavernas are cash-only. And a European two-pin adapter for 230V type C and F.
Essential Resources for Women in Rethymno
Emergency numbers: 112 is the European emergency number and works from any phone anywhere in Greece. 166 is the ambulance service, 100 the police, 199 the fire service, 108 the coastguard. 112 also delivers the government's emergency alerts, wildfire warnings included, to every phone in an affected area, so leave those notifications on in summer.
Tourist police: Greece operates a dedicated TOURIST POLICE on 1571, answering in English and handling visitor complaints and incidents. For a crime, 100 reaches the regular police.
Main hospital or clinic: the Rethymno General Hospital is in the town and has a 24 hour emergency department. Anything complex is transferred to the UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF HERAKLION, an hour east, which is Crete's referral centre. There are health centres at Spili and Plakias for the south coast, which matters if something happens on the Preveli descent, because that is an hour from town. A FARMAKEIO handles minor problems without an appointment. Bring a UK GHIC or EU EHIC for state care on resident terms, with insurance on top for repatriation and private treatment.
Official health authority: the Greek National Public Health Organisation. Greece is in the EU, so a UK GHIC or an EU EHIC gives state-provided medically necessary care on resident terms, which is not free and does not cover repatriation. Rethymno has its own general hospital and Heraklion's university hospital an hour east is the island referral centre; note the south coast is served by health centres at Spili and Plakias rather than a hospital
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Athens.
Official tourism authority: Visit Greece. And the Region of Crete tourism service, which is the right body for a complaint about an excursion operator, a guide or a rental company
The Fortezza is the largest Venetian fortress on Crete and encloses a whole headland. It is open ground with no shade, so go in the last two hours of light rather than at midday.
Arkadi Monastery is a memorial, not a scenic stop. In 1866 the powder magazine was detonated with several hundred Cretans sheltering inside, most of them women and children. Dress and behave accordingly.
The Preveli descent is a serious walk in heat. Loose rock, a long climb back, no water on the route, and a boat from Plakias as the easier return.
Solo women safety assessment: Rethymno is among the easiest places in this library to travel alone, and the university is why: several thousand students mean the old town has an ordinary year-round social life rather than a seasonal one, people are out late as a matter of course, a woman walking home alone or eating alone is entirely unremarkable, and the town does not empty in winter. Greece has NO advised-against areas and the FCDO publishes no regional-risks page for the country at all, so Crete carries no designation. Ordinary crime is low, violent crime against visitors is rare, and the FCDO's theft warning for Greece points at the Athens metro rather than here, so normal care with a bag in a crowded harbour bar is sufficient. THE RISKS ARE ENVIRONMENTAL AND THIS DESTINATION HAS ONE THAT ITS NEIGHBOURS DO NOT: the gorge descents. Preveli is a long stepped and partly unstepped drop on loose rock with a hard climb back and nothing to buy on the route, the Kourtaliotiko steps are steep and wet in places, and people attempt both in sandals at midday, so go early with real shoes and water, and consider the Plakias boat back. The sea next: the FCDO is blunt that people drown in Greece every year, the town beach shelves gently and usually has lifeguard cover, and the south coast has river-mouth currents at Preveli, no lifeguards and Libyan Sea swell, so treat an unmanned beach as unsupervised. Wildfire carries legal weight, since starting a forest fire is a criminal offence in Greece even when unintentional and the Preveli palm grove itself burned in 2010; 112 pushes alerts to every phone in an affected area. The FCDO singles out QUAD BIKES AND MOPEDS, and the mountain road south has gravel bends, blind corners and no barriers. The old town's polished stone lanes are the commonest actual injury. Arkadi and the mountain monasteries require covered shoulders and knees. 112 from any phone, 1571 for tourist police in English, 108 coastguard.
The FCDO gives Greece a dedicated sexual assault section and it is written as a list of habits rather than a warning. Its advice, especially late at night and around clubs and bars, is to SAVE THE LOCATION OF YOUR ACCOMMODATION ON YOUR MAPS APP so it is easy to find at the end of the night, to keep a group chat running, to WATCH EACH OTHER'S DRINKS so they are not spiked, NOT TO LET A FRIEND WALK BACK ALONE, and not to give a drunk person more alcohol. It tells you to use PRE-ARRANGED TRANSPORT or a taxi-hailing app that supplies licensed cabs, and to report anything that does not feel right to the police or to hotel or club management. Note what that list is not: it is not about where you go or what you wear, it is about the walk home and the drink you put down.
Carry your passport. The FCDO's wording is that you should always carry it to show the police if they ask, and that POLICE MAY NOT ACCEPT A COPY. Greece also arrests for behaviour the police consider rowdy or indecent, particularly where drink is involved, SOME FANCY DRESS COSTUMES COUNT AS OFFENSIVE under decency laws, and the courts impose heavy fines or prison. Your travel insurance may not cover a flight you miss because of an alcohol-related arrest.
Do not photograph anything military, and that includes more of Greece than you would expect. It is illegal to approach or photograph military installations, vehicles or buildings, people have been arrested and prosecuted for it, and BORDER AREAS ARE MILITARILY SENSITIVE as well. On the eastern Aegean islands in particular, where the border is a few kilometres of water, a radar mast or a naval pier can sit in the middle of an otherwise ordinary view.
Reading On
Start with the Greece travel guide for women and the Greece packing list, and for the island as a whole the Crete packing list, which covers the Samaria Gorge day and the footwear rule in detail. An hour east is the Heraklion packing list, which covers the capital, Knossos and the Minoan museum and is also the airport most people arrive at. On the mainland, the Athens packing list, the Peloponnese packing list and the Delphi packing list. In the Cyclades, the Santorini packing list and the Naxos packing list. For why merino rather than cotton when a 30C gorge day ends at 16C in a mountain village, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
