It’s funny really, because I guess that people reading this (and may I add here that I’m deeply grateful to those who do take the time out of their busy schedules to do me the honour of actually reading my random jottings) would quite justifiably say that someone who lives where we do doesn’t really need to be taking an annual holiday any more. 

And, of course, they’d have a point – to a degree. But when all is said and done, if you think about it, it doesn’t really matter where on this planet you reside, daily life is daily life isn’t it? I mean, when at home there are always jobs to be done, washing up* (Not wishing to sound holier than thou here, but we don’t believe in dishwashers, awfully bad for the environment, but you can ignore this part in the brackets if you like), DIY and maintenance tasks, cleaning, preparing meals, gardening, shopping, ironing, dealing with bureaucracy, the list goes on. 

[*See I’ve hit once again here on the difference between American English and British English. If I’m not mistaken, if you ‘wash up’ in America you probably wash your face and hands before dinner, or after a long journey or something, right? Whereas in the UK to ‘wash up’ means to do the dishes. There, that’s got that out of the way.]

Plus, me and the beloved are actively involved in a volunteer group down in the town whose aim is to bring solace to those seeking for it, and that occupies quite a lot of our time too, but that’s another subject for another time; though it does add to the list of ‘stuff’ that we do on a regular basis when at home.

So, when you get right down to it, a change from one’s routine is always good for recharging the spiritual batteries, right? Right. 

When we used to live in the UK, way back in the mists of time (since this coming August marks our 20th anniversary of living here in Greece), we went on holiday (vacation, folks, vacation, OK?) latterly twice, even three times in a calendar year, depending on how the finances were working out. Of course, we didn’t always come to Greece, and among the other places in the world that we gave a try were Ireland, the United States, Portugal, various Spanish locations, both on the mainland and the island groups, France, Belgium and a few others too. Not to be forgotten here, I ought to also include the far west of Wales in that list. If you get the weather, there are few places on this planet more beautiful. 

But, owing to my wife’s Greek heritage, we inevitably tended to gravitate back to Greece. Over the years while still living in the UK, we developed a list of ‘requirements’ that a Greek destination needed to have in order for us to pay it a visit. For starters, we wanted to be away from the ‘hordes,’ although we wanted enough waterfront cafés and restaurants to be able to take a pleasant stroll past them all before deciding where to sit for our morning coffee or evening meal. We wanted small accommodation, modest, but clean, and we hoped to see a few traditional fishing caiques parked up by the quay and to hear Greek voices around us most of the time, rather than those of our compatriots or any of half a dozen or so other European countries whose populace also liked to come to Greece for their summer break. Usually, to find the kind of destination that we were looking for, it would involve flying into an airport on one island, then taking a short transfer by boat to the one we were staying on, which, although adding to the time taken to get from A to B, it nevertheless also added to the pleasantness of the voyage, as it were.

I know, we were a bit fussy weren’t we? Still, we are what we are, after all. 

So, I finally come to the point (and thanks for having the forbearance to stick with me here), and it’s this: When we lived on Rhodes, to have a break in the manner heretofore described meant travelling to Naxos (which we did twice) and to Patmos (which we also did twice), since we didn’t know anywhere on Rhodes that fitted our criteria, sadly. Since moving here to Crete, however, we’ve discovered exactly what we want, and it’s only an hour’s drive from home. I hesitate to advertise it, because we don’t want it to change, but I’ll tell you anyway, it’s (and if you’ve read this blog for a few years, then you’ll already know that I’m going to mention…) Sitia.

The waterfront here in Sitia is beautiful. It probably has slightly more tourists staying in the area than does Ierapetra, but the majority here are French, Czech, and a small number of others. Freelance Brits who love to find the more out-of-the-way places do get here, and they stay AirBnB, or they find an apartment or studio for a few nights, and that’s OK. But all that said, tourism here is not mainstream, it’s not yet reached that awful ‘overtourism’ status of your Falirakis, your Malias, your Corfus and your Mykonoses of this world, thank goodness. All that could change, but it hasn’t yet.

Why could it change? There are two reasons: 1. The recently rebuilt and renovated, not to say enlarged, airport is now capable of receiving charter flights, and some of these have begun to come here this past couple of years, mainly from France and Czechia in fact. But owing to the fact that the road from Sitia to anywhere else on the island is extremely twisty-turny, it’s not a practical place to fly in the package crowd, because the coach transfer to anywhere else would be too tortuous. 2. [And this is connected in a way to reason no. 1] There is a hot debate running here at the moment about connecting Sitia to the BOAK, which is the ‘almost’ motorway that runs along part of the north of the island. From Agios Nikolaos to Heraklion the road is either dual carriageway, or well surfaced and wide, resulting in reduced journey times between the two towns. The Greek Government has only recent approved the extending of this road (BOAK stands for Βόρειος Οδικός Άξονας Κρήτης, or Northern Axis Road of Crete) on from Heraklion through Rethymnon to Chania, which will cost millions and take many years to complete. 

Here in Sitia there is a movement to campaign to have the BOAK extended eastwards too, All the way to Sitia. It’s hotly debated, and we’ve talked to several who don’t want it, because they say it would be the last nail in the coffin of Sitia’s delightfully acceptable level of tourism, and would result in massive hotels being built all around the bay and the Sitia that many know and have loved for decades being no more. Those in favour say that Sitia is the poor relation and they want some of the ‘action,’ as it were, and these appear to be those who think that the reduction of their journey time to other parts of the island is justification enough, but sadly, that won’t be the only upshot, if it’s ever actually built. You can’t walk anywhere in the town without seeing posters in windows declaring: ‘BOAK – it’s now or never!” But they don’t really know what they’re asking for. The new airport that’s being constructed on this island is, in my humble opinion, already another step towards Crete going the same way as Rhodes and Corfu, and at least I take comfort from the knowledge that, even were the Government to begin a feasibility study, it would take years to complete, as would the construction of all the tunnels and overpasses that would be required to create a half-decent highway from Pachi Ammos to Sitia through the kind of countryside through which they’ll have to cut their destructive swathe. Environmentally, it would be a disaster too.

Still, right now, here today in 2025, Sitia is still the ideal place for Yvonne and I, fulfilling as it does all our requirements for the perfect two-week holiday, and in that sense it gives us the same buzz that we used to get from arriving at our destination back in the days when we ‘lived’ for our two weeks in Greece every summer. 

So, here are some of the zillions of photos I’ve already taken since we got here on Saturday May 10th. If you have any queries about any of these, by all means get in touch, and I’ll give a thorough explanation. The only general comment I will make is that, since I’m a poor sleeper, I do tend to wander the town and harbour area during the wee hours, and I’ve become quite addicted to taking nighttime shots, especially of the fishing caiques, which are still such an iconic representation of this lovely country. Here goes then…

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