Agios Nikolaos Crete Travel Journal – Days 1–4 (Spinalonga Cruise & Coastal Walks)

I do appreciate there is an 8 year gap here! I can't begin to fill it in really but as time goes on maybe I will.

The three month gym membership mentioned in my last post has now become a career as a fitness instructor. Teaching various Les Mills programmes, yoga and Reformer Fitcore™. But all that is for more time.

This post is really because we had a lovely holiday and I wanted to journal it, and this seemed a good place.

Crete – Agios Nikolaos Travel Journal

Hotel: Hotel Ariadne Beach, Agios Nikolaos (booked via EasyJet Holidays)

(Booked via EasyJet)

Day 1 – Arrival in the Dark

We landed late in the evening after the flight from Gatwick, leaving around 4pm. With the flight itself and the two-hour time difference, it was properly dark by the time we made the journey from the airport to Agios Nikolaos.

There’s something quite disorientating about arriving somewhere beautiful when you can’t actually see it yet — just the outlines of hills, occasional lights, and the sense that the sea is somewhere just beyond the road.

By the time we reached the hotel it was fully night-time. We checked in, went straight up to the room, and stepped out onto the balcony.

The first real moment of the holiday arrived quietly: a full moon hanging over the sea, reflecting across the water. No fanfare, just that silver light and the sound of the town settling down for the night. It immediately set the tone for everything that followed.

We slept well — surprisingly so, considering the travel and time shift — and even managed to get up in time for breakfast the next morning, which always feels like a small victory on day one.

Day 2 – Finding Our Feet in Agios Nikolaos

The first full day was all about orientation. No plans, no agenda — just walking and seeing what the town would reveal.

We wandered down into Agios Nikolaos and started to piece it together: streets that looped back on themselves, glimpses of the harbour, and that constant presence of the lake sitting right in the middle of everything like a hidden centre of gravity.

Coffee came early, as it should on a first proper holiday morning, and we followed it with a simple Greek salad for lunch — fresh, salty, exactly what you want when you’re still slightly in travel mode and not quite ready for anything too heavy.

The afternoon was more wandering. We found the lake properly, following paths around its edge and getting a feel for how the town wraps around it. We found an ice cream shop too — one of those unplanned discoveries that somehow becomes a reference point for the rest of the holiday.

Later in the day we extended the walk back to the hotel, taking a longer route that brought us past the harbour and the statue of Europe. It was one of those slightly unplanned detours that ends up being the best part of the day — the light changing, boats shifting in the water, everything still feeling new.

By the time we got back, the town already felt a little more familiar than it had that morning.

Not fully known yet — but no longer unfamiliar either.

Day 3 – The Long Walk

Today we walked out of town in the opposite direction, heading beyond the harbour on the far side to see what lay further along the coast.

It started simply enough — a steady wander, following the shoreline and seeing how far Agios Nikolaos would stretch before it stopped feeling like Agios Nikolaos.

Not far along the route we stopped at a small beach bar tucked into the edge of the walk. It was exactly the right moment to pause: a drink, some shade, and a chance to reset before carrying on.

After the break we continued for another kilometre or so. The town gradually loosened its grip on the landscape. We passed a place called the “ZEUS Hotel” — our own slightly amusing moment of recognition — and then an olive farm sitting quietly by the roadside.

After that, the feeling shifted. The buildings thinned out, the edges of town faded, and we found ourselves in that slightly ambiguous in-between space where it’s not quite settlement, not quite countryside. A bit open. A bit barren. The kind of place where you start to wonder whether you’re still on the right path or just wandering for the sake of it.

So we made the entirely sensible executive decision to turn around.

And it turned out to be a very good call.

We headed back to the beach bar and stopped properly for a late lunch. Calamari was ordered and, by all accounts, it absolutely delivered. One of those meals that feels earned rather than chosen.

The walk back through town took most of the afternoon. It had that gentle drift to it — no rush, no urgency, just retracing steps through familiarising streets. There may have been another coffee stop. Possibly ice cream as well. Details are respectfully left unconfirmed.

Later, we headed just a few hundred metres beyond the hotel to a sandy beach on the other side. The afternoon light was softening by then, and the sea had that calm, slightly reflective feel to it.

We swam, properly this time — the kind of swim that resets everything. Swallows skimmed over the reed beds nearby, low and fast against the water. For a while there was nothing else to think about except breathing, floating, and remembering that you’re actually on holiday.

And that was enough.

Day 4 – Spinalonga

Today was the Spinalonga day — a half-day cruise from the harbour that we had booked in advance.

The morning started gently with a relaxed breakfast before walking into town. There’s something nice about not rushing on a day like this, especially knowing you’ve got a set departure time but nothing else demanding attention yet.

We stopped at the pharmacy on the way to pick up travel sickness tablets and bite cream, then immediately had to pause again for a coffee in order to take them. The Freddo Cappuccino is firmly establishing itself as a holiday staple at this point — one of those discoveries that feels like it might follow us home.

The cruise departed at 12:30, but we arrived early and made a very good decision to board straight away and secure shaded seats. That small bit of planning paid off for the rest of the trip.

Once underway, the boat hugged the coastline as we left Agios Nikolaos behind, with the guide pointing out local areas and giving context as we went. It was a calm, easy start — just sitting back and watching the coast slide past.

After about an hour we stopped for a swim break. We decided not to join in, mostly because we didn’t have anything properly dry to change into afterwards. Watching everyone else though, there was a slight sense that we might have missed out — the water looked incredibly clear, and everything we heard suggested it was warm and inviting.

From there we continued on to Spinalonga itself.

The island was genuinely fascinating. It’s easy to forget how recent its history is — it only stopped being a leper colony in 1957, which brings it uncomfortably close in time. That proximity made it feel more real somehow. Our guide struck exactly the right tone: respectful, measured, emotional without ever overdoing it.

After the introduction, we were left to explore the island independently. It doesn’t take long to walk around — maybe half an hour — but it’s the kind of place where you slow down anyway. We wandered from the small high street, around the old buildings, past the church, and finally out to the graveyard.

There’s a quietness to the place that stays with you even after you leave.

We were back on the boat by around 4pm and headed back to the mainland on a slightly quicker return journey, docking at about 5.

Conveniently, the ice cream shop sits right by the harbour, so that was the first stop ashore. After that, another coffee inevitably followed on the walk back — it almost felt like a required part of the routine by this point.

Dinner was back at the hotel, and later in the evening we went down to the beach for a quiet sit in the dark. The pebbles made that particular sound they do when the waves pull back — a kind of soft, constant shingle rhythm that’s oddly hypnotic.

Back in the room, I downloaded a Kindle book: The Island by Victoria Hislop — a fictional story set around Spinalonga. It felt like the right thing to do, almost like continuing the day in a different form.

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That’s the start of the story — a few early days settling into Agios Nikolaos and finding our rhythm.

More days from this Crete travel journal will follow in the next post.