What‘s Included

Meeting and Pickup

What To Expect

Reviews

• Very demanding but very beautiful hike in Crete's only national park

  Tamas S,

  Nov 3, 2025

  - Review from Viator

  5.00

  After an early departure at about 6 am we first stopped at Omalos around 8 to have breakfast and then we headed to the entrance of Samaria National Park. Our guide was Christina who is very passionate about Samaria and has hiked the Gorge many times before. It is definitely a very demanding hike, about 15km mostly downhill walking on rocks that can be slippery and therefore dangerous. Once I slipped and fell and also twisted my ankle but got medical treatment (pack of ice, bandage, painkiller) by a licensed doctor at the next rest stop. I also met Christina there who kindly lent me her personal walking sticks that turned out to be very helpful on the remainder of the hike. I definitely recommend the tour if you're fit enough and have good hiking shoes because the scenery is breathtaking. Be aware it's a long hike where accidents can happen but you'll be awarded by the beautiful landscapes and a greek lunch (own cost) in Agia Roumeli. After the lunch we hopped on a ferry to Sougia where our bus was waiting to take us back to Chania. We arrived back around 10 pm, so it's definitely a whole day trip.

• 10/10!

  Travel36001540407,

  Oct 30, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  Our guided hike was amazing! Christina was a fantastic guide. She gave us the meeting points and times throughout the hike to meet with her, but also gave us the option to just meet her at the end of the trek for the ferry (which most of our group did!) We liked that transportation logistics were taken care of, but that we were really on our own for the hike if we wanted to be. We stopped for breakfast in the morning before the hike and had an ice cold beer at the end.

  

  

• Good Support and Clear Communication

  wolfhomma,

  Oct 14, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  4.00

  We had initially booked the “lazy” tour with access from the south entrance of the park. Due to some glitch, I found out the night before the event that our tour was the tough one with the full 16km hike through the canyon. We did not have the hiking boots required for this trip and were ready to cancel when Sarah made it possible that our bus would take us to Sougia after the serious hikers were dropped off at the northern park entrance. From Sougia, we and another “lazy” hiker took the ferry to Agias Roumeli from where we had an easy 3-hour hike through the Iron Gates, the most spectacular part of the gorge. Everything went without a hitch, and we were soon joined in Agia Roumeli by many very exhausted hikers. Thanks again to Sarah for being a great guide! I need to add that Agia Roumeli is in no way remarkable and feels more like a base camp than a romantic fishing village. Apparently, people stay there enjoying the unexciting pebble beach. Be aware that the original trip involves a ride on a big your bus through winding mountain roads in the dark for more than one hour each time. Our driver was an expert, yet we were not exactly comfortable on these narrow mountain roads.

• Don’t miss doing the gorge when in Crete

  Navigator27536486289,

  Oct 12, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  4.00

  Very well organized, but originally they told you to bring cash for the tickets for the Gorge, but you needed to buy them yourself not a big deal though. Sarah our tour guide was very informative and gave us a sheet with times to help keep track of our progress. The bus ride was a little hairy and he drove very agonizingly. Overall I would recommend this trip rather than doing it on your own. Also, do not be scared off of hiking the Gorge, I am in my 60’s in decent shape and it was really not a problem. I would recommend using hiking poles.

• Samaria Gorge Walk

  Nomad750644,

  Sep 30, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  This was an excellent trip. Sara our guide provided all the information we needed for the day and the organisation of the walk, boat and buses was very good. One small point the boat was cash only and we had to scrape enough cash together as we don't normally carry much. It would have been helpful to know in advance

• Incredible experience

  Matt E,

  Sep 25, 2025

  - Review from Viator

  5.00

  Amazing tour, very well run by the organisers, good communication throughout so it was always very clear about how picked up the tickets for the ferry and where the bus would be waiting. The gorge is absolutely stunning but it is a long hard walk, very uneven for most of the way. Q : How was the Gorge? A: Absolutely incredible ! Q : Would I do it again? A : No, my legs are killing me!

• Samaria gorge

  Paul M,

  Sep 17, 2025

  - Review from Viator

  5.00

  A really well organised trip everything ran on time. The walk itself was very rewarding with spectacular scenery to take in along the way. Thank you Christina our guide

• 1st time

  simonasW446ZU,

  Sep 12, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  4.00

  was a lot of fun to do but a bit challenging because of the terrain but doable overall. make sure you listen to the guide when she talks on the coach

• A frightening experience of abandonment

  christopherwY3753KA,

  Sep 11, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  2.00

  A thoroughly wretched day of torture. The description makes this 16km hike sound like a walk in the park, with gentle downhill paths and a few stones. Our bus picked us up in Agia Marina at 5:35. After various other pickups we got to the entrance of the gorge by 7:00 and had a 30 minute breakfast break. We bought our tickets for the boat and park entrance and started the walk at 7:40. Our guide said she would be 30 minutes behind everyone and would let stragglers know if they needed to pick up the pace. This never happened as myself and an elderly friend soon found ourselves being overtaken, as the rocky paths, steep steps and constant twists and turn were proving difficult to navigate at any decent pace. The brochure says 6 hours is easy to manage for the average person. Really! Perhaps if the run weekly marathons. We finally reached the last of the treacherous steps and after navigating a difficult section of boulders to find the stream, fill up with water, stop a few minutes and then finally get to the 3.7km mark, where a surly park ranger approached us and told us we had fallen way behind our party and had taken an hour longer to cover the distance, so we could not continue. I was very annoyed with this guy because he was loud and bullying with me, told me he knew we would not make it, and ordered us to go back up! I KID YOU NOT! BACK UP A 4km hill in 35 degree heat with a very steep incline and slippery rocks. I told him there was no way I could manage such a clim, and that our slow time was because the terrain had been far harder than described, but we were over that section and ready to move on. This guy threatened me with calling an officer, that he knew best and that for our health it was better we go back up the 4km gorge steps than take the gentle downhill remaining 10k. He even took blood pressure and heart readings and still insisted we turn back. NO SIGN OF OUR GUIDE AND NO PHONE SIGNAL TO CALL HER. So, after delaying us 45 minutes to ensure we would not make the boat in time, we began our epicly slow trek back up the gorge. The only help here was a kindly ranger who chaperoned us all the way back up to safety, and five hours it took us as my legs were killing me, but hey, all for our health and well being apparently. Once there, multiple tries to call our guide and ellafonissos travel failed to get a response, and a three hour wait began to get the public bus back to Chania, as our party had clearly abandoned us with no pickup home. I eventually got a kind cafe owner to call the company who said our tour bus would not come back for us, and to get a public bus or taxi (80 euros). The buses started to arrive but none for Chania apparently, with the service stopped. We had to virtually beg the last bus driver to take us part of the way and then connect with another bus to Chania, then get a taxi back to our hotel. So a big thank you to Elafonissos Travel for abandoning two guys in their 60's and 70's to an arduous walk up a steep hill for 4k, then leaving us there with no pick up, and then making us pay for bus and taxi back home. This has been a terrible and quite frightening experience for us both, and I find it despicable your company allowed us to be left behind with no guide checking on us properly, and complete abandonment when struggling to find our way home. The company also took 30 euros for boat tickets we could not use, and hopefully will get refunded. Once again, do not believe the description that this hike is a simple walk down a gentle hill. It is extremely challenging and your pace is not something you can choose yourself, because nowhere in the brochure did it say slow walkers would be forced back up the hill and then abandoned to their own devices to get home. This tour description needs thoroughly re-writing. NOT RECOMMENDED.

• Don’t recommend

  aljassarnada,

  Sep 9, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  1.00

  Don’t book here. Customer service is bad. There are many excellent tour guides on the island, recommend you book somewhere else

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