Aspros Potamos

Be ready for lots of steps and a full-on reconnection with nature. There’s a path into town that takes 15 minutes, plus a gorge to explore, about 1.5 hours one way. The hotel is a cave inside a hill, hundreds of years old and renovated toward the end of the last century. The cottages are cool and keep authentic touches, like petroleum lamps. They have organic, homemade breakfast products, and the views are amazing and windy. Wow!

We’ve been here in 2016 and 2017, and it’s our favourite place in Crete. It feels like a pueblo village, with a perfect mix of ecology and holiday. Just be warned, it isn’t for luxury freaks: no pool, no electricity in the rooms, and no full-service slaves. If that’s what you need, you’d be better off at the "white river cottages" nearby. Here at a.p. you get helpful staff, lovely people, and lots of cats if you feed them. We’re on our way back to Aspros Potamos for another week. :-)

It’s a shame we didn’t find this place yesterday when we first started looking, because it was so worth the search. It’s amazing here, calm, peaceful, beautiful, unique, and relaxing. The room/apartment was really cute and unusual. We were a bit cold, and the bed was VERY firm, though the other bed was softer. Please add an extra mattress to that other bed too. We could have used more blankets, since all of us were a bit cold overnight. We can’t sleep with the windows shut because of the gas heater, and the smell afterward is pretty hard on the brain. We had trouble paying because apparently the whole system was down that day, so we couldn’t use cards or get cash out. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, no worries. Just keep some cash with you in case something like that happens. This place is amazing, and I wholeheartedly recommend it! 😊

After a day on the trails, falling asleep to the wind moving through the gorge was lovely, and I’m already looking forward to returning. The place has a wonderfully rustic, old-time feel, with rooms thoughtfully restored inside thick rock walls and little shaded terraces. Breakfast was generous and delicious, served by lovely hosts. Just be prepared for the lack of modern electricity: there are bathroom lights and small bedside ones, but oil lamps and candles may not be enough, so a battery bank and small camping lantern could help. The window screens also let some bugs through at night, so bring repellent.