This is the Hania chapter from Lonely Planet’s Crete guidebook.

The west of Crete stands apart in so many ways. Full of big mountains, grandiose legends and memorials to great battles past, it is presided over by the preening (but slightly melancholic) port city of Hania.

• take in Hania's splendid Venetian harbour with a coffee on the waterfront
• maps
• luxuriate on the fine sands of Elafonisi in the remote southwest
• transport
• restaurants & accommodation
• get back to nature up in the mountains at Crete’s prime ecospot, the traditional settlement of Milia

Coverage includes: Hania & around, Akrotiri Peninsula, Sfakia & Lefka Ori, Omalos & around, Samaria Gorge, Askyfou, Imbros Gorge, Southern Coast, Agia Roumeli, Hora Sfakion & around, Frangokastello, Loutro, Sougia, Lissos, Paleohora & around, Gavdos, Rodopou Peninsula, Kolymbari, Moni Gonias, Diktynna, Kissamos-Kastelli, Polyrrinia, Gramvousa Peninsula, Falasarna, Innahorion Villages, Moni Hrysoskalitissas, Elafonisi, Georgioupoli, Lake Kournas, Almyrida, Aptera, Vamos& around and Vryses.