Botanical Park & Gardens Of Crete. — Attraction in Municipality of Platanias

Best decision ever to visit the Botanical park! Astonishingly beatiful and diverse park. Best restaurant on our whole trip! Totally different from others!

We arrived with the local bus that picked us up from a bus stop in Platanias . It will stop at any bus stop in Platanias. It was a white KTEL bus that had a small sign in the window that said ”botanical park.” It was hard to notice. The bus was 10 min late but that is okay. It was said to be there 9:50.

The bus ride was pleasant and it left us semi close to the main entrance. The staff informed about the return bus.

We started our trip to the botanical park and it took us 1.5 hours to walk the whole park. It was really beautiful and worth the visit and it was easy for us, but it might be difficult with little kids or if you are in bad shape. I found out that the majority of parkgoers finished after 2 hours. The donkeys were friendly and the donkeys let us pet them and feed them leaves. There’s also plenty of peacocks and ducks in the park route.

After park we still had 2.5 hours until the bus arrived. We ordered three plates of food to share in the botanical park restaurant (a lamb maincourse, a vegetable main course and a pork-entree) and the food was best i’ve had on my whole trip and the price range was ordinary (8-14€ per plate). The menu was filled with creative dishes that used many of the fruits, veggies and herbs from the park. It was not basic touristy food. They also offered a variety of fruits on the house. The service was moderately fast (we were finished after an hour) and the gift shop had many product testers that we could try while waiting for the return bus.

We relied for the only return bus for our trip back. I was skeptical about the buses, because tripadvisor reviews from 2019 said that the return bus was always at least half an hour late, but maybe things have gotten better. The park staff told us to be waiting for the bus at 14:30. Their website also said that the return bus leaves at 14.30. The official time table from KTEL said that the return bus leaves at 14:45.

We were waiting at 14:30 and the bus arrived 14:49. They propably told the earlier time to ensure that no one misses the bus. The return trip was equally pleasant with air conditioning.

I recommend the botanical park for everyone, ultimately the best attraction to visit from...

I visited last week. It is an amazing and gorgeous place. A very diverse range of plants… and bugs (eeek). The peacocks, swans and their chicks were all lovely to see also. There were also two deer in the park, behind a fence.

I wish I read the reviews about appropriate footwear. I wore my Birkenstocks, which were definitely not appropriate for the terrain. Please only wear comfortable trainers if you come here. Do not wear flip flops. And even if the weather is very hot, avoid wearing shorts/short dresses.

I came via the botanic garden bus service , which departs once a day at 9.30am from the Chania bus station. I purchased my bus ticket in advance, online on the KTEL website. It is €2.70 for the ticket there, and €2.70 for the ticket back. The return bus will depart from the top of the hill at 2.30pm, to return to the bus station. If you want to purchase the ticket on the bus, please note the driver will ONLY accept cash.

I completed the whole gardens in approx. 1.5hrs, but it could take some people longer.

Unfortunately, accessibility into and throughout the garden is not great for people who have mobility difficulties. The front desk does provide walking sticks but if you use a wheelchair, you cannot bring it into the garden because of all the slopes and steps. I have to mention this because I noticed someone arguing with the lady at the front desk about this. It is just not possible to use a wheelchair in the gardens because of the terrain.

Come early in the morning if you know that you need extra time, to avoid the intense afternoon heat. Although most of the garden is shaded, you can still feel the heat.

I went to the restaurant afterwards for a meal and drink. The meal was lovely, as were the waiters.

If I come back to Crete, I would definitely come...

Wonderful experience. It’s a 2.5km one-way path through a wide variety of plants, taking us 1.5 hours but recommended to be 2 hours. It’s mostly shaded (very helpful in summer), and though it winds a little downhill and uphill we didn’t find the rocky path too difficult (though it is not for those with mobility issues). Suggest making sure to have water during the walk - they sell 500ml bottles at the front (€0,50 when we came).

There is great signage throughout about the numerous plant varieties - almost too much information but just choose to read the ones that caught our eye.

The amount of wildlife was a special surprise - many peacocks with their recent babies throughout, small geckos, butterflies, bees, donkeys, ducks, geese, and even two deer (that quickly fled when they saw us).

Restaurant is at the entrance/exit area and table service only. Though great views we just picked up a few waters and orange juice to go at the entrance area.

Toilets nice and clean, though note there are no toilet seats for women’s stalls.

Shop had a wide selection of items available to purchase.

Car park decently sized, and we had no issues finding a close spot. One electric charger available.

A few switchback roads at the end of driving there but fairly wide (for mountain roads) so no problem.

Note: Pictures in route order. Also In summer (July/August) cicadas out and were quite loud (commonly 80/90 decibels according to my watch). Typical for the entire island during this time but not quite the peaceful walk originally...