Iron Gates — Attraction in Municipality of Sfakia

I recommend you bring good shoes, snacks, sunscreen & a swimming suit so you can swim when you arrive to the Agia Roumeli beach.

It took us 6 hours to arrive to the beach and that is including 45 minutes of stops/breaks. We started the trail at 10 am and we arrived to the beach at 4 pm. We swam in the sea for about 45 mins & then we had to head to the ferry (2 mins walk from the beach).

There is plenty of fountains with clean water to refill your bottles along the trail. So no need to bring a huge water bottle. There will also be lots of restaurants by Agia Roumeli Beach to eat after the trail.

The ferry leaves at 5:30 pm and the boarding starts at 5 pm. It took 1 hour to get to sougia and from Roumeli and then we took the bus all the way to our parking lot (Xyloskalo). The bust ticket said we were departing at 6:15 pm but it actually waited for the ferry to arrive at 6:45 pm. To book your ferry and bus tickets, use the official website from the samaria gorge. It has a page called "how to get there" with links to buy your ferry and bus tickets.

We wish we would've had 1 more hour to eat at the resto's from the village & enjoy the beach more. I would recommend to start your hike at 9 am. But no later than 10 am.

This trail is very long & difficult. We saw a lot of elders with injured knees & ankles. So be very careful! The heat was also intense.

PS: keep your tickets as they will ask for them again at the exit! There is also a little shuttle at the exit of the park to the village of Agia Roumeli/beach. Its 2$ but, its totally worth it! We didn't pay for it & we had to pay with our sweat and burned skin during an unpleasant 20 minutes walk to the beach under the...

This is a fabulous five star hike. Not an easy 20km, and you better be ready because once you start there is no way out. I only give it 4stars because honestly it isn't safe. This trail runs through a narrow crack in the earth that is so deep you almost fall over backwards to see out of it. There are overhangs of unconsolidated landslides with rocks waiting to fall out. Only a few hundred yards into the hike a man less than 20 meters ahead of us got hit in the head by a falling rock. He was bleeding and knocked senseless and had to be hiked back out. Frankly that was not even close to the most dangerous place we saw. I am not a coward, I hike ice covered mountains all winter long in Alaska... this gorge is unnaturally deep and someday a big chunk will come down and kill some people and it will probably be closed. If you are adventurous, the odds are good that everything will be fine. I would advise to do it while you can. I am glad I did. But I will tell you, that if some of those spots don't make you nervous, you don't know much...

You can do the full Samaria Gorge hike from the north (about 18 km), or the baby version like we did, starting from Agia Roumeli. I don’t think I can add much to the thousands of glowing reviews, so here are just a few useful points.

First, don’t overdo it with gear if you’re coming from the south. Heavy boots are overkill here, especially in the heat — I managed perfectly fine in trail sandals. Since the only way to reach Agia is by ferry, you won’t arrive earlier than 11:30, which means you’ll be hiking under high sun. Bring sunscreen, maybe even long sleeves.

From the pier it’s about 20 minutes to the park entrance and another 30 minutes to reach the famous gates. At the gates, watch out for the bees — there must be a hive up on the cliff. Best tip: don’t panic, don’t swat, just keep your limbs close and walk steadily.

Afterwards, remember the logistics: the return ferry doesn’t leave until 17:30, so plan your time. If you carry a filter, you don’t need to haul much water either — the creek in the gorge keeps...