Experience Adventure

  This was a fantastic tour. Eddie, our tour guide was the absolute best. There were just two couples on our tour which made for a great time. ... read more Eddie was so knowledgeable about Crete and it’s history. It was like touring the island with a friend, along with the stops listed, we also stopped at a farm and ate vegetables out of the field, and also went strawberry picking. We can not recommend this tour enough. It was a great day and exceeded our expectations.

  THIS Is The Best Tour You Could Ever Take! - This tour was just about impossible to capture in words. No other tour could possibly compare, especially if you are trying to truly experience the beauty and magnificence that is... read more the island of Crete.

My wife and I frequently told each other that it felt as though we were in a movie. The schedule was excellently planned and paced, we had plenty of time at each stop to take it all in. We were truly able to enjoy every activity. The sights were incredible, and special, not locations that any other tour would take you on, but locations authentic to the island. We also ate the best food we have had in the eleven days we’ve been here!

Finally, our guide, Stavros, made the entire thing as special as it was. He bought us coffee, picked us local fruits to enjoy, told us stories, laughed with us, educated us, and truly created a lifetime experience. There were so many little details that made it feel so special. You’ll truly have to experience the tour for yourself to understand how amazing it was! If you’re visiting Crete, it is a MUST! Absolutely stupendous, and deeply moving. Thank you so much.

  Exploring Crete  - We spent a wonderful day, visiting the Zeus cave, and some traditional villages. We stop by a beautiful 90 year old woman who has a bakery and tasted her delicious... read more cookies saw the old windmills and learned all the information of how they worked and how they are trying to preserve them. We also went to an olive oil factory with some olive oil, sampling some other little villages, and a last stop at a restaurant overlooking the beautiful hillside.Our guide was sparrow who was exceptional

  Perfect day with memories and new friends for life - This year was my wife and I first trip to Crete. We went with this tour because we wanted a good overview of the island and to see the... read more Zeus caves. What we got was above and beyond anything we expected. Not only was it a wonderful day. We came away with new friends. Exchanging contacts that we plan to keep forever.

We were picked up from our hotel at Agapi Beach by the owner of the tour company (Ed). He was on time, had great communication, and was so nice. We then went to pickup another couple that was also on the tour. The drive to our first stop was filled with introductions, getting to know each other story’s and so much laughter. All because of the amazing personality of our guide.

This tour was hands down the best I have ever had in any country we have visited. We got to see, as the title says, real Crete. We explored all the smaller villages, learned history, mythology, and personal history. We sat at a small cafe where Ed bought the whole group freddo cappuccinos and again laughed the whole time. The great part of this is the tour isn’t scripted.. if there was anything we expressed interest in.. Ed was happy to break off of the plan and show us. We did a nice detour.. going to his friends farm and picked delicious strawberries and walnuts.

After all the sights we finished our day at a beautiful family owned restaurant that serves us the most amazing meal. We felt part of the family when Ed introduced us the owner, the owners father and his children. We sat and broke bread together and again.. laughed the whole time.

  Don't miss out, book this tour! - Ed was AMAZING! We couldn't of asked for a better guide. He was funny, knowledgeable, and very engaging. We enjoyed seeing this beautiful island through his eyes. He has a... read more great relationship with the local villages and brings people into the real Crete. He was great at being our photographer and giving us time alone as a couple since we were on our honeymoon. He also did not cancel our tour when the adjoining group canceled at the last minute - so we got an amazing private tour that was really special. He felt like a family member showing us around and always "had our backs." We highly recommend booking your tour with Ed! **It's off season in November but weather is still nice and avoid the crowds!**

  Love this tour - Ed was our driver and not only was he incredibly knowledgeable but he was really funny too. From the very first moment at pickup until the very last drop off... read more we laughed. We stopped at some amazing spots along the way to Zues’ cave which were so memorable. Not once did we feel rushed at any of the stops. The none stop knowledge was such a breath of fresh air. Ed was a great driver, very prompt, kind, patient and a very nice soul overall. You can tell he really loves his job and his heritage. 10/10 recommend this tour to anyone.

  This was a fantastic tour! We explored a family owned olive oil factory, a traditional Greek village, Zeus’ cave and old windmills. We learned so much interesting history from our... read more friendly and enthusiastic local guides. They also took us to a family owned local restaurant in a mountain village, the food and wine at this place were fantastic! I highly recommend this tour!

  A Taste of Rural Crete! - The tour highlight is supposed to Zeus' cave, but there was so much more! Our guide, Micheales was awesome!!! Turned out he's a botanist. We stopped and picked organic veggies... read more in a filed and plucked wild herbs. He showed us how olive oil used to be made with vintage and ancient technology. We strolled through a small, picturesque Cretan village and visited antique windmills used back in the days when Crete's wind power was used to grind flour and pump water. If you love nature hikes, sustainability, and food, then this is the tour for you! If you have mobility issues, be advised the hike up to Zeus' cave is short, but rigorous. If you're feeling adventures, you can hitch a donkey ride for 10 Euros. The cave was fun, but a tad overhyped. We didn't have a rental car, so this was a great way to get out of urban Heraklion and see a bit more of beautiful Crete.

  We really did explore the Crete! - This tour exceeded our expectations. We were picked up at 8.00 in the morning and taken on an adventure back in time to see Crete in all its beauty and... read more stopped at small villages to wander around and soak up the history. The tour of an Olive Oil factory was so informative, the Old Wind mills with many stops for photos and the lunch at the restaurant was outstanding.
Stavros our guide was so knowledgeable and proud of his heritage that it was an amazing history lesson and by the end our the tour you felt as if you had made a friend.
Had a lot of laughs and was so good to get away from the crowds of the big cities to soak up the countryside and relate to how life must have been for the locals.

  The real Crete - This tour is highly recommended. We booked a private tour for three, including a 14-year old.

It was great to see a glimpse of the real Crete, including... read more places you would otherwise pass by. Ed is a very knowledgeable and entertaining guide who helped to turn this day into the highlight of our holiday.

  We can't say enough good things about this tour! - We loved this tour! It was a perfect way to get an overview of Crete. Spiros was our guide and he was amazing. He was so knowledgeable... read more and had a great sense of humor. He explained so much about the island and showed us so many things we otherwise wouldn't have seen. Because we had a small group (only 4 of us), and no one had any time constraints, he spent an additional 2 hours with us! In addition to what the tour included, he took us to a pottery place, stopped for a little shopping, and we had a nice long lunch together at a quaint traditional Greek restaurant with breathtaking views. One of our favorite stops was at an authentic little village, where we stopped for a cup of Greek coffee and a snack outside. We were in Greece for 2 weeks, and this was our favorite tour. Would highly recommend. Thank you, Spiros!

  Unforgettable immersive and tasty Crete❤️ - An absolute amazing tour where you get to see, touch, smell, taste and learn about Greek traditions, culture history and mythology. Ed was the most fantastic, entertaining and accommodating tour... read more guide. So many laughs and so much enjoyment being immersed in the Crete countryside and sampling a bit of the good life. Cannot recommend this trip enough! Just brilliant❤️

  A very nice and informative trip.
The service and kindness from the staff was amazing. They welcomed us - 4 adults and our 10 month old son, with open... read more arms and smiles all the way.

  Off the beaten tourist track - fun day with new friends - Ed is a great guide. Yes, it was informative and interesting, but mostly it was fun. As a solo traveller, I appreciated how Ed brought the whole group together and... read more involved everyone. While this trip is for all ages, if you are travelling with kids, you should know Ed does a particularly good job at engaging young people. For me, I really enjoyed seeing the villages and learning from Ed about them. These are not tourist destinations, these are real Crete. The highlight was a local meal in a family-owned restaurant. The food was wonderful and authentic. Ed was great at ordering just the right amount of everything and explaining the food. All around, this was a wonderful day and I highly recommend this trip!

  Crete is beautiful but Ed is Amazing  - I honestly don't know where to start ,I am not very good at writing long reviews ,Just one word Ed when someone love the job they are doing you can... read more honestly see that.Crete is beautiful no doubt about it,but you are incredible.Stay happy and smiling always and please come and visit us in Inverness.

  Brilliant Crete - Ed was easy to communicate with and a wonderful safe driver. He is highly knowledgeable of Cretan history and genuinely interested in his guests. We had a wonderful day and... read more would highly recommend. We love his support of the local villages. Thanks Ed! You are the best!

  A perfect day (despite the cold and rain) - Ed was an amazing tour guide — knowledgeable, patient, and hilarious! He is a wonderful storyteller and our conversations went from the ancient to modern. He was absolutely the best... read more guide we had during our tw weeks in Greece.

  Excellent day on Crete - We had a great time with Ed. He picked us up from Chania port and drove to several small mountain towns, the other side of the island to view... read more the different landscapes. We explored old town Chania and Rethimno. We even got a bottle of some local homemade olive oil which was great! He was very knowledgeable, had a great personality, and made the day enjoyable. We would highly recommend this company!

  Where do I start? We just spend 2 1/2 weeks in Athens, Napfoli, Crete (Heraklion) and Istanbul during January 2023 and our entire family of six adults unanimously agreed... read more that the best day of the trip was our day with Ed. That's especially important as my 21-year-old son who is an engineering student with a minor in Islamic Art & Architecture insisted we add Istanbul to our itinerary... even with big sites such as the Hagia Sofia and Topkapi Palace... when asked he said his personal best day was in Crete with Ed going to Zeus's cave and touring the olive oil factory. Oh, and everybody put the lunch we had overlooking the Lasithi Plateau as one of the trip's top meals - two 21-year-olds wolfing down dishes that included boiled dandelion greens, green beans/zucchini and goat in a heavenly tomato sauce and loving it? It happened.

We followed the basic itinerary that Ed had listed, but he also customized it as much as possible when certain places were close by and if would be on the way or only a tiny detour, he made it happen. Five specific instances where he went over and above to include things we asked about:

1) I had mentioned that I had been watching YouTube videos about olive harvesting which occurs Nov-Jan and when he saw an older gentleman with a truck just pulling out his equipment to begin harvesting, he pulled over and asked if we could give it a go. We each got a try and it was a blast. The pictures are priceless.

2) I had mentioned that there was a convent nearby I had seen on Google Maps and on the way back to Heraklion he stopped by so we could see their chapel. This was really nice because we were only in Crete for three full days so didn't have time to get out west to where some of the more famous monasteries are located.

3) Five of us were engineers and we had so much fun earlier that morning at the olive oil factory that he took us to a second one that he knew was actually operating that day so we could see the process live. Ed knows just about everybody on the island.

4) I had mentioned that I had read an article about Crete's 'banana villages' and he pulled into the next town so we could get out of the car and take 5 mins to walk around a banana plantation.

5) I knew we were arriving in Heraklion (by overnight ferry from Athens) the morning of the Epiphany celebration so before we left the states, I tried to get on the local church's website to find out the schedule of events, but it was all in Greek with no English translation. I reached out to Ed on WhatsApp and he said he would look into it resulting in him sending me a snapshot of their program in English. On that day (which was the day prior to ours with him) my family got to join the procession down to the harbor and watch the cities' youngsters jump into the sea to grab the crucifix for a year of good luck.

Lastly, our whole family felt safe with Ed driving. People from Crete don't exactly follow the same kinds of rules that we do here in the states, but it was obvious we were in capable hands. We only later truly appreciated this after renting a car in Athens and driving out to Napflio. The interstate in the Peloponesse was fine, but the towns? It was nerve wracking. And in Istanbul... we didn't have a driver who wasn't simultaneously facetiming and texting while doing 90 mph in the left-hand lane. Terrifying.

We had so much fun that we hired him for a half day the next day so that probably says everything. Our only regret is that we wish we could have stayed it Crete longer. Next time we're in Crete we're definitely calling Ed

  Fabulous day, highly recommended! - What a brilliant tour this is, I have been so impressed from start to finish with Explore Real Crete... Excellent and easy communication before my arrival, by email and then... read more by WhatsApp with my guide who replied quickly to my questions. I was a bit nervous as a solo traveller going for a group tour but it was a very small group and I thoroughly enjoyed the group experience and made new friends! So if you are a solo traveller I highly recommend!
For the actual tour, I was picked up on time, and the car was very comfortable and spotlessly clean. I felt like I truly discovered authentic Crete, not the usual busy tourist sites, with visits to quaint sleepy villages and a friendly family restaurant where we were given all kinds of dishes in a "family style" dining experience so everyone could try a little bit of everything! This was amazing as it meant I could try homemade traditional foods, and they were so delicious! We visited an olive oil farm, which had a shop that was very reasonably priced, and Zeus cave which had fantastic views on the walk up and down to the cave entrance (the guide had told us to take our time so I did not feel rushed at all). Our guide stopped several times to explain local history, share interesting facts, to show us all kinds of plants and trees and to take photos at view points. We saw windmills, goats, met local people and tried all kinds of fruit and vegetables even purple carrots!
This was definitely one of the best tours I have been on, I felt so relaxed and saw and learnt so much in one day from our guide was very passionate, knowledgeable and funny. Explore Real Crete is the perfect name and exact description of the tour, I really did explore REAL Crete!