ALL SEASONS
ALL YEAR ROUND
ALL SEASONS
ALL YEAR ROUND
RETHYMNO, A FEAST OF FALL COLORS AND TASTES
Autumn is a perfect time to visit Rethymno. You won't want to miss this opportunity to enjoy the fall leaf-out colors and reserve romantic holidays just for you!
With perfect weather conditions, cooler temperatures make for pleasant rides and walking routes to fully enjoy the scenic view. With an average sea temperature of around 22 degrees Celcius and the rainy days fewer than in the rest of the country, Rethymno is an ideal destination to enjoy late-season swimming. Most of the hotels, villas, and boutique hotels are still open. Many restaurants & tavernas offer outdoor seating and plenty of choices for fall fun.
Grapes are ripening and vines turn vibrant, bringing yet another reason for the fall celebration. The grape harvest season provides just a perfect time to experience the harvest and visit local wineries for wine tasting and learn more about the local wine varieties.
Experience Rethymno's countryside as the olive harvesting season nears. You can visit or book agrotourism accommodation units that allow you to help with olive harvest, experience local life and get acquainted with the history of the olive, learn about the importance of olive oil in a healthy diet and its connection to Greek culture. It's very exciting to take part and learn the traditional art of extracting precious oil and watch how the Cretan liquid gold begins to flow and fills the air with its aromatic fragrance.
You can also visit the Olive Oil Museum at Kapsaliana. Museum exhibits refer to cultivation, harvesting, and olive oil production, picking of table olives, and there is also a display of olive-based cosmetic products.
Renaissance Festival
The Renaissance Festival has a long history and continues to blend integrity and durability as well as the zeal of its founders and contributors. It celebrates the Cretan Renaissance and revives it with a series of cultural activities.
The interdependence of many cultural aspects proves that the Venetian period exerted a lasting influence, providing the spiritual ingredients that brought the arts to their peak. The Renaissance era is a source of inspiration for the collective conscience that acknowledges the establishment of this heritage and contributes to its revitalization and enhancement.
The festival brings to light the local cultural identity and the historical and cultural exchanges, which created new paths allowing Cretan literature and poetry to flourish. The Renaissance Festival is considered one of a kind in the Mediterranean region. A colorful and joyous meeting point for local and international artists.
For more information visit: www.rfr.gr
Mild winter weather is not only a luxury but a frequent phenomenon.It hardly rains and temperatures rarely drop below 15 °C, making it very pleasant to be outside all day long strolling around the sunny streets of Rethymno or exploring the impressive countryside.While it may not be warm enough for swimming, the mild temperatures are perfect for taking part in all sorts of other indoor and outdoor activities, while accommodations are at their most affordable.
Rethymno is filled with a variety of attractions, from historical sites to museums, art galleries, and unique shops. Rethymno also has plenty of outdoor activities to suit all tastes, such as skiing, hiking, and cycling. With its abundance of restaurants, taverns, and many cafes to enjoy Cretan hospitality and traditional cuisine enjoying local dishes and wines.
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Christmas Holiday experience in Rethymno
If you wish to enjoy your Christmas Holidays in a peaceful and safe paradise of Venetian architecture, next to a long sandy coastline perfect for walks, cozy restaurants and picturesque villages, all surrounded with snow peaked mountains then, Rethymno is for you!
Christmas celebration lasts for thirteen days, from Christmas Eve until Epiphany, January 6th.
Baking, as in most cultures, is an important part of Cretan cooking for Christmas and sweets are especially traditional. Don’t miss out on the “Melomakarona”!
Apart from the “European” Christmas trees, many houses and shops decorate the traditional Greek “karavaki”, (usually) a handmade wooden boat adorned with lights and ornaments and a symbol of the strong ties between Greeks and the sea.
Enjoy “kalanda” (Christmas Carol) performed by the Band of the Municipality of Rethymno on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and Epiphany’s Eve.
You will also see many children in the streets these three days, as they go door to door singing, often carrying triangles to accompany caroling.
Rethymno Carnival, the Carnival of Crete
Every year, over 12.000 people participate in the Carnival with more than 25 floats that parade through the main streets of Rethymno. In fall one can watch the beginning of preparations, decorations and floats for the forthcoming Carnival. It is a creative opportunity to visit many teams getting prepared by making their unique floats and fabulous costumes. Rethymno, through its Carnival, promotes the special identity of the local population and its long history throughout the centuries, highlighting the rich tradition of the town and attracting thousands of visitors from all over Greece and the rest of the world annually.
Ski holiday on the southernmost snow in all of Europe
Come enjoy the great outdoors on a surprising winter holiday!
Psiloritis, the mountain in the center of the island, is home to the highest peak of the island (2456 m), where Zeus was raised in a cave.
Discover and ski at Psiloriti’s 30 to 40-degree, wide open paths which look out onto the turquoise waters of the Libyan sea all the way to the south and the Aegean Sea to the north.
Psiloritis, UNESCO Global Geopark, is the most challenging mountain for skiing. Driving about 40km from Rethymno to Anogeia or Livadia allows you to put on skis and enjoy swooping down and up the slopes.
Take part in Pierra Creta, a ski mountaineering race that started a few years ago with the latest event taking place with more than 210 entrants, 70 of them foreigners, from 11 different countries for the southernmost skiing event in Europe.
More info: pierracreta.gr
Get to know the other side of Crete, the mountain area of Rethymno. The time seems to have stood still in some villages. Visit local shepherds and learn the old way of cheese making, traditional tavernas to taste local wine and homemade dishes, or a “kafenio” for a greek coffee or “raki” while meeting the locals.
Rethymno in spring offers unlimited sunlight, and vivid blue skies combined with mild temperatures. The temperate climate is excellent for sightseeing, strolling along paved paths and wandering along secluded beaches. Complete privacy can be found in many places, giving the chance to experience your own unique moments.
With an abundance of flowers and lush, green hillsides and with life sprouting up from every cranny, Rethymno has a rare beauty in springtime. Unquestionably, the enchanting and diverse landscape is embellished in a breathtaking manner, as the city of Rethymno seems to have been covered with a multicolored veil and an aromatic essence.
An average temperature of 21°C basically characterizes this season, while the seasonal climate is absolutely magnificent and only rare spring rainfalls and chilly nights will remind you that winter was recently over.
Discover inland secrets and the wide variety of flora and fauna, 1,624 native wild plants with 170 endemic plants and 1,000 animal species and 4 Natura2000 – 88.000 acres area. Spring is ideal for those with special interests in bird watching and wildlife.
In the prefecture of Rethymno, around 50 species and sub-species of wild orchids are found, in particular, on the plateau of Yious Kampos at the Amari Valley near Spili.
This plateau constitutes one of the most important biotopes of Rethymno since, apart from orchids, a beautiful wild red tulip (Tulipa doerfleri) is endemic to the area.
Traditional Greek Easter is all about warm family get-togethers. Celebrate Easter in Rethymno where guests are invited to enjoy the holiday, have fun, relax, and participate in religious and gastronomic experiences.
This is a celebration you don’t want to miss!
Local customs such as the solemn Good Friday processions behind a bier decorated in white flowers, the Ascension ceremony on Easter Eve with its candles and fireworks, and the services in churches and monasteries will entrance you. Listen to the “Twelve Passion Gospels” at a monastery, decorated with wildflowers for the “Epitaphios”, and enjoy the traditional Easter cuisine.
Enjoy a taste of our traditional and religious wealth.
Apart from the celebrations, the visitor is able to minutely trace the religious physiognomy of the region through the centuries.
Early-Christian basilicas, Byzantine churches boasting magnificent frescoes, historic monasteries, picturesque chapels but also “humble” iconostases give timeless evidence of the religious tradition.