4 awesome excursions with Check In Creta - We spent 15 days in Crete in early September 2025 at Club Marmara Maravel Hotel **** in Adelianos 7 km from Rethymno. We have booked four excursions with the excursion agency Check in Creta whose point of sale is just 100 meters from the hotel to visit and discover remarkable Cretan places and landscapes. Anny the sales representative of the agency (who is French) advised us perfectly on the choice of excursions offered by CHECK IN CRETA. The first must-see excursion is to visit the 2nd city of Crete CHANIA / CHANIA on Monday morning (3 hours free time) then the natural lake of KOURNAS in the afternoon (2 hours free time) Kévin an excellent French guide accompanied and advised us throughout the trip. The double decker bus is comfortable and air conditioned with WiFi (checkincreta code creta2023). The second excursion is named DISCOVERY SUD RETHYMNO on Monday. Nicolas our French-speaking Greek guide accompanied us on the excursion. First stop at Potamon Dam or Patomon Fragma and its artificial lake. Second stop at PATSOS Gorge Third stop in SPILI small Cretan village for lunch. Fourth stop on the excursion to the KOURTALIOTIS Gorge Fifth stop on the beach of PLAKIAS (free time 2h30) Return to RETHYMNO around 5:00 p.m. The third excursion is named PREVELI & DAMNONI BEACH on Wednesday. The bus takes you to Damnoni beach to take a boat to Preveli beach (30 minutes one way crossing) You will discover the palm forest (remarkable place) and the beach with turquoise waters (free time 2h30). There is only one tavern and one toilet on the beach. Return by private boat to Damnoni beach (free time 2h30 in Damnoni). There are 3 reputable taverns on this beach but no merchants. Return to RETHYMNO around 4:00 p.m. Provide shoes for walking in the water and your swimsuit for swimming. The fourth and final excursion we made is called CRETAN STORIES on Friday. Our Greek and Francophone guide is Nicolas. The first stop is at the 17th century monastery of ARKADI for a 45 minute visit and an entrance fee of 4 euros. The tour and displays are only in Greek and English. The second stop is at the Greek Museum of Archaeology The entrance fee is 10 euros per person. The tour and displays are only in Greek and English. The third stop is a pottery and ceramics factory TSIKALARIO The fourth stop is at the village of MARGARITES for lunch and visit (free time 2 hours) The fifth stop is an olive oil distillery PARASCHAKIS The sixth stop is the cave of MELIDONI (remarkable place) Admission is 4 euros per person. The return to the hotel is around 5:45 pm. We recommend Check in Creta tour agency in Adelianos Price reductions are offered if you order several excursions.

Peak 2025 - We took our excursions to Adelianos Kambos agency. We were received by Anny, a lovely French-speaking woman. We took all our excursions to her house. She is very good advice and always in a good mood. Honestly, if you have any excursions to make through it.

AMAZING - Discover South Crete - Amazing trip from the north to the south of Crete, discovering authentic villages in the magnificent mountains and gorges of Crete. Very well organised and a comfortable bus. Thanks to Leftheris and our guide Nicholas, we have seen and learned a lot of interesting things. TOP excursion!!

Crete from sea to sea - Very interesting trip. Beautifull landscapes,peaks and old vilages.Exciting expedition that allowed us to get know Crete between the Aegan and Libyan seas; everything with extensive and enthusiastic comments from our guide Janis. Thanks to him we got know the customs, stories, plants, birds and animals. The trip is not tiring; nice choice for anyone who wants to see and know more about Crete. We highly recommend this venture.

Very interesting tour about history on the South of Reythnmo - It was well worth the tour. It was very informative about ancient times and it's history, and the location of where it all happened.

A whole day's smorgasbord of interesting activities - What a fabulous experience today led by Enda and exceptionally driven through the mountains by Maniolis. Enda really knew his stuff and the day was smattered with interesting stories, histories and anecdotes. It was truly packed with interest. And, though I am now (happily) exhausted, the day was very well paced. There were lots of interesting little stops and some bigger: it was a smorgasbord of interest to suit all. We started out at Amari dam, which is spectacularly beautiful and interesting, not what you'd expect from a dam! The flora and fauna were exceptional and the beauty blew a lot of us away. We saw pairs of buzzards flying on the thermals and an enormous vulture: thrilling to see. Spili was beautiful and a place to go back and explore, as were many places we saw along the way. We ended up in the fabulous compact and bijou Plakias where we ate really well at a super restaurant owned by a lovely lady in her 80s, who was overseeing everything and am sure misses nothing! And if that isn't enough to whet your appetite, the highlight of the day was the visit to the Maravel Botanical Gardens where we had a fascinating personal tour and the hibiscus tea with Greek yogurt which had a wonderful hibiscus flower to eat. I definitely intend to go back there as there is a wealth of knowledge to be learnt there (apparently their products are available online btw 😁: no I don't own shares, honestly!). Oh my goodness, almost forgot to mention St Anthony the Healer/Hermes's cave: fabulous place. Thank you for a superbly organised, wonderfully interesting day. I absolutely advise you go on this trip. It's outstanding value for money.

The best value tour ever.... - What a fantastic value for money Tour. Our guide, a larger than life very amiable Irishman called Enda, was incredibly knowledgeable on all things, not only Creta history, but local flora and fauna. He made the tour very interesting and loads of fun. The tour driver, Manola (sorry if the spelling is incorrect), was very safe and patient. The coach was clean and perfect for the job. The tour itself was well planned and covered a good cross section of awesome scenery, history and local life and we would recommend it to everyone.

Easy trip - Gorge of St. Antony was quite impressive. This object deserves more time for viewing and walking as well than canyon deserves stops in more viewpoints

Perfect if French is used - The guide is very kind and entertains the group well but does not speak a word of French!! While this argument was decisive for us Good timing and good choice of stops and their duration

Disappointing - Oh dear. Been on many of these type of excursions on holidays- this was not one of the better ones. the destinations on this tour are all lovely so nothing wrong there. However the guide was absolutely useless- completely dis-interested and the commentary was pretty much non existent. Coach passed through stunning scenery and villages - guide did not utter a word about any of it. When there was a commentary it was only about the price of olives. As visitors we need to hear about the Cretian way of life in the places we pass through and maybe some history - none of that was provided. Coach passed through a stunning gorge just before we got to Plakias village- did not offer to stop for 5 minutes for photos despite there being a parking spot large enough for a coach to pull into. Very disappointing- could have been so much better with an interested and engaged guide.