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Nikos apartments in Chania Crete. Low prices luxury family accommodation just a few steps from Chania old town, and 5 min from Chania town center visit us

The Modern City

Modem Hania sprawls in every direction, encircling me old: with time on your hands, there are parts that are worth the walk. Starting in front of me market, the areas to the southwest, on the way to Platia 1866 and the bus station, have an attractively old-fashioned commercialism about them, full of general stores stocking the essentials of village life.

Heading southeast from the market, Tzanakaki leads to places of more specific interest First of these is the Public Gardens, a few hundred metres up on the left. Laid out by a Turkish pasha in the nineteenth century, they include a few caged animals (not really enough to call a zoo, but there are kri-kri, ponies, loud monkeys and birds), a cafe where you can sit under the trees, a children's play area and an open-air auditorium. The latter, often used as a cinema, is also the setting for local ceremonies and folklore displays which can be really enjoyable -look in to see what's on.

Carry on down the street, then take the second left onto Sfakianaki and you come to the Historical Museum and Archives (Mon-Fri 9am-lpm), which consists of a couple of gloomy rooms in a small and undistinguished grey building, with poorly labelled photos, a few revolutionary arms from me struggle against the Turks and relics of Venizelos, and many more rooms filled with musty papers and books.

At the end of Sfakianaki is Platia Eleftherias, with a statue of Venizelos in the centre and an imposing court building along the south side. This court house was originally the government building built for Prince George's short-lived administrations. From here Dhimokratfas leads back to the centre, running past the rear of the Public Gardens and ending opposite the market again. Alternatively, follow Iroon Politehniou, which runs due north from Platia Eleftherias down to the sea. A broad avenue divided by trees and lined with large houses, interspersed with several (expensive) garden restaurants and a number of fashionable cafe/bars where you can sit outdoors, it makes for an interesting walk in a part of the city very different from that dominated by the tourist crowds of Halidhon.

The beaches

Chania's beaches all lie to the west of the city. The bus for the beaches leaves Hania from the east side of Platia 1866, about halfway up, and runs along the main road towards Kastelli. This means that if you get off anywhere much before Kalamaki you face quite a walk down to me sea. It's easier to hang on, and get off either by the large Oasis Beach sign or at Kalamaki itself, the next stop. Buses run every twenty minutes or so throughout the day, from around 8 am to 9pm.

Nea Hora to Golden Beach

The city beach at Nea Hora is about a ten-minute walk from the harbour along Akti Koundouriotou, round past the Firkas and the Hotel Xenia. and on by the city's open-air swimming pools (often drained) and a small fishing-boat harbour. The beach starts in a very crowded section with showers, cafes and restaurants. Offshore is a tiny islet with a sandy beach large enough for about five
people at a time, but it's an unnervingly long swim - better to rent a pedalo or canoe if you want to explore.

If you continue west you can walk - for some twenty minutes - over a stony, scrubby stretch of sand where quite a few people camp or seek out isolation for nude sunbathing. It's a dirty and rather exposed length of gritty sand, though new apartment buildings behind are beginning to provoke a clean-up Ayii Apostoli, at the end of this walk, amid a clutch of restrained development, is much more agreeable.

At the end of Apostoli's beach a barbed-wire fence attempts to prevent you getting onto the next section, but if you want to continue on foot it's worth clambering over the rocks: going round to the road involves a long detour and something of a climb over a low hill. At the next section, known as Hrissf Akti (Golden Beach), there's more good sand which has attracted the apartment-builders. But it's not yet overcrowded, has a good tavemas and is popular with locals.

To get to either of these sections from the road, head down the track signed. There's quite a bit of new development around, mostly apartments but also a number of restaurants -JeUe, to which you'll see signs, is good, if a little pricier than most At the far end, as the beach curves round to a little headland, another tavema is set out on stilts over the water.

Oasis Beach to Kalamaki

Beyond the Golden Beach headland lies a tiny sand cove, another small promontory, and then the long curve of Oasis Beach running on round to Kalamaki.
This is crowded, and justiy so - the swimming is probably the best in the area, with a gently shelving sandy bottom and a fossil-covered (and very sharp) rocky islet/reef that fends off the bigger waves. There's also a string of cafes and tavernas, and other facilities including windsurf rental or lessons. Kalamaki is the furthest beach accessible by city bus, and it's right by the road. To walk this far would probably take a little over an hour non-stop, but it makes far more sense to dawdle and enjoy the empty beaches along the way, arriving at Kalamaki in timeto get the bus back.