Opening times of the gorge of Samaria -
The Samaria National Park has traditionally always
opened to the public at the beginning of May. In the last few years it has often been possible to enter the gorge of Samaria in April from the bottom part. This depends of course on the weather and the amount of work needed to restore the path after the winter rains. So this varies: it could open a little before the 1st of May, on the 1st of May or later (if the weather is bad or repair work is late). The gorge of Samaria closes to the public at the end of October.
NEWS! The gorge of Samaria will be open from the 28th of April 2013
Dispelling a few myths about Samaria
It seems that most of what has been written about the
gorge of Samaria was plagiarized from the same original source. This
means that the same errors have been repeated almost everywhere and
this has been going on for years. So first let's put a few things
right:
The gorge of Samaria is not 18 km long (the 18 km
refers to the distance between the settlement of Omalos on the northern side of the plateau and the village
of Agia Roumeli) but is 16 km long, starting at an altitude of 1250m
and taking you all the way down to the shores of the Libyan sea in
Agia Roumeli. The walk through the National Park of Samaria is 13
km but you will have to walk the extra 3 km to Agia Roumeli from
the exit of the National Park making it 16 km.
The very narrow passage near the end of the gorge is
often called the "Iron Gates". None of the former inhabitants
of Samaria know why the place suddenly got this name. They were always
known by the locals as "Portes" which means "doors" or "gates",
but certainly no "Iron" anywhere!
Samaria is said to be the longest gorge in Europe.
I am not sure about this. As far as I know the "gorges
du Verdon" in South France are a little over 20 km in length.
Similarly, the gorge of Tripiti which runs west of the gorge of Samaria
is about as long, but almost nobody knows it.
The gorge of Samaria is situated in the National park of Samaria,
in the White Mountains in West Crete.
The park is supervised by the Department of Forestry and the gorge is generally
open only from the beginning of May to the end of October. In winter, high
water makes the gorge dangerous and impassable. It will also be closed on rainy
days (too dangerous because of rock falls)
You have to pay an entrance fee of Euro 5.00 to enter the park (free
to children under 15, half price to students).
So what do you get for your 5 Euro?
- The path is maintained and is
substantially better than "normal" paths in Crete.
- There are wardens
along the way (in radio contact with each other) who will help you
in case of trouble or injury.
- There is also (in theory) a doctor stationed in
the abandoned village of Samaria.
- There are well-maintained springs
on the way so that you do not have to carry much water.
- There are
toilets in several places and plenty of rubbish bins. You find surprisingly
little litter, considering the amount of people passing through every
day.
- You also get a set of rules,
aimed at protecting the park and making the experience safe and pleasant
for everyone.
The gorge is open only during the day time and if you want to start
walking in the afternoon you will only be allowed in up to a certain
point. The guards want to make sure that everybody who walks in also
gets out before nightfall. This is the reason why they ask you to
present your ticket on the way out as it (supposedly) enables them
to know if there is anyone still in the park at night.
When is the best time to walk through the gorge?
The problem with Samaria is the crowds. It has become one of the" musts" if
you go to Crete and there are up to 3000 visitors a day on very
busy days. (see visitors statistics here) If you have the bad luck to pick one of those days,
the atmosphere will be really spoilt. Starting at dawn (before
the tourist coaches arrive) will give you a bit of a head start.
It is possible to find good (and cheap) accommodation in Omalos.
The first tourist buses arrive at around 7.30 am and from then on it is an
uninterrupted stream of buses until about 11.00 am.
You can also start walking after 12.00, there won't be many people but you
will most probably need to spend the night in Agia
Roumeli because the last boat out will have left when you get there.
As far as the times of the year are concerned, the best time is
in the spring: the weather is still cool and the vegetation is
at its best. The worst time is in the middle of the summer during
a heat wave. Give it a miss and come again at a better time.
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