Travel Guide Chania - Chania

With a little more than 50,000 inhabitants, Chania (pronounced kha-nia, with a sort of aspirated h) is today the second largest city on the island after Heraklion. Although an airport, located about fifteen kilometers to the northeast, serves many destinations, and although tourists are much more numerous in summer than the locals and students who keep the city alive all year round, Hania has nevertheless preserved its splendor.The historical center is built around the old port, dominated by its emblematic lighthouse. The old town is surrounded by fortifications and presents a maze of small streets lined with houses of various periods. Indeed, if the Venetian period has particularly marked the architecture, Hania has been continuously occupied for nearly 5,000 years: from the ancient Minoan city of Kydonia to today, Hania offers a heritage of incomparable wealth. The Turkish occupation has left some traces that add a touch of exoticism to the city. We walk among these successive layers of history as in a living book. Indeed, the city is not limited to its heritage and Hania still vibrates today. New generations have taken over the place, opening cafés and restaurants that help to make the city more dynamic.Everything here seems calmer than in Heraklion, more serene even. Important restoration works during the last decades have embellished the city, which was already without doubt one of the most beautiful of Crete and Greece. We advise you to take a walk in the morning at sunrise, as you will find the atmosphere of the past. Don't hesitate to get lost in the streets and to explore the more out-of-the-way neighborhoods with their own distinct identities: to the west of the old town, the family resort of Nea Chora beach; to the east, the bay of Koum Kapi with its many seaside cafes; and, further on, the 19th-century neighborhood of Halepa.