Travel Guide Sfakia

This small port, inserted in a kind of natural circus, is surrounded by the foothills of the Lefka Ori (White Mountains) which plunge, steeply, into the Libyan Sea. Hora Sfakion, populated today by about 220 inhabitants living here all year round, is the heart of a region that maintains a strong historical tradition of resistance to the various Venetian and Turkish occupations... A Sfakian spirit persists, very close to that of the Corsicans, vendettas included... The village itself is worth a stop if only to wait for the boat that goes to the south coast to Paleohora instead of going around the Lefka Ori mountains. It can also be used as a base for a few days to explore the area, as the place is quiet in the evening. There is nothing to do but sit at the terrace of a café, the only entertainment when the ferry brings the tourists from Agia Roumeli after their descent from the Samaria Gorge. But they do not stop: they join the many tour buses waiting for them. Then, Hora Sfakion finds its calm. Along the harbor, a row of cafes and taverns, mini-markets, an excellent bakery (Votzakis) in the back street, parallel to the harbor, international newspapers, souvenir stores..Even if the village itself has little to offer (it's quickly over), Hora Sfakion can be your base camp to explore the region and the villages of the Sfakia plateau, a real Corsican-style scrubland, or the Imbros gorges. Hiking enthusiasts can hike in the surrounding area. Vrisi, the beach west of the village, has the merit to exist and you can rent canoes there. But if you walk 20 minutes on the road to Anopolis, there is another beautiful beach (Iligas), with caves where you can shelter from the sun. Between Iligas and Hora Sfakion is the famous cave of Daskalogianis ("Giannis the professor"), in which he hid from the Turks. Ask the locals which cave it is, because there are several of them... For diving fans, there is a diving center at the end of the port, on the left.