A Chania catamaran cruise leaves the coast of western Crete for its islets, the Gulf of Chania and Souda Bay. It is one of the Crete catamaran trips in Greece on Greece VIP.
This post covers what a Chania catamaran cruise includes, where it leaves from and the islets it passes. It also covers the coast of the gulf, the war history in the sea and the sea life. Souda Bay, the best season and common questions come last.
Each section ends with a Chania catamaran cruise or a nearby cruise that can be booked online.
What does a Chania catamaran cruise include?
A Chania catamaran cruise includes coastal sailing, swim stops near islets and food on deck. Trips leave in the morning or near sunset. Greek food controls and EU hygiene law cover the meals. European standards cover diving masks and snorkels.
Short boat trips from Chania reach Lazaretta islet. Longer trips add Agioi Theodoroi to the route. Private inflatable boats go further, to Menies and Chironisia.
One Chania catamaran cruise sails from Kolymbari to Chania’s Venetian harbour, with a swim stop on the way. A sailing trip from Kolymbari adds lunch and paddleboards.
Glass-bottom boats run morning trips from Chania to Lazaretta. One glass-bottom route adds a mermaid show. Evening trips past Lazaretta form part of the sunset cruises from Chania.
Meals on a Chania catamaran cruise fall under Greek food controls. EFET, the Hellenic Food Authority, began work in 2000. It checks food businesses for HACCP safety systems.
Basic EU hygiene rules apply to every food business, of any size. Regulation 852/2004 adds rules for movable food premises. These need hot or cold drinking water.
Movable premises also need means to keep and monitor safe food temperatures. Under the same law, food handlers must be supervised and instructed or trained in food hygiene.
- EFET: Greek law founded the authority on 28 September 1999.
- Snorkels: EN 1972 excludes snorkels built into a face mask.
- Cold chain: EU hygiene law bans breaks in the cold chain.
A Chania catamaran cruise can leave from Chania or Kolymbari, both on the Gulf of Chania.
Where does a Chania catamaran cruise leave from?
A Chania catamaran cruise starts in the old Venetian harbour, at Souda port or at Kolymbari. Kolymbari lies 24 km west of the city, and Agia Marina 9 km west. Souda, the ferry port, takes ships over 300 metres long.
A Chania catamaran cruise from the old port leaves a basin first built between 1320 and 1356. In 1551, workers dredged it and walled the breakwater.
Nineteenth-century accounts give the breakwater a length of 377 metres. The basin then held no more than 40 ships of 300 tons. Larger ships anchored outside.
The Municipal Port Fund of Chania handles tourist boat berths in the old harbour. A traffic ban has covered the harbour since 1 April 2016.
Boats in the old harbour moor stern-to or bow-to. The visitors’ wharf lies first to starboard on entry. Local boats and rental firms use wharfs further east.
Souda port has four quays, 1,470 metres long in total. Their depths are 9.4, 10 and 12 metres. Its tidal range is about 0.4 metres either way.
A Chania catamaran cruise can also start at Kolymbari, a small harbour town on the gulf. Caiques sail from its harbour to the Rodopou peninsula.
- Souda: The Harbour Management Organisation of Chania Prefecture manages the port.
- Agia Marina: Small jetties hold sand on its beach, near Platanias harbour.
- Dredging: Under Mehmet Ali, workers cleared and dredged the old basin.
A Chania catamaran cruise sailing west from the old harbour passes Lazaretta and then Agioi Theodoroi.
Which islets does a Chania catamaran cruise pass?
A Chania catamaran cruise passes Lazaretta, opposite Nea Chora, and Agioi Theodoroi, off Agia Marina. Souda Bay holds the fortified Souda islet, with Palaiosouda to its east. Landing on Agioi Theodoroi is banned, except on one feast day a year.
Agios Theodoros covers 69.7 hectares. It rises to 165 metres and stretches 3,800 metres at its longest. Agia Marina harbour lies half a nautical mile away.
A Chania catamaran cruise stays offshore here. The islet is part of the Natura 2000 network. It also protects seabirds that nest on sea cliffs.
Venetian builders placed a polygonal fort named Turluru on the summit. A smaller fort lower down was named San Theodoro. The works cost about 21,500 ducats.
In the 17th century, Lazaretta held the isolation station of Chania. In 1645, Ottoman troops razed its buildings to place a large cannon.
Lazaretta’s small sandy beach has a seabed suited to snorkelling. In the 1950s, swimming races ran from the islet to the Venetian harbour of Chania.
A Chania catamaran cruise leaving Souda port passes the islet fortress, begun by Venice in 1573. Latino Orsini designed it, and its first cannons stood within a year.
- Name: The islets are named after a chapel of Saint Theodore the General.
- Armament: The Souda fort held 44 cannons in 1630.
- Palaiosouda: Also called Marati, it lies south of the town of Marati.
A Chania catamaran cruise past Souda islet sees where the Greek flag first rose on 1 February 1913.
What does a Chania catamaran cruise see along the Gulf of Chania?
A Chania catamaran cruise follows the coast west of town, from Kato Stalos to Kolymbari. Resort beaches, river mouths and small villages line this shore. The steep Rodopou peninsula closes the western view and ends at Cape Spatha.
A Chania catamaran cruise first passes Stalos, with 931 residents in 2021. Kato Stalos beach runs into Agia Marina. Other boat trips from Chania pass this shore too.
Agia Marina had 1,679 residents in 2021. Its organised sandy beach runs about 2 km over shallow water. The largest hotels in the Chania prefecture stand here.
Platanias, the next resort west, had 953 residents in 2021. The Keritis river meets the sea here, and scholars link it with the Iardanus of Homer’s Odyssey.
Maleme, 16 km from Chania, had 568 residents in 2021, and Tavronitis had 967. The Tavronitis river ends in a delta wetland used by migrating birds.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, Gonia monastery appears at the inner end of the gulf. The Orthodox Academy of Crete opened beside it in 1968.
The Rodopou peninsula stretches 19 km to Cape Spatha, the farthest point north on Crete. Herodotus says Samians from Kydonia founded the Diktynna sanctuary near its tip.
- Bridge: Tavronitis keeps a metal bridge built in 1901.
- Tomb: Maleme has a Late Minoan tholos tomb.
- Census: Platanias municipality counted 15,299 residents in 2021.
A Chania catamaran cruise crosses protected water here. The Rodopou peninsula, Maleme beach and the Gulf of Chania together form the Natura 2000 site GR4340003.
What war history lies in the sea off Chania?
A Chania catamaran cruise sails waters that saw naval action in 1941. Italian explosive boats raided Souda Bay, and British warships broke up a German troop convoy. Two war cemeteries hold the dead of the Battle of Crete.
Six Italian explosive motorboats raided Souda Bay in March 1941. Two destroyers, Francesco Crispi and Quintino Sella, released them about 10 nautical miles from the bay.
Two boats struck the cruiser York amidships, each carrying a 330 kg charge. The Norwegian tanker Pericles was also hit, and two British sailors died.
Maleme, on the route of a Chania catamaran cruise, was the goal of a German sea convoy. About 20 caiques sailed under an Italian torpedo boat’s escort.
Force D under Rear-Admiral Irvine Glennie struck before midnight. Eight caiques sank, and 297 German soldiers died. One caique landed 3 officers and 110 soldiers near Cape Spatha.
Off Maleme, a Chania catamaran cruise passes the airfield and Hill 107 above it. The New Zealand 22nd Battalion left the hill overnight, leaving the airfield undefended.
Ashore from a Chania catamaran cruise, the German war cemetery on Hill 107 holds 4,465 graves. Souda Bay War Cemetery sits in a coastal olive grove.
- Souda graves: 1,500 Commonwealth Second World War servicemen are buried or commemorated there.
- Unknown: 776 of those burials are unidentified.
- Architect: Louis de Soissons designed the cemetery.
A second convoy, escorted by the torpedo boat Sagittario, aborted its landing after Force C attacked. Rear-Admiral Edward King led Force C through the Kasos Strait.
What sea life does a Chania catamaran cruise meet?
A Chania catamaran cruise crosses a loggerhead nesting bay from Kato Stalos to Kolymbari. Deep water south of Crete holds sperm whales and Cuvier’s beaked whales. Monk seals use caves near Chania, and Red Sea fish reach the gulf.
Along the shore a Chania catamaran cruise follows, ARCHELON monitors 14 km of nesting beach. It hosts about 100 loggerhead nests a year on average.
Nests averaged 110 a year from 1992 to 2002. From 2003 to 2018, the mean fell to 64. ARCHELON protected over 85 nests in 2022.
A 2003 Greek study drew on sound and sight surveys off south-west Crete, focusing on sperm whales. The eastern Mediterranean holds only 200 to 250 of them.
On 1 April 2014, Cuvier’s beaked whales mass-stranded in south Crete during naval exercises. A survey off the Peloponnese and Crete also logged striped and rough-toothed dolphins.
Known monk seal areas flank the gulf a Chania catamaran cruise crosses. Cape Drapano, with the Elephant Cave, lies east; the Gramvousa islets lie west.
Fish under a Chania catamaran cruise include Red Sea arrivals. In 2005, a research trawl off Chania caught a reticulated leatherjacket at 25 to 26 m.
- Goatfish: Goldenbanded goatfish were first certified in the Cretan Sea off Kissamos.
- Spinefoot: The dusky spinefoot has appeared in shallow Cretan water since 1995.
- Workshop: Marine mammal experts met in Chania in 2016.
Before a Chania catamaran cruise, visitors can meet ARCHELON volunteers at the information station in the old harbour. ARCHELON’s outreach reached about 6,607 people in 2022.
What does a Chania catamaran cruise see in Souda Bay?
A Chania catamaran cruise in Souda Bay passes a Venetian island fort and an Ottoman prison fortress. Ancient Aptera rises above the south shore. NATO and American naval sites stand on Akrotiri. Kalami, Kalyves and Marathi line its shores.
A Chania catamaran cruise crosses a bay used by navies. Its K-14 quay is the only one in the Mediterranean that can dock aircraft carriers.
Venetian builders fortified Souda islet against Ottoman raiders and pirates. Ottoman troops later held the islet fort until 1898.
Souda and nearby Leon were the two islets called Leukai in antiquity. Leon, an almost round islet, lies north-west of Souda islet.
A Chania catamaran cruise passes Izzeddin fortress near Kalami, named for Izzeddin, a son of Sultan Abdulaziz. Its name means Glory of the Faith. It jailed Eleftherios Venizelos in 1903.
A Chania catamaran cruise sees ancient Aptera on a hilltop about 150 metres above the sea. Linear B tablets from the 14th and 13th centuries BC name the city.
An American naval detachment opened at Souda in 1969. It became Naval Support Activity Souda Bay in 1980, on a Hellenic Air Force base near Mouzouras.
- Kalyves: The village lies 19 km east of Chania.
- Marathi: Two south-facing sandy beaches flank a small pier.
- NATO: A maritime interdiction training centre has run at Marathi since 2007.
Souda Air Base on the Akrotiri peninsula hosts the 115th Combat Wing.
When is the best season for a Chania catamaran cruise?
The best season for a Chania catamaran cruise runs from April to October. Airport data show international arrivals surge in April and drop in November. A wave study finds the lowest wave power in summer and the highest in winter.
Greece’s civil aviation authority counted 4,126,799 passengers at Chania airport in its last full year. August led with 730,184 passengers, and July followed with 727,483.
July had the highest arrivals, at 370,780. February was the quietest month at 60,234 passengers. Domestic arrivals stayed between 29,294 and 52,410 a month all year.
International arrivals rose from 3,661 in March to 73,156 in April. They fell from 150,266 in October to 2,996 in November. This marks a seven-month Chania catamaran cruise season.
A Hellenic Centre for Marine Research study covered waves from 1993 to 2020. Wave power peaked in December, January and February. June showed very low values.
The strait between Crete and the Peloponnese averaged 6 to 10 kilowatts of wave power per metre. That strait borders north-west Crete, where cruises to Balos lagoon sail.
Souda port logged 132 cruise calls with 265,956 passengers in 2019. In 2020, only 10 calls arrived at the port.
- Gulf of Chania: A university thesis ran the first long-term wave monitoring there.
- Harbour storms: Storm waves overtop the Venetian harbour dock.
- 2020 dip: Only 105 cruise passengers landed at Souda in 2020.
September still drew 256,186 international arrivals.
What do travelers ask about a Chania catamaran cruise?
Travelers ask practical questions before a Chania catamaran cruise. Topics include buses, port access, health cover, Souda islet, Blue Flags and plastics.
How do travelers reach a Chania catamaran cruise from Chania airport?
The regional intercity bus company runs an airport-to-Chania line from its airport annex on Akrotiri. Its main Chania station stands at the corner of Kidonias and Kelaidi streets. Souda’s cruise port lies 13 km from the airport, with public transport links.
Where can wheelchair users check port access before a Chania catamaran cruise?
Since 2023, Greece’s maritime ministry and the Hellenic Coast Guard post a port accessibility section online. Each port’s management body declares its data. Entries cover ramps, waiting areas, toilets, parking and specialist help. They also list contacts for help and complaints.
Does the EHIC cover a Chania catamaran cruise visitor in Greece?
The EHIC works in all 27 EU countries and in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The European Commission says it is no substitute for travel insurance. It excludes lost or stolen property and trips made to get treatment.
Can a Chania catamaran cruise land passengers on Souda islet?
No, Souda islet forms part of a NATO naval base, so visitors are not allowed ashore. Photography there is prohibited too. Its Venetian garrison surrendered only after a 72-day siege. The islet’s central Church of Saint Nicholas was rebuilt in 1585.
What does a Blue Flag beach seen on a Chania catamaran cruise mean?
Greek beaches need at least six water samples each bathing season. The international minimum is five. Managers must lower the flag after oil spills or extreme events. Marathi and Kalyves Xyda are among this season’s 41 flagged beaches in the Chania regional unit.
What does Greek plastics law mean for a Chania catamaran cruise?
Law 4736/2020 brought EU Directive 2019/904 into Greek law. Since 3 July 2021 it bans single-use plastic cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers and cotton buds. Polystyrene food boxes and cups are banned too. A producer scheme collects plastic fishing gear at port reception facilities.