We arrive in Paleochora, where we plan to check out its two campsites and try to organize our trip to Samaria gorge, as Paleochora’s port has daily connection with Agia Roumeli, the gorge’s exit point, reachable only by sea. The town position is marvelous, although the architecture is a bit disappointing. Nevertheless the atmosphere here is much more relaxed and less touristy than other resorts of the west coast that we have already visited.
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At first glance, coming from the north, Paleochora makes a good impression. It stands on a stretch of land in the middle of the sea, with its beautiful castle on the tip of the hill. As we approached I could not help thinking that in other countries they would have definitely exploited the privileged position, being a lot more careful to the aesthetics of the buildings. Too bad…
We make a quick stop at a super market in front of the huge sandy beach and we find that the prices are much more reasonable than what we have seen so far while shopping in small towns. Just across the street I notice a fascinating sculpture, work of the Austrian artist Gerhard Stelzhammer living in Palaiochora. As I learn later, the sculpture is part of a big outdoor art exhibition held in 2013 and probably sooner or later it will be removed.
We leave the campervan in the spacious parking lot near the marina [35.22508,23.67818] to visit the town, which is definitely worth a walk around. We climb up to the ruined castle first and then take a walk through the streets of the town center. While strolling we notice with pleasure that it’s a normal town with normal shops of all kinds and not only the tourist ones.
Be careful to avoid entering the center with your motorhome, the streets are very narrow!
We visit the camping Grammeno, five kilometers west of Paleochora [35.23515,23.63601]. It is described as one of the best on the island and I have to say that the first impression is very positive. It’s located right on a huge beach, very nice and clean, with abundant shade from cedar trees and suitable facilities for motorhomes. It has no swimming pool, but why someone would need a pool when there is such a wonderful sea just in front?
It accepts half-stay for motorhomes, meaning that you can use all of their services during the day and leave in the afternoon. It stays open during the winter for the full-timers with rates from 170€ per month. The only thing that I found missing is a water tap next to the dump site in order to facilitate the cleaning, but I guess it is not difficult to fix it!
Things are completely different at camping Paleochora [35.23734,23.69268]. The young and friendly environment is not enough to make up for the scarce facilities for Rvs. There is no dump station and the few parking spots dedicated to motorhomes are at the entrance of the camping. A nightclub just in front of the campsite promises noisy nights – even if this year it will be open only occasionally as they told me.
We preferred to stay overnight on a beach named Karavopetra (stone shaped like a ship) [35.23757,23.65418] a couple kilometers west of Paleochora. Beautiful location although a bit noisy because of the busy street (it was Saturday night…). Well, I know you cannot have everything … On the other hand, in the morning we collected sea salt directly from the rocks. Great!
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