Inland & Far East Crete: Lasithi Plateau, Kritsa, Vai Palm Forest and Chrissi Island

Inland and east of Agios Nikolaos in the Lasithi region, Crete reveals a traditional agricultural highland and an uncrowded eastern coastline that feel decades removed from mass tourism.

1. Kritsa Village, Panagia Kera (13th-Century Frescoes) & Lato

Ten kilometres inland from Agios Nikolaos up an olive-blanketed hillside sits Kritsa, one of the oldest and most picturesque weaving villages in Crete. Just one kilometre before the village entrance stands the three-aisled whitewashed Byzantine church of Panagia Kera, whose vaulted interior preserves the most complete, expressive 13th- and 14th-century Palaeologan frescoes in Crete, while 3 km above the village lie the dramatic hilltop Dorian stone ruins of Ancient Lato overlooking Mirabello Bay.

2. The Lasithi Plateau (850m Elevation) & The Cave of Zeus (Psychro)

Winding forty minutes up into the Dikti Mountains from Malia or Neapoli (passing the 2,000-year-old monumental plane tree of Krasi, whose trunk requires twelve people holding hands to encircle), the road crosses a mountain rim and drops into the Lasithi Plateau (Oropedio Lasithiou): a completely flat, 11-kilometre-wide alpine bowl at 850 metres above sea level, famous for its geometric patchwork of orchards, white-sailed irrigation windmills, pottery workshops in Tzermiado, and the stalactite-filled Diktaion Cave (Psychro Cave) above Psychro village, where Hesiod writes that Rhea hid the infant god Zeus from his father Cronus, nourished by the milk of the goat Amalthea and wild bees.

3. The Far East: Sitia, Toplou Monastery & Vai Palm Forest

For road-trippers continuing to the easternmost tip of Crete past the dramatic cliff road of Voulisma (Golden) Beach and the Bronze Age Minoan town on Mochlos Island:

• Vai Palm Beach (24 km east of Sitia): Europe's largest natural wild palm forest, over 5,000 endemic Cretan date palms (Phoenix theophrasti) growing right down to a crescent of golden sand and turquoise water. Combine Vai with the fortified 15th-century Monastery of Toplou nearby and the Minoan Palace of Kato Zakros at the exit of the "Gorge of the Dead".