What to do in Rethymno old town

The walk, in order. Start at Four Martyrs Square, go through the Guora Gate, follow Arkadiou Street, stop at the Rimondi Fountain and the Neratze Mosque, look at the Venetian Loggia, then the Catholic Church of St Francis and the Kara Musa Pasha mosque, and come out at the Venetian harbour under the Egyptian lighthouse. From there it is a few minutes to the beach or ten minutes up to the Fortezza. The whole old town takes under an hour end to end if you do not stop, which nobody does.

Old town walkUnder 1 hour, no stops

Guided walk2 hours

Harbour to beachA few minutes

Harbour to FortezzaAbout 10 minutes uphill

Street planVenetian, with Ottoman layers

Dinner startsAround 21:00

Start at Four Martyrs Square

Plateia Tessaron Martiron, with the Church of the Four Martyrs on it, is the edge of the old town and where the guided walks meet. It is the right place to begin because you enter the old streets the way the town was designed to be entered, through the gate rather than out of a car park.

The Guora Gate

Also called the Great Gate, and the last real fragment of the landward walls; most of the rest was demolished after the Second World War. I grew up three streets below it. Walk through it slowly and look at the change in the street width on the far side.

Arkadiou Street and the Venetian doorways

Arkadiou has been the commercial spine of Rethymno since the Venetian occupation and it still is. The thing to look at is the doorways: carved Venetian frames with Ottoman upper floors above them, on the same building, on the same street. That is the whole history of the town in one facade, and it repeats for several hundred metres. A guide will point out perhaps a dozen. Gordon, on one of these walks, wrote that the explanation of doorways became repetitive, and he has a point — the honest version is in the walking tour review.

The Rimondi Fountain and the Neratze Mosque

The Rimondi Fountain is Venetian and sits in the middle of the busiest corner of the old town. A short walk away is the Neratze Mosque, which carries the tallest minaret in the city. Between the two you have the two occupations that made the place, standing about a hundred metres apart.

The Loggia, St Francis and Kara Musa Pasha

The Venetian Loggia is 16th century and was the meeting house of the nobility. The Catholic Church of St Francis and the Kara Musa Pasha mosque complete the set. None of these takes long. The old town rewards a slow loop rather than a list, which is why two hours with someone who knows it covers it properly when a rushed hour does not. The options are compared on the old town tours page.

The Venetian harbour and the Egyptian lighthouse

Small, curved, lined with tables, and the reason people photograph Rethymno. The lighthouse at the end is Egyptian, built during the Egyptian occupation of Crete in the 19th century. Come at the end of the afternoon. Then walk five minutes east and you are on the beach, which starts at the edge of the old town and runs for kilometres. Very few Cretan old towns do that.

Where are the blue steps?

This is asked a lot and it deserves an honest answer rather than a pin on a map. Rethymno has several stepped alleys in the old town that owners have painted, in blue and in other colours, and they are repainted and change hands, so the one in the photograph you saw may be a different colour now. There is no official address for them. Walk the lanes between Arkadiou Street and the Fortezza side of the old town and you will find more than one. Anyone giving you an exact street is guessing.

Insider tip

Eat late. A taverna at 19:00 is tourists only. Cretan dinner starts around 21:00 and the difference in the room is obvious.

Check the old town guided walk

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure on most tours — book now, decide later.

Then go up the hill

The Fortezza sits directly above all of this, about ten minutes uphill from the harbour, and it is the other half of the day. Read what to see inside before you climb, and give it more time than you think.

Old town classic

Frequently asked questions

What is Rethymno famous for?

Its Venetian old town and the Fortezza above it. The old town keeps a Venetian street plan with Ottoman work built on top, and the Fortezza is a 16th-century citadel with 1,307 metres of wall.

Is there a lot to do in Rethymno?

Enough for two or three days without driving anywhere. The old town takes an afternoon, the Fortezza takes a morning, and the beach starts where the old streets end. See whether the Fortezza is worth it for the part that needs planning.

Can you walk from Rethymno town to the beach?

Yes. The beach begins at the edge of the old town and runs east for kilometres, a few minutes on foot from the Venetian harbour.

How long does it take to walk around Rethymno old town?

Under an hour end to end without stopping. With stops, photographs and a coffee it fills an afternoon, and a guided walk covers it in two hours.