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How to avoid the crowds on the Samaria Gorge hike
- petermorley200
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
On average of 900 people a day hike down the Samaria Gorge to Agia Roumeli. On busy days there can be as many as 1,200 hikers.
The Samaria Gorge opens at 07.00 and you are only allowed to hike down the entire way from Xyloskalo to Agia Roumeli if you start hiking by 13.00. Upon reaching Agia Roumeli hikers usually take ferries to Sougia or Hora Sfakion that depart at 17.30.
As the hike down the Samaria gorge takes 5 to 6 hours most hikers start before 11.00 so they don't miss the ferries. That means there can be 4 to 5 hikers a minute starting the hike between 07.00 and 11.00! That's far too crowded for me.
Hikers that don't like busy trails have the following options:
Start the Samaria Gorge hike after 11.00
Hikers leaving later, say midday, should have the trail to themselves. However, hikers aren't allowed to start hiking down the Samaria gorge to Agia Roumeli after 13.00.
Starting the Samaria gorge hike late would probably involve staying the night in Agia Roumeli which is a very pleasant place to stay once all the hikers have left. The Calypso hotel is very comfortable. However, it would also mean doing the hike in the heat of the day.
If you did spend the night at Agia Roumeli you could hike the next day along the beautiful coast to Loutro (see the next section for details) and then take the late afternoon ferry back to Hora Sfakion. That's the same ferry that all the hikers returning from the Samaria gorge hike will be on.
If you don't want to hike any more there are 2 ferries in the morning to Hora Sfakion.
Hike the Samaria Gorge at the Weekend
The official at the check point told us that fewer people hike the Samaria gorge at the weekend. She said that on week days there is an average of 900 hikers and at weekends the number of hikers drops to about 500 per day.
The reason could be that the weekends are when most tourists are arriving and departing Crete.
Don't Hike the Samaria Gorge the day after a closure
The Samaria gorge is often closed for safety reasons. It can be too hot, too windy, rain can cause rock falls etc. It is likely that the day after the Samaria gorge has been closed the hike will be busier.
Incidentally it is best to check before you leave for the hike that Samaria gorge hasn't been closed. Usually any closure is indicated on the official web page for buying tickets for Samaria gorge.
Start the Samaria Gorge hike very early
Most travel guides recommend starting the hike as soon as the Samaria gorge opens at 07.00. This would mean a very early start from your accommodation as the drive to the Samaria Gorge entrance at Xyloskalo would take at least 1.25 hours for most people.
If too many people follow this advice it would be counter productive!
Hike partly up the Samaria Gorge from Agia Roumeli
A park official informed us that the best section of the Samaria gorge hike was between the Iron Gates and the abandoned Samaria village. The park official said the section from the abandoned Samaria village to the top of the Samaria gorge wasn't particularly special.
If you start hiking as soon as Samaria Gorge opens it should be possible to reach the abandoned Samaria Village, or get very close to it, and still be able to catch the 11.30 a.m. ferry from Agia Roumeli to Hora Sfakion.
This is what we did and we only saw about 15 hikers in 3.5 hours. We had the Samaria gorge to ourselves and it was fantastic.
We travelled to Agia Roumelli by taking a taxi boat from Hora Sfakion to Loutro and then hiked for about 6 hours to Agia Roumeli. See the next section for details of this hike. It's also possible to take a ferry from Hora Sfakion to Loutro and Agia Roumeli.
We reached Agia Roumeli at 18.00 after most of the Samalia Gorge hikers had departed on the 17.30 ferries. We had a good dinner and night's sleep at the Calypso Hotel. We started hiking at 06.30 the next morning and reached the entrance to Samaria gorge just before 07.00.
We were the first people to enter the Samaria gorge and there was no one else in sight. We walked up to the narrow "Iron Gates" part of the Samaria gorge frequently stopping for photos. The Iron Gates are where the Samaria gorge is only 3 metres wide. We still hadn't seen any other hikers and had the Samaria gorge to ourselves.
After the Christos rest area one hiker passed us. We continued hiking up the Samaria gorge for another half an hour before turning back. I think we had enough time to hike to the abandoned Samaria village but Lani's foot was hurting from plantar fasciitis.
We passed a group of Italian hikers on the way back. We got back to the Calypso hotel at 10.00 where we had breakfast. Then after a stroll around Agia Roumeli we took the 11.30 ferry to Hora Sfakion.
The voyage was very scenic and enjoyable as there were few people on the ferry. It would be a different matter on the 17.30 ferry packed with hikers!
We were both very pleased that we had hiked part of the Samaria gorge and really enjoyed our stay at Agia Roumeli and the hike from Loutro to Agia Roumeli. I highly recommend both hikes.
Loutro to Agia Roumeli Hike
Hike 24 in the Rother Walking Guide is from Agia Roumeli to Loutro and it states that it takes 5 hours. We decided to do the hike the other way around so we could spend the night at Agia Roumeli and hike part of the way up the Samaria Gorge the next day.
It's possible to start this hike in Hora Sfakion but I thought that the hike from Loutro to Agia Roumeli would be long enough in the heat. Also the first part of the route from Hora Sfakion to Loutro is on the road.
An Anendyk ferry departs Hora Sfakion for Loutro at 09.30 but as we wanted to leave earlier we took a water taxi for Eur 45. There is paid parking along the port road and there were plenty of parking spots when we arrived.
A man on a motor bike came to collect the parking fee of Eur 5 for 24 hours. When we returned the next day he collected another Eur 5 as we had stayed longer than 24 hours.
It was only a 10 minute boat ride to the small village of Loutro. The village is now popular and has expanded over recent years. There are quite a few hotels and 2 narrow beaches. Loutro was very nice even though the narrow waterfront was busy.
There is a ruined Venetian Castle to the west of Loutro's harbour and the trail to Agia Roumeli goes past it. We didn't go that way and instead climbed up to the better preserved Ottoman fortress above Loutro. From the Ottoman fortress we descended down to the hamlet of Finix.
The trail had been well marked until about Finix but the section after that to Lykos, and towards Marmara, wasn't well marked as road construction has interfered with the trail. I wished I had downloaded the trail onto my phone but we did manage to follow the trail with difficulty. Both Finix and Lykos have small hotels.
From Lykos it doesn't look like the trail can continue along the steep coastal cliffs but it does! It involves a bit of minor scrambling and there are some chains to assist. After 1.5 hours of walking from Loutro we reached the pretty small beach at Marmara.
We had a drink in the taverna that overlooked Marmara beach. They have sun umbrellas and sun loungers on the beach and it looked very pleasant. It was tempting to have a swim but we still had a long way to hike.
There is a little chapel on the hill above Marmara and from there it was a 3 hour hike to the next taverna at the beach by the Byzantine chapel of Agios Pavlos. Unlike the previous section of the hike there was some shade along the trail from pine trees. We stopped for a picnic lunch on the way.
We had run out of water by the time we reached Agios Pavlos and it looked as if the taverna was closed. We were relieved to find it was open and stopped for a drink and a swim. It was still very hot when we left at 16.30 and the owner of the taverna advised us to wait until it had cooled down and to take plenty of water.
We didn't wait any longer but luckily bought more water. On the final stretch to Agia Roumeli Lani suffered from the heat and we had to stop several times. Just before Agia Roumeli the trail wasn't clear and we walked along the seafront avoiding barbed wire. The trail is in fact a bit inland.
We reached our hotel in Agia Roumeli at 18.00. Agia Roumeli was very quiet as most of the Samaria gorge hikers had taken the 17.30 ferries to Sougia and Hora Sfakion.
Our room in the Calypso Hotel had a great shower and after cleaning up we had supper at the hotel and a wander around peaceful Agia Roumelli. It had been a very enjoyable day and I highly recommend the hike.
I really like the coastline from Paleochora to Hora Sfakion in south west Crete. A similar great coastal hike is from Paleochora to Sougia (see section 2.7 of my 2025 Crete Travel Guide).
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