Hania is a heavenly and pure land brimming with natural beauty, history, memory and culture.
The county of Chania covers the western part of Crete and has an area of 2.376 km2 and with a population of 140,000 residents (1991 inventory). The city has two entrances: the airport of Akrotiri, and the port of Souda (the largest in the Mediterranean).
The most poetic city of Crete when you walk through it leaves you with a pleasant taste of beauty. Built on the ruins of ancient Kidonia it has seen and survived many invaders, but has also tasted civilizations that left their marks on building faces, castles, walls, antiquities, monasteries and churches. The beautiful city of Hania is deservingly called the diamond of Crete since it combines, in a very unique way, everything old with everything new.
The Venetian port picturesque any time and season is attractive to visitors and locals, for it's beauty and for it's choices of entertainment for all tastes and demands. The old city "intramural" districts preserve their Venetian nobility. Narrow paved alleys are surrounded with tasteful renewed houses, from various ages, are offered for a pleasant walk.
Dozens of gorges traverse the mountainous regions of Chania. Indisputably, Samaria gorge is of unparalleled beauty as well as the most renowned. It is 16 km in length and its width ranges from 3.5 to 150 metres, with vertical cliffs which may reach a sheer 500 metres in height. In order to traverse it one needs approximately 5 to 6 hours and the gorge is open from May to October. It is a national park inside which one will find rare types of Cretan flora from the cypress and the pine tree to the dittany and the wildflower, while it is also the natural habitat of the wild goat or the Kri Kri.
Thanks to the morphology of the landscape and the combination of mountain and sea, the prefecture of Hania is a veritable paradise for those who seek adventure and the alternative forms of tourism which have become very popular in recent years.