3 Days in Rethymno

Start at the top, because the Fortezza opens at 8:30 and closes at 3 pm in winter. Venice built it between 1573 and 1580 on Paleokastro hill, where the ancient acropolis stood, and the whole town was meant to shelter behind its walls. In 1646 it did. The Ottoman siege began on 29 September, disease and hunger set in, and the Venetians surrendered on 13 November on favorable terms. The cathedral of St Nicholas inside became the Mosque of Sultan Ibrahim, and it still stands, empty.

Walk the walls first, for the view over the old town, the harbor and the coast running east. Then wander in. The ground inside is mostly open and a little bare, and restoration has gone on since the early 1990s. There's an open-air theatre, Erofyli, in the St Elias bastion, but no big museum: you come for the ramparts and the view.

Five minutes downhill from the Fortezza is the Neratze Mosque, the clearest trace of Ottoman Rethymno. It began as Santa Maria, a Venetian church of an Augustinian monastery, and was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1646, and its slender minaret is a handy landmark in the lanes. Today it's the city's music conservatory, so you admire it from outside and from Mikrasiaton Square next to it.

Two minutes away on Arkadiou Street is the Venetian Loggia, a 16th-century building that served Venetian officials as a club and now houses a Ministry of Culture office. If it rains, the Archaeological Museum, in the pentagon-shaped building by the Fortezza gate, is the better bet: winter listings give 8:30-15:30 and closed Tuesdays, but sources disagree, so ring first. The Historical and Folklore Museum's winter hours are unconfirmed.

The Rimondi Fountain is where Rethymno's old town comes together. The Venetian rector Alvise Rimondi had it built in 1626 as part of a project to bring fresh spring water into the town. Water runs from three lion-head spouts into three basins, framed by Corinthian columns, with the Rimondi coat of arms above. Local lore says a drink guarantees eternal youth. Treat it as a tale, and drink from your bottle.

In summer the bars around it are packed and loud. In November it's a calm spot for a coffee, and the lanes that fan out from here, with stone arches and Venetian doorways, are the best part of the old town to get lost in. Don't look for a big sight; the pleasure is in the doors and staircases.

For lunch, step off the lanes closest to the fountain and the harbor. The beachfront places are aimed at visitors; the back streets are where the cooking is better and the prices lower. Order a dakos (a barley rusk topped with chopped tomato and crumbled cheese), a plate of kalitsounia (small cheese pies) and one main from the day's pots.

November is the right month for it: the stews are back and nobody rushes you out of the table. Ask what the kitchen made that morning rather than reading a laminated menu.

The Venetian harbor is small enough to walk around in ten minutes, and it's best in the mid-afternoon light. Fishing boats sit against the quay, and the lighthouse stands at the tip of the long breakwater. It's usually called the Egyptian lighthouse, because it's usually dated to the 1830s, when Crete was under Egyptian rule. Some guides say it replaced an earlier Venetian light. It no longer works as a light, but the walk out along the mole is the best free view of the town and the Fortezza.

Sunset falls between about 5:10 and 5:20 pm in November, so do the harbor first and watch the light go from the beach next door. Many harbor tavernas close for the winter.

Rethymno has a long sandy beach that starts right next to the old town. The sand is fine, the water shallow, and the beach runs for kilometers east of the harbor, backed by hotels and a promenade. It's under ten minutes on foot from the lanes.

In November the beach bars and loungers are mostly folded away, but the sea is around 20°C, so a short swim is possible on a sunny day. At least walk the promenade after the fortress and the cobbles. Bring your own towel and a sweater for when the sun drops.

Go back into the lanes for dinner. Cretan tavernas serve the Greek classics next to island dishes, so this is the night for moussaka or pastitsio, a Greek salad with tzatziki on the side, and souvlaki if you want something simple. Finish with whatever the kitchen sends over, which in Crete is often free tsikoudia (the local grape brandy) and a plate of fruit or sweets.

The best tavernas are in the back streets, with a short menu and local families at the other tables. In November you won't need to book.

Arkadi is about 23 km southeast of Rethymno, on a plateau under Mount Ida, and it's the most emotional stop of the three days. The church was begun around 1562 and took roughly 25 years, and its Renaissance facade carries the date 1586-1587. In November 1866, during a revolt against Ottoman rule, hundreds of Cretans, many of them women and children, took shelter here. The assault began on the morning of 8 November. Of the 964 people inside, 846 died in the fighting or in the explosion of the gunpowder store, and 114 were captured. The monastery became a national symbol of Cretan resistance.

Walk the courtyard to the church, the powder room and the former windmill, now an ossuary, where bones with bullet and sword marks lie in a glass case. The refectory, where the last fighting took place, is a small museum. Keep your voice down: it's a working monastery.

From Arkadi it's about 8 km to ancient Eleftherna, a city-state on a narrow spur of Mount Ida that flourished from the Geometric period to Roman times and was abandoned after Arab raids and an earthquake in the late 8th century. The University of Crete has excavated it since the 1980s, and the museum, opened in 2016, stands by the site. Its best finds come from the Iron Age necropolis at Orthi Petra, including the burials of four women that the Archaeological Institute of America listed among the top discoveries of 2009.

It's a compact museum. The necropolis is listed as a separate site and its winter access is unconfirmed, so plan this as a museum visit and ask at the desk about the excavations.

Margarites is a hillside village of a few hundred people, about 27 km from Rethymno, and it's where the trip slows down. A village taverna is the right lunch: grilled meat, wild greens, fried cheese and whatever is in the pot.

Eat first, then shop. Village kitchens close in the middle of the afternoon. If the taverna is shut, ask at the kafeneio on the square.

Margarites is the most important pottery center in western Crete, with dozens of small workshops and galleries along its narrow lanes. Its pots once supplied households from Chania to the east of Rethymno, and the craft is now on Greece's national list of intangible cultural heritage. The clay is bought in, but shaping, glazing and firing are still done by hand here.

Walk in, say hello and look. Many potters will show you the wheel, and some run short workshops where you make a small bowl or cup, a better souvenir than a magnet.

Drive back in the last light and park outside the old town. After a day on country roads, the best end is something sweet: loukoumades (fried dough balls with honey and cinnamon) or a slice of baklava with a Greek coffee, in a small café in the lanes. Then walk the old town after dark, when the streets are quiet.

The road to the south coast runs through the Kourtaliotiko Gorge, where the Kourtaliotiko River cuts south between the Kouroupa and Xiron mountains. A small chapel of Saint Nicholas stands in the gorge, and steps lead down to it and to a waterfall of around 40 meters. Park at the roadside and walk down for a few minutes.

Rockfalls sometimes slow the road in winter, so drive slowly and watch for warning signs.

Preveli is really two monasteries: the lower one (Kato) and the rear one (Piso), dedicated to Saint John the Theologian, which is the one you visit. It sits high above the Libyan Sea. In 1821 its abbot, Melchisedek Tsouderos, led rebels in the War of Independence, and the monastery was destroyed and rebuilt. In 1941, during the Battle of Crete, the monks sheltered British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers, and Australians among them were evacuated by submarine from the beach below. The Germans destroyed the lower monastery.

A few monks still live here. The church, the small museum and the terrace over the sea are the sights, and the terrace alone is worth the drive. Sources disagree on the fee (free to about 4 EUR) and on winter closing (4 to 5 pm), so check on arrival.

Preveli beach is where the river meets the sea. Behind the sand is a grove of Cretan date palms (Phoenix theophrasti) and a freshwater pool held back by the sand. A fire in August 2010 burned much of the grove, and it has grown back since.

The walk from the car park is a long flight of steps, about 300 and 15 minutes each way, and the climb back is the hard part. In summer boats run to the beach from Plakias and Agia Galini; in November you walk. The water is around 20°C and you'll have the beach almost to yourself. Take water and a snack, because nothing down there is likely to be open.

Plakias, about 21 km south of Rethymno as the crow flies and nearer 40 km by road, started as a fishing jetty. The name means "flat", for the fan of sediment washed down from the gorge to the north, and it first appeared in a census in 1961 as the home of six fishermen. Tourism turned it into a resort within a couple of generations, and in November it's quiet, with many seafront places shut or on short hours.

Have a late lunch of grilled fish or lamb and a glass of local wine, and look at the long beach: a narrow strip of crushed shell, not the sand of the north coast.

Back in town, end the trip with a glass of tsikoudia, Crete's grape brandy. It's made from the pressed skins left over from winemaking, distilled once and usually served ice cold. Village stills fire up in autumn, after the harvest, so November is the right month to ask for a homemade bottle.

In a good taverna a small carafe arrives at the end of the meal, often free. Say yia mas (to our health) and sip it.