Plekken in Crete

A modern rakadiko where locals actually eat

Modern Mediterranean in a flower-filled courtyard

Cocktails in the secret garden of an Ottoman mansion

Contemporary Greek tasting cooking in a sculpted old-town room

All-day Greek bistro blending Hellenic and Levantine flavours

Clay-pot-over-coals taverna under the plane tree in Gavalochori

Contemporary Greek folk-art ceramics workshop

Mansion-style Cretan cuisine a block from Peskesi

Creative Cretan dining in a Venetian courtyard

Ten antique-filled suites in Venetian dwellings

Grocer-meze-room on the restored square of Archanes

13th-century Venetian basilica turned the city's municipal art gallery

Chania's oldest bougatsa shop, fourth-generation, since 1924

Vineyard estate and tasting hall near Knossos at Skalani

Owner-made jewellery and ceramics in a tiny Topanas atelier

Family-run 17th-century Venetian mansion hotel with a pebbled courtyard

Contemporary suites in a 17th-century town house

Stone-and-greenery room in the old-town lanes

In-house coffee roaster and microbrewery in the Korai grid

Award-winning historic hotel above the Venetian harbour

Century-old Dafnes family estate of Vidiano and Liatiko

Wood-fire farm taverna cooking only over fire from its own land

Serious specialty coffee on the Koum Kapi waterfront since 2012

Fireplace-warm Cretan taverna for a local clientele

All-day cafe and wine bar on the edge of Splantzia square

Tiny market-driven kitchen, the chef's daily haul is the menu

The world's foremost collection of Minoan art

Seafront museum on the Venetian walls, home to two El Greco paintings

Craft cocktails in a 16th-century stone building

The locals' seafood ouzeri by the Venetian port

Mezze and raki on the painted-alley square of Lakkos

Forgotten Cretan recipes reworked for the modern table

Brothers who brought third-wave coffee to Chania, now roasting in-house

Renovated city hotel above the Venetian port and Koules

Cretan cooking under a canopy of lemon trees

Estate that rescued Crete's near-extinct grapes, near Alagni

Art-deco brasserie and ceramic studio with its own winery on the Koum Kapi seafront

All-day room for specialty coffee, light Mediterranean plates and wine

Rhône varieties on Cretan soil, with a serious tasting room

Crete's seafaring history inside the Venetian Firkas Fortress

The locals' all-day coffee house anchoring the Koum Kapi promenade

Greek-wine bar with a romantic terrace near Eleftherias Square

Coffee cut into the cliffs of the tanneries

Art-and-music bar-restaurant in a 1950s ice factory

A 15th-century Venetian palace below the Fortezza

Antikristo over open fire in a 200-year-old stone building near Vamos

Cretan cooking on hot bricks in a 1900 old-town house

Chef Saridakis's modern Cretan ode to fish

Heraklion's farm-to-table temple of authentic Cretan cuisine

Century-old Smyrna-rooted bougatsa house on Lions Square

Parisian patisserie in a 1930s Chania foundry

Two historic estates in the Venetian quarter

Sommelier-owned Cretan room with a world-class wine cellar

Organic family estate of indigenous reds at Siva

Fire, Cretan produce and a zero-waste kitchen on Splantzia square

Stone-oven Cretan institution in the centre of Vamos

Hilltop boutique organic cellar above Kounavoi

Industrial-chic cocktail bar anchoring Korai Square

Cliffside Cretan plates beneath the Fortezza

Prohibition-style speakeasy in the gallery behind Lions Square

All-day bagel and coffee counter from the team behind Five

Four ex-tannery shells turned a Design Hotels stay

Chef Maniadakis's gastrobistro by the Venetian fortifications

Crete's pioneering third-wave espresso and wine bar with a roof terrace

Cretan cooking inside Venetian-Ottoman ruins, open to the sky

The Splantzia seafood mezedopoleio locals queue for

Cretan cooking around a 16th-century well

Suites in a Venetian-Ottoman old-town mansion

Creative Cretan inside a 15th-century monastery

Inventive cocktails in the courtyard of a restored 1900s house on Korai