[June 2025] Astra Tours offers group tours from Agios Nikolaos, a town in eastern Crete, Greece.
We often choose these tours because we don’t rent a car when we travel.
On this day, we took a tour to visit Vai Palm Beach and Toplou Monastery.
A little after 9:00 a.m., a seven-seater jeep picked us up in front of the Cathedral of Agios Nikolaos.
Our driver and guide was a 26-year-old man named George, a local native.
His father is Albanian, though.
An elderly couple from Basingstoke, England, were already on board.
Ian, a cheerful country man, was constantly cracking jokes and we were never getting bored.
It made me nostalgic, reminding me of British people like him.
After leaving the town of Agios Nikolaos, the jeep pulled up on the cliffs of Voulisma Beach, said to be the second most beautiful beach on Crete.
It was certainly beautiful, with picturesque rock formations.
We were near a beach hut called “Macrame,” which George said is “as expensive as Mykonos or Santorini.”
A little further down the road, at a resort hotel, we picked up a mother and child from Germany.
The mother is Finnish and has lived in Germany for many years.
They were travelling, leaving the father at home, taking care of their dog.
Further east from here, we stopped again at a lookout point.
We could see an eagle flying over the wild ocean views.
Continuing our drive, we came across a “ghost town.”
According to George, they started building a resort, but ran into financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic and had to abandon the project.
Eastern Crete, he said, has not seen much development due to its inconvenient transportation.
Crete’s tourism industry operates from Easter in the spring until the end of October.
From November onwards, people are either unemployed or have to help with the olive harvest on olive farms.
The government provides a monthly subsidy of €500.
It’s common for people to take this money and work on olive farms to earn cash.
However, olive harvesting is hard work, and “it can give you a hernia,” George said.
By the way, Greek men are required to serve in the military, and according to George, they receive only €7 per month during that time.
You can choose to serve in the military in Cyprus, which will pay you €700.
However, George told us that only one-way travel expenses to Cyprus would be covered.
It’s fun to hear trivia like this when you join a tour.
