Rides in Hersonissos

In Hersonissos, going for a ride means changing element, and there are exactly three — air, land and water. Air is the dawn balloon flight: up before light, launch from a plateau, an hour in the basket over the hills of eastern Crete while the first windows come on below, and breakfast with a certificate after landing. The wind decides the route itself, so no two flights are alike — which is rather the point.

Land is the quads. The safari leaves the coastal strip for the hills: dirt tracks between olive trees, abandoned villages where the last residents are cats, climbs to viewpoints with the gulf below. The controls are simple, the briefing short, the dust guaranteed — leave the white shirts at the hotel. Routes run a couple of hours, and that is enough for resort Hersonissos to be left in another life.

Water is the boat run along the east coast. The vessel heads for the Mirabello gulf and Spinalonga: the fortress island, Venetian walls, an hour ashore and a swim afterwards. Along the way come coves no road descends to. It is the calmest of the three formats: speed here is not the goal but the way to see a shoreline invisible from the highway.