CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 447 km round trip from Chaniá - roughly 7 h 55 in the saddle. It goes by way of Minoan Palatial Centres, Knossos, Malia and back through Knossos. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Kydonia is the old name of Chania, and the city carries its past visibly. The Minoans had a settlement here on the Kastelli hill, above what became the Venetian harbour, and ancient writers mention Kydonia as one of the leading cities of Crete. The Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians and Ottomans each left something on the same rocky ground, and today you find all of them stacked in the old town: Venetian palazzi, Ottoman mosques, a lighthouse at the end of the mole, and a harbour front lined with tavernas.
Read the complete Kydonia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kydonia is where the day begins. Next is Minoan Palatial Centres.
High on the northern flank of Psiloritis, the mountain the ancients called Ida, the road from Anogeia climbs onto a stony plateau, and at around 1,200 metres you come upon a Minoan building standing alone among the scrub and grazing goats. This is Zominthos, a large Bronze Age complex that excavations have shown to be more than a mountain shelter: it had dozens of rooms, workshops and storage spaces, and it sat on the ancient route toward the sacred Idaean Cave, where myth says Zeus was raised. In 2025 it was included with Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and others among the Minoan Palatial Centres listed by UNESCO, which gives you an idea of its importance.
Read the complete Minoan Palatial Centres write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Minoan Palatial Centres comes up about 129 km into the recorded legs. Next is Knossos.
Five kilometres south of Heraklion, on a low hill above the Kairatos stream, lie the ruins that gave Europe its oldest legend of a labyrinth. Knossos was the greatest centre of Minoan Crete, a sprawling palace complex of courtyards, storerooms, staircases and shrines that flourished in the second millennium BC. Its confusing plan, with hundreds of interlocking rooms on several levels, may well have inspired the Greek myth of King Minos, the craftsman Daedalus and the Minotaur imprisoned in the maze, waiting for Theseus.
Read the complete Knossos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 181 km into the recorded legs you reach Knossos. Next is Malia.
Mália is two things in Crete at once: a beach resort known for loud nights, and the site of a Minoan palace that is nearly four thousand years old. The first palace was built around 1900 BC, destroyed by an earthquake or invaders, rebuilt about 1650 BC and then destroyed again around 1450 BC, the same wave of disasters that ended Minoan power across the island. It was excavated by French archaeologists from the 1920s, after a local scholar, Joseph Hatzidakis, had begun work in 1915. It is the third in size of Crete's great palaces, after Knossos and Phaistos.
Read the complete Malia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Malia, about halfway. Next is back through Knossos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Knossos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Knossos sits at 251 km, about halfway. Next is back through Minoan Palatial Centres.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Minoan Palatial Centres write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Minoan Palatial Centres comes up about 311 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kydonia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kydonia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kydonia closes the day.
Kydonia → Minoan Palatial Centres is 129 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Minoan Palatial Centres → Knossos is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Knossos → Malia is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mália → back through Knossos is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Knossos → back through Minoan Palatial Centres is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Minoan Palatial Centres → Kydonia is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.