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 431 km round trip from Chaniá - roughly 7 h 36 in the saddle. It goes by way of Minoan Palatial Centres, Malia and back through Minoan Palatial Centres. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 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.
about 215 km into the recorded legs you reach Malia. 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, late in the day. 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.
Back at Kydonia. That is the ride.
Kydonia → Minoan Palatial Centres is 129 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Minoan Palatial Centres → Malia is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mália → back through Minoan Palatial Centres is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Minoan Palatial Centres → Kydonia is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.