Richtis Gorge, Sitia

An amazing trip, but if you want to have time to admire the beauty, I recommend reserving about 3 hours to get down and 3.5 hours to get back up. Sometimes it is slippery and it is almost impossible not to get wet at some point in the trip so i recommend some waterproof shoes or a towel to dry your feet after passing some places barefoot. It is a beautiful and not tiring track, anyone can do it (maybe u should not bring small children, but if you do and tou help them, they will do just fine)

Nice short easy hike to a beautiful waterfall. During a hot sunny day it's a pleasure to walk through the gorge as it's covered in trees. I went with 2 small kids who don't even like to walk and they loved it, climbing over boulders and walking through the water.

Fun and picturesque hike with a nice waterfall and picnic table at the end. Well-maintained, well-marked, and well-shaded! A bit of an adventure since you’ll be scrambling over rocks, climbing stairs, stepping through wet areas, and crossing small wooden bridges. There’s also a variety of flora and fauna to check out! 3 important notes: 1. You can start the hike at the “richtis gorge parking” right off the highway or drive a bit further down the smaller road to the “Lachana stone arc bridge”. If you start at the bridge you cut out ~25 minutes of additional walking each way. There’s less parking but I’d recommend checking it out if you’re short on time. 2. The hike takes way longer than the “1 hour 45 minute” round trip estimate on the front sign at the highway - that was very misleading. If you start from the parking area on the highway I would allocate at least 1.5 hours each way to the waterfall. If you start from the bridge I’d allocate at least 1 hour each way to the waterfall. We started at the highway and did it in less than hour each way but we were going as fast as we could short of running and without any breaks. 3. Don’t start too late! The trail is very shaded so it gets pretty dark starting an hour before sunset. The front sign says to not start after 5PM in the summer. Hikers told us not to be on the trail after 7:30PM. We started at 6:20PM, went super fast, and got back at 8:20PM, so it’s doable, but it was super dark at the end.

Nice valley if you're in the area. Total distance around 10km (to the beach and back). You can try and go down concrete road from the parking near asphalt road, it will take you to the entrance where you can park your car if you're lucky. Around halfway there is a small pond with waterfall where you can swim.

A great route to the waterfall, in some places not easy. However, we managed to cope with the five-year-old, although in some places you had to help the child. The culmination of the whole trip is a swimm under a beautiful waterfall, which is always filled with water. The route to the waterfall took us 2 hours. Back, with the baby on his back - 1.5 hours. The concrete road can be driven directly to the Lachan Bridge, the most ordinary rental car. Richtis Gorge, September 2022.