Mount Ida
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4.5
86 reviews
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Koutsioumpas
Rethymnon, Greece23 contributions
May 2019
The highest mountain of Crete offers a great view from the summit at 2456m. I started from migeros plataeu and follow a well made stone path after 4 hours I reached the top! Great destination for hiking lovers. Mind that until late of May the mountais has snow so be carefull. The ascent is difficult in July and August because of high temperetures.
Written 23 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lumihiutale
Turku, Finland222 contributions
May 2015 • Solo
I drove from Anogia to Nida Plateau and the road is paved, in good condition but windy and slow to drive. In Nida Plateau there is lots of free parking space and a taverna to enjoy refresments and food. On my hike first I visited Ideon Andron, Cave of Zeus, but it was still under lots of snow. The main hiking path to the top of Psiloritis was mostly under snow but in a way it was easier to hike there now than walking on the uneven rocky path. The path marks (sprayed red paint on the rocks) were not visible as they were mostly under the snow but when you follow the valley you can´t go wrong. The most important route points where you need to turn were already clear from snow.
The peak has a stone church and beautiful views to both coasts. It took me slightly less than three hours to get up and coming down it was very nice and easy to walk on top of snow, descent took me less than two hours. This hike can take twice this time depending on how fit you are.
You need hiking boots, enough water and take a windproof jacket with you. I didn´t have poles with me but at summer time they would be a good addition. You don´t need any climbing gear or prior mountaineering experience when walking on this specific route.
Highly recommended!
The peak has a stone church and beautiful views to both coasts. It took me slightly less than three hours to get up and coming down it was very nice and easy to walk on top of snow, descent took me less than two hours. This hike can take twice this time depending on how fit you are.
You need hiking boots, enough water and take a windproof jacket with you. I didn´t have poles with me but at summer time they would be a good addition. You don´t need any climbing gear or prior mountaineering experience when walking on this specific route.
Highly recommended!
Written 12 May 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Toni
Lund, Sweden106 contributions
Sept 2017 • Couples
To get there from Chania, we drove ~2h to Mygero Refuge. The road was good, with only some small rocks fallen on the road after Livadia. We left the car in the free parking at Mygero Refuge, and started climbing. The mountain trail is easily visible in general but you could use an app like ViewRanger as guide. The climb is not difficult, the distance is ~4 km and elevation ~ 900 m. We are not frequent hikers, and took us 2h:37 up and 1h:42 down. View from the top is spectacular, you can see both the Sea of Crete and the Lybian Sea. Beware, since the mountain is bare, with only small vegetation, you are in direct blow of the wind, which can get very strong up there.
Written 23 September 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
kahiti
Oakland, CA4 contributions
Sept 2019 • Couples
This hike is well worth it for the stunning views and a unique environment you won’t see by staying in the low lands. From what I’ve gathered it seems like one of the more accessible peaks in Crete.
PRACTICAL TIPS
TRAILHEAD: Park at the Mygero Refuge. The road to the refuge is paved and can be navigated to using Google maps. It becomes windy and narrow at the end, going through a few villages, with 2 way traffic and no lane marking. There were also large herds of goats on the road when we went (they move). There is a toilet at the refuge, but it looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in weeks, so be warned.
THE HIKE: From the Mygero plateau, the trail climbs 856 m (2570 ft) in about 5.5 km (3.5 mi). The trailhead is marked by tall poles starting on the paved road, and the trail itself is very obvious, being paved with large flat stones for the first 3 km (2 mi) or so. The hike is uphill the entire way. The trail starts gradually up the slope, reaching a foothill where it climbs the ridge in a series of short switchbacks. It then reaches the first and largest of three saddles, where the trail climbs then traverses the side of a peak on the Mygero side. The third peak is the tallest and a small church / shelter and bell can be found there. On a clear day, there is a panoramic view of both the south and north coasts. The ascent took us 2.5 hours with rests, and 2 hours going down (it’s brutal on the knees). A fast hiker could probably complete the whole in 3 hours.
WEATHER: Just google “psiloritis weather”. Weather can change rapidly on a mountain, so it’s always good to bring layers. Sun protection is vital (hat + sunscreen) because there is no shade on this trail. Good shoes are a must as well (plenty of stones to twist your ankle on). We hiked here in mid-September and were lucky to have a clear day with temperatures around 10*C (50*F) with a nice cool breeze, which was perfect to counteract the heat of exertion + the sun.
PRACTICAL TIPS
TRAILHEAD: Park at the Mygero Refuge. The road to the refuge is paved and can be navigated to using Google maps. It becomes windy and narrow at the end, going through a few villages, with 2 way traffic and no lane marking. There were also large herds of goats on the road when we went (they move). There is a toilet at the refuge, but it looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in weeks, so be warned.
THE HIKE: From the Mygero plateau, the trail climbs 856 m (2570 ft) in about 5.5 km (3.5 mi). The trailhead is marked by tall poles starting on the paved road, and the trail itself is very obvious, being paved with large flat stones for the first 3 km (2 mi) or so. The hike is uphill the entire way. The trail starts gradually up the slope, reaching a foothill where it climbs the ridge in a series of short switchbacks. It then reaches the first and largest of three saddles, where the trail climbs then traverses the side of a peak on the Mygero side. The third peak is the tallest and a small church / shelter and bell can be found there. On a clear day, there is a panoramic view of both the south and north coasts. The ascent took us 2.5 hours with rests, and 2 hours going down (it’s brutal on the knees). A fast hiker could probably complete the whole in 3 hours.
WEATHER: Just google “psiloritis weather”. Weather can change rapidly on a mountain, so it’s always good to bring layers. Sun protection is vital (hat + sunscreen) because there is no shade on this trail. Good shoes are a must as well (plenty of stones to twist your ankle on). We hiked here in mid-September and were lucky to have a clear day with temperatures around 10*C (50*F) with a nice cool breeze, which was perfect to counteract the heat of exertion + the sun.
Written 21 September 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Konrad Lewinski
Edinburgh, UK32 contributions
July 2018 • Family
We decided to hike this mountain because it's the highest point on Crete. The info about this hike on the internet may be confusing with some people saying it's terribly marked and easy to get Lost and others totaly opposite saying it's easy and well marked. Well we decided to find out for ourselves. We set off from our hotel before the sunrise to avoid climbing during the hottest part of the day.Our sat nav struggled to find coordinates so we just used google maps which led us perfectly to our destination point at unfinished tourist centre ( before it was a restaurant). From there everything is pretty straight forward. Route is extremely well
Marked by a pairs of red dots painted on rocks every 50-100 yards. You can't really go wrong. The path is uneven with a lots of loose stones but going up is fairly easy and there is no very steep sections. It took us ( me and my sone of 15) 3.5h to reach the top. We met only a handful of people along this path and the views were outstanding. At the very top are the ruins of small church so you can't miss it with anything else. After completing the top In such a good time we thought going down will be easy and fast. Well it wasn't. With the temperature rising and loose stones everywhere it took us 3 hrs to get down and it was hard work for our knees and feet. But overall we really enjoyed it and the views are worth an effort for sure.
Marked by a pairs of red dots painted on rocks every 50-100 yards. You can't really go wrong. The path is uneven with a lots of loose stones but going up is fairly easy and there is no very steep sections. It took us ( me and my sone of 15) 3.5h to reach the top. We met only a handful of people along this path and the views were outstanding. At the very top are the ruins of small church so you can't miss it with anything else. After completing the top In such a good time we thought going down will be easy and fast. Well it wasn't. With the temperature rising and loose stones everywhere it took us 3 hrs to get down and it was hard work for our knees and feet. But overall we really enjoyed it and the views are worth an effort for sure.
Written 29 July 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Afdrmom
Alamogordo26 contributions
Nov 2018 • Family
There are a lot of instructions on the Internet about how to get to this trailhead and lots of vagueness about the hike. It seems to me a lot depends on where you start.
We left from near Hersonissos, so some of these directions are specific to that side of the mountain.
First- plan your trip. Eat a good breakfast, pack some snacks and 1-2 bottles of water depending on how hot it is. If you don’t shop near your hotel, the last town with a food shop is Amogea.
Also wear layers and a windbreaker. We went in late November and the temps were about 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was 20-30 mph steady and about 50 mph st the summit. Summer is very hot!
Clothing- wear long pants. Every plant has spikes and thorns. EVERY PLANT! Some parts of the path are only only as wide as one leg and you WILL get scratched. Don’t ask me how I know!
Shoes- sneakers or regular athletic shoes will work, but hiking boots or trail running shoes would be better. The entire route is solid rocks and loose rocks. Shoes with good grip are essential.
If you don’t have cell service, be sure to download Google Map of Crete before you leave your hotel. This will prove invaluable.
The find the trail head, plug
“Ideon Andron” into your map app or gps (Google Maps worked perfectly).
Follow the route up winding roads towards a mountain.
About 2km before Ideon Andron, start paying attention and looking at signs.
At the Orange and white sign that says Ideon Andron 1.5km, follow that hairpin turn to the right. The left is Nida Plateu and there’s nothing really down there.
Pass an abandoned visitor center on right.
At the outside corner of a hairpin turn to right, there’s a brown sign says Akolita 2.6 km and Timios Stavros 7.5 km pointing left into nowhere. There’s near it to the left a white sign with NIDA in red letters and E4 in a tiny yellow diamond in the lower right corner. That’s the trail head. Look for the red arrows and red dots on rocks pointing the way to the trail off to the left. If it’s off season you could park here. If it’s busy, follow the road to the right and head on up to the Ideon Andros cave. Follow the road to the right around the right hairpin and you’ll come to a building and parking area. This is where you can park to walk back down to the trail head.
If you want to take a quick detour and see the cave, jump the fence and follow to red dots to the cave.
Note that there are red dots and arrows all along the roads up to the cave. Pay no attention to these if you are interested in the trail head. They are of no use.
To hike the mountain, once you’ve started along the “trail”, the route is well marked with red dots every 10-30 steps. I put “trail” in quotes because in some areas there is no trail in the usual sense of the word. It’s just a route marked by red dots. The more indistinct the route, the closer the dots. Where it looks more like a trail, the dots are further apart. Follow the dots until you get to the summit.
I can’t tell you about the summit because we didn’t make it, due to time constraints. We made it to where there is a pole with a red flag and a sort of stone igloo. After that, the path turns left and heads downhill for quite a ways. I assume it eventually headed back up a peak to the right, but I’m not really sure.
If you want to take a little excursion off trail, you can look up the hill from the stone igloo and see a concrete cylindrical post about a ten minute walk away. On it is a medallion in Greek and “1968”. I have no idea what it says. We were careless in finding our way back and got lost for about ten minutes. It was a bit scary. Which highlights another point- NEVER HIKE ALONE! There was no one else up there and it would be weeks or months before anyone had found our bodies.
Hopefully this info is useful to you. Be careful and have fun!
We left from near Hersonissos, so some of these directions are specific to that side of the mountain.
First- plan your trip. Eat a good breakfast, pack some snacks and 1-2 bottles of water depending on how hot it is. If you don’t shop near your hotel, the last town with a food shop is Amogea.
Also wear layers and a windbreaker. We went in late November and the temps were about 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was 20-30 mph steady and about 50 mph st the summit. Summer is very hot!
Clothing- wear long pants. Every plant has spikes and thorns. EVERY PLANT! Some parts of the path are only only as wide as one leg and you WILL get scratched. Don’t ask me how I know!
Shoes- sneakers or regular athletic shoes will work, but hiking boots or trail running shoes would be better. The entire route is solid rocks and loose rocks. Shoes with good grip are essential.
If you don’t have cell service, be sure to download Google Map of Crete before you leave your hotel. This will prove invaluable.
The find the trail head, plug
“Ideon Andron” into your map app or gps (Google Maps worked perfectly).
Follow the route up winding roads towards a mountain.
About 2km before Ideon Andron, start paying attention and looking at signs.
At the Orange and white sign that says Ideon Andron 1.5km, follow that hairpin turn to the right. The left is Nida Plateu and there’s nothing really down there.
Pass an abandoned visitor center on right.
At the outside corner of a hairpin turn to right, there’s a brown sign says Akolita 2.6 km and Timios Stavros 7.5 km pointing left into nowhere. There’s near it to the left a white sign with NIDA in red letters and E4 in a tiny yellow diamond in the lower right corner. That’s the trail head. Look for the red arrows and red dots on rocks pointing the way to the trail off to the left. If it’s off season you could park here. If it’s busy, follow the road to the right and head on up to the Ideon Andros cave. Follow the road to the right around the right hairpin and you’ll come to a building and parking area. This is where you can park to walk back down to the trail head.
If you want to take a quick detour and see the cave, jump the fence and follow to red dots to the cave.
Note that there are red dots and arrows all along the roads up to the cave. Pay no attention to these if you are interested in the trail head. They are of no use.
To hike the mountain, once you’ve started along the “trail”, the route is well marked with red dots every 10-30 steps. I put “trail” in quotes because in some areas there is no trail in the usual sense of the word. It’s just a route marked by red dots. The more indistinct the route, the closer the dots. Where it looks more like a trail, the dots are further apart. Follow the dots until you get to the summit.
I can’t tell you about the summit because we didn’t make it, due to time constraints. We made it to where there is a pole with a red flag and a sort of stone igloo. After that, the path turns left and heads downhill for quite a ways. I assume it eventually headed back up a peak to the right, but I’m not really sure.
If you want to take a little excursion off trail, you can look up the hill from the stone igloo and see a concrete cylindrical post about a ten minute walk away. On it is a medallion in Greek and “1968”. I have no idea what it says. We were careless in finding our way back and got lost for about ten minutes. It was a bit scary. Which highlights another point- NEVER HIKE ALONE! There was no one else up there and it would be weeks or months before anyone had found our bodies.
Hopefully this info is useful to you. Be careful and have fun!
Written 28 November 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Gunnar S
Reykjavik, Iceland1 contribution
June 2015 • Couples
The friendly Greentour guide Haris met us at the bus station in Rethymon on june 24 2015 and we drove through a nice country side and small villages to a parking at the norh side of Psiloritis at about 1700 m. The walking from there and up to the peak was in a wonderful natural evironment, very peacfull but with the relaxing sound of the goatbells in the distance. Wonderful flower flora and many small and large birds around. The walk up took about 3,5 h to the interesting stone church were the guide provided a healty Crete picknic of fruits and vegtables. Very nice viewe to the two coasts and to the White Mountains to the west. The trip down took about 3 hours. Not a difficuld hike if you have good shoes. We can highly reccoment Greentour and theyr staff.
Written 6 July 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
GrkChk
Delray Beach, FL33 contributions
July 2013 • Friends
This was the highlight of my visit to Crete. A very challenging hike, not for beginners. Booked a group hike with Greentour, and our guide, James, was very accommodation, sensitive to the pace of the group. There was even a rewarding picnic when we got back to base. Yes, the hike was great, but booking with Greentour was even better. Very recommended.
Written 22 April 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
rika p
Ipswich, UK26 contributions
Oct 2013 • Couples
the paths are neglected and difficult to follow. it took us 8hrs to get up and back from the abandoned visitors centre and my husband is a mountain leader - thankfully
Written 8 November 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
mjc_travels
Lexington, MA413 contributions
Sept 2019
We enjoy hiking so decided to do Mount Ida while we were in Crete. This was the exact opposite experience of hiking Samaria Gorge - steep climbs up, no water, and almost no people! But it is beautiful at the top. We started at the Mygero Refuge trailhead and started up around 8:30am. The trail is pretty well marked and quite a steep climb. I hike quite a bit but I have to say that the trail gave me a challenge. We reached the top around noon and spent about 30 minutes admiring the views, which were gorgeous the day that we were there. It was also a reasonable temperature unlike some of the other reviews. We then headed down the same path. The trail is steep and there is loose gravel so certain parts were definitely slow going. It took us about 2-2:30 hours to get down. I took 2.5 liters of water, as suggested, and found it to be way more than I needed. I probably had 1.5 liters when I reached the bottom. It wasn't a hot day so maybe that was why but I did think that I might have been better off to carry less water. We hired a "guide", which in our case was a taxi driver that had hiked the trail numerous times. We enjoyed hearing about his day to day life over the course of the day.
Written 14 October 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We are a group of hiker planning to visit in October.
We are hiring the use of a bus for our stay and wonder if it would be possible for a bus to travel to Mmygero refuge in Crete.
We are really keen to climb mt ide it being the highest point on the Island
Written 18 January 2023
It seems the road up to the Nida plateau and Ideon Antron is now paved. Is the path up Psiloritis from there as easy and well-marked as it is from the Mygero refuge?
Written 26 June 2019
anyway of being able to take part in this tour when staying in hersonissos. between September 27th and October 8th.
Written 1 September 2016
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