Free mini bus service in Chania Town Centre from 20th June

A new free minibus service, operating within the city of Hania and the old town, is to start this Saturday, 20th June.

Chania City council, in conjunction with KTEL, will introduce the pilot programme to run for three months in the hope that it will ease some of the City Centre summer traffic congestion problems.

The service will operate every 20 minutes daily between 9 a.m and 11 p.m.

The minibus will travel a circular route starting on Tzanakaki Street at the Kypos, then past the Agora market place, down to the harbour, to Koun Kapi, up to the Stadium, along Venizelos Street to the Courthouse, to the Irini and Filias Park and back to Tzanakaki St.

The bus stops:

-Tzanakaki Street, outside the Kypos (Public Gardens)
-Agora (the market)
-Karaolis & Dimitrios St, near Fountain Square in the Old Harbour
-Neoria Gate, Kallergis St
-Korai St. outside the National Stadium
-Venizelou St (Peinaleon restaurant)
-K. Mitsotakis St. (by the Courthouse, outside the Evangelical church)
-I. Sfakianaki Street (Park of Peace and Friendship – Irinis kai Filias Park)


The Mayor of Chania says the scheme is to serve the town’s citizens and visitors, with the aim of them leaving their cars a little outside the city when visiting the centre and the harbour.

Now, call me cynical if you will, but my first thought is that this ‘Park and Ride’ scheme is seriously lacking something – namely the ‘park’ element.

If you want to park on the outskirts of the city, where are the car parks? Apart from a new multi storey being built at the Courthouse (the busy Courthouse area currently has a huge parking problem), the only car parks near the minibus route are by the stadium, at Neoria and near Koun Kapi – in the city centre!

On second thoughts, maybe it will work. Perhaps the Chania citizens will use these town car parks more frequently; now that they can hop on a mini bus they should no longer need to drive from shop to shop, parking outside each.

I see little attraction in this service for the average tourist. Without a designated car park on the outskirts of the town, drivers will still need to negotiate town traffic and park in, or very near, the centre. Once in the centre tourists are unlikely to hop on a minibus to be taken 500 meters down the road – the joy is to walk and discover the town.

A little more planning please Chania.

European Music Festival in Chania

Chania is to host the European Festival of Music for a second time, with three days of musical events throughout the city in June, with free admission for all.


The musical events will take place on 19, 20 & 21 June and feature over 120 musicians covering all genres of music. Recognized and promising artists, from Chania and the rest of Greece, will perform over the three days at the city's musical celebrations.

The Festival will open on Friday June 19th with a big 'happening' on the Sarpedon road, and concerts will follow over the next 2 days at two key venues: the Park of Peace and Friendship and Giali Tzamisi.

There will also be musical events at the Agora (the Market Square), the Kypos (city park), Municipal Library, Theatre "D. Vlisidis", and the French School.

More details will be published over the next few days, during the run up to the Festival, in the Haniotika Nea

AMKA - the new Greek National Insurance Card

AMKA stands for Αριθμος Μητρώου Κοινωνικής Ασφάλισης - Social Security
Number - and is essentially the new Greek unified national insurance number for those living and working in Greece - employees, employers, pensioners plus dependent members of their families.


It is compulsory to obtain an AMKA number for each individual connected to the Greek social security system, (IKA, TEBE / OAEE, OGA etc, plus a separate number for any dependants including children, by October 1st 2009.

Note that the original date of July 1st has been moved back to October due to the high demand on the system.
Read more on the Living in Crete National Insurance page.