Off-Season Greece: To Avoid the Crowds on Crete, Hike and Ski in Early Spring

This is part of Off-Season Greece, a collection of guides highlighting the year-round appeal of Greece's most popular destinations, courtesy of our favorite local tastemakers. In this edition, we speak to hotel owner Nikos Tsepetis.For 30 years, Nikos Tsepetis has run Ammos, one of the most talked-about hotels in Greece. The seaside boutique hotel in Chania, northwest Crete, is a manifestation of the man himself: joyful and design-focused with a commitment to high-quality cuisine (including his Red Jane Bakery) and local roots. Tsepetis’s improvisational approach to hospitality creates a home-away-from-home warmth that keeps many of his guests returning, year after year.Nikos Tsepetis is the founder of Chania's Ammos Hotel and on-site Red Jane Bakery. Eftihia StefanidiBorn and raised in Chania, Tsepetis is deeply connected to his hometown, which he believes is different from other towns in Crete, because “we are more international and welcoming to foreigners, and it's a multi-layered city." Yet, 80 percent of his staff are locals, he says. “It adds to the experience, because you always meet people who were born here, who remember the past, so there is this continuity." Here, Tsepetis tells us why spring is his favorite time of year in Chania.A balcony at Ammos Hotel Traianos PakioufakisA view of the sea from Ammos Hotel's grounds James BedfordWhat would you say is the sweet spot time of the year to visit?Just before high season. April and early May are my favorite time of year because the climate is amazing. Chania is on the western end of Crete and is the prettiest part of the island because it's greener, and we still normally have snow on the Lefka Ori [White Mountains]—you can see them from the sea while swimming. In spring, everything is very fresh, everything is well painted; you can go to the villages and monasteries, and all the flowers are out. Also, spring often coincides with Easter, which is important in the Greek Orthodox religion. I don't care at all about religion, but it's still very spiritual and beautiful.Sheep clamber over rocks in Crete's springtime sun. Nikos TsepetisWhat do you love most about being there during this season?It's less busy. The rain cleans everything and the snow melts, so we are greener than other parts of the island. Everything's fresh and new; you can feel the rejuvenation, so spring is a very sweet time.Chatzimichali Ntaliani Street in Chania's Old Town Getty ImagesWho’s around this time of year?Traditionally, Chania benefited from the presence of foreigners, even before it became touristy. It’s very urban, with more than 100,000 permanent residents, so you have everyone from hipsters and freaks to lefties living here—not the expected Greek island crowd. It's always very lively, and what sets it apart from some other towns in Crete is that the locals are a driving force with a very loud voice. They are not here to serve the foreigners.Runny egg and fries (or chips) from Armenoi Cafenei Nikos TsepetisWhere would we find you eating during this time?My all-time favorite local is Evgonia Tavern. Only a very simple tavern, it has fish and meat in a non-fish environment. I love Periplous Restaurant for its unbeatable location at the beautiful Tanneries Hotel. It’s one of the old buildings by the water where they used to process leather.In spring we go to the villages, because it's still very mild and there aren’t too many people. I always go to Ntounias, a very old, well-known rural taverna in the middle of nowhere near Drakona in the mountains. There's a crazy guy there, Stelios Trilyrakis, who has been involved with slow food for 30 years. You don't know what you’ll eat or when you’ll eat it. It's very inexpensive, and he cultivates everything himself. In Greece, we love French fries. And Stelios makes amazing chips by cooking them in olive oil in a ceramic pot.What’s the seasonal dish to order at this time of year?We're famous for doing a traditional Tsoureki Easter brioche, a kind of braided bread that's sweet but not too sweet. Once a year we also eat a special soup called magiritsa made from lamb intestines, lungs, and liver. We normally eat it at home—it’s not so much a restaurant dish—but we do a very good one at Ammos. Also, Nyketerida is famous for it.Spring is about beans and greens—we have beautiful asparagus and the best artichokes—and goat roasted in the oven with potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes. We also have a very famous dish called dakos, a barley rusk with tomato sauce and this amazing goat’s cheese called mizithra. One of the best places to eat it is Costas Cafeneion, a family-run cafe in village Maza, which is between Chania and Rethymnon.Are there any areas of the island that really come alive during the off-season?In January and February, people from around the world come here for the mountains and skiing, including the annual Pierra Creta ski mountaineering race.Crete's peaks are among Europe's most surprising ski destinations. How does the weather change the destination during this time of year, and what are the (dis)advantages of that?Summer is very hot and can be dry, and then we have the winter, which is rainy. But in spring, the weather is cooler and you can hike, ski, and swim. The sea is actually colder in spring than in winter because of the snowmelt.A tray of pastries at Red Jane Bakery Heidi LerkenfeldtThe array of fresh-baked loaves at Red Jane Heidi LerkenfeldtWhat does a perfect Saturday in the off-season look like to you?I’m biased, but Saturday is a great day to hang out at my Red Jane Bakery early in the day. I think it's very pretty. At around 2:00 p.m., I’ll visit my small wine shop next to Red Jane, and I always have one cigarette per day with one glass of wine. On Saturdays, it gets busy and the crowd is very interesting. They’ll have wine with a sandwich in our beautiful, small yard.I also love hanging out at a small, humble taverna called Kafeneio Fix in the old Turkish neighborhood, or I’ll go to Tamam, an amazing taverna inside a beautiful Turkish hammam dating back to 1645. Spring is also the beginning of the open cinema season. My favorite open-air theater is Attikon. Another one, Kipos, shows mostly old Hitchcock-style films in a public garden created during the Ottoman era. If I want to have a final drink before going home, I’ll go to Fagotto, a jazz bar that has been there for 40 years.Daytime view of Chóra Sfakion, bordering the Libyan Sea Getty ImagesDo you have any favorite activities during this time of year?I love hiking all the way down to Chora Sfakion, a small coastal town in the south. From there, you can either take a boat or walk for an hour along a very steep and narrow path—not for the faint-hearted—to Sweetwater Beach, a tiny cove made up of very tiny pebbles. If you dig your hand in it, sweet water from the mountains comes out.This article was originally published in Condé Nast Traveller UK.