Brooks Plummer takes us on a photographic tour across the Greek island of Crete. His dreamy, sun-drenched images are paired with musings from SteMajourneys, who featured in our 2021 Greece magazine. As Emma Latham Phillips wrote for the issue: ‘based between Athens and Crete, Stefanos Gogos and Maria Passarivaki (together, SteMa) combine their experience in journalism and passion for anthropology to craft unique itineraries for travellers who want to dive into the heart of a destination.’

“Crete is my ancestral land. My roots lie in the south of Chania. There’s an old proverb saying you should cherish the land that brought you up. Crete is my homeland, but it revealed itself to me only after I wanted to leave it. Diving into it again as a tourist, I learnt to respect my heritage and childhood. I re-travelled the route to my grandmother’s village, where she had goats, a blue and whitewashed house, and piles of foraged herbs.”

“Crete is the mother of all Greek islands, offering a self-sufficient living and economic independence to its inhabitants - and at the same time feeding the rest of Greece. Cretans live by age-old traditions that have survived and shaped the identities of generations.

It is found at the southernmost tip of Europe, facing across to Africa, and is a land of contrasts, from nature-filled landscapes to desolate ones. This is a magical place, where you will find snowy mountains and dive in unspoiled tropical waters, all within a few hours drive.”

“Surrounded by olive and fig trees, Crete feels miles away from everything else. If you are wanting a slower travel experience, you can certainly adopt a less-stressed pace of life here and be more attuned to nature’s rhythms.

This lifestyle can be found in the tucked-away villages of the wild south, where locals cure and produce their own olive oil, and make their own honey and wine. In autumn, they distil raki in the old-fashioned way. In spring, the island sheds the sparkles for a more subdued richness - perennial wildflowers and blossoming citrus trees.”

“Unplanned road trips are the best kind of journeys in Crete. For instance, the Chania to Sitia Highway (a journey of about five hours) is one of the most scenic routes to travel, with continuous landscape changes. Throughout this trip you can stop for a dip at 30 to 40 different beaches and visit charming chapels by the side of the road.

If you are looking for romance and solitude, the south coast of Crete remains untouched, offering some of the most impressive landscapes and solitary beaches on the island, with wild sub-tropical waters.”

“We want people to take fewer trips, but longer and more mindful ones - personalised travel experiences that champion a profound interaction with local communities. We need to offer something in return to the places we visit.”