Chora Sfakion is a peaceful tiny village with a small beach and pretty little natural harbour with fishing boats, overlooked by tiered houses, and tavernas which front the sea.  It is the central town for the region known as Sfakia, which is renowned for its proud and fierce people, whose hospitality is as large as their reputation.  Sfakiots struggled to retain their freedom from the Venetian, Turkish and German occupations, throughout the centuries and with one look at this largely mountainous area on the south-west coast, you know it to be untameable.  Thousands of troops were evacuated from here to North Africa after the Battle for Crete in 1941.

Ferry boats arrive and leave the harbour each day to go to other villages and towns along to the west, and late each afternoon, in the summer months, they start arriving with the weary walkers from the Samaria Gorge. The walkers quickly go on their way, to once again let the village sink into its peaceful reverie.