Sultana festival, Sitia, Crete

The annual Sultana Festival will again be held in Sitia at the beginning of August.

Sultanas are the prime export of the small fishing town and its environs, to the east of the island. Celebrating the crop's harvest, the town's main square hosts traditional Cretan dancing, as well as buffets of local delicacies, along with the local wines.

The olive oil, bread, goats' cheese and pork, as well as the traditional crops of grapes and sultanas, which makes up traditional Cretan cuisine is known for being not only tasty, but extremely healthy. Islanders are famously long lived - in fact, the World Health Organisation, after studying global mortality rates, has declared Cretan food the best in the world.

Although accommodation abounds, the primary industry of eastern Crete is agriculture rather than tourism, a fact reflected in the slower pace of life in this attractive coastal town.

As a day-trip, this relaxed atmosphere provides some welcome relief for those based in the island's traditional tourist centres. The town is also a popular stop-off point for people on their way to the Aegean islands and Rhodes.

Inhabited since Minoan times, Sitia contains so many Classical and Hellenistic ruins that it has its own small museum of archaeology, open to the public daily.

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