The Open-Air Cinemas of Crete: Where to Find Them

We have written before about the therino, the Greek summer cinema, and where the tradition came from. This is the practical companion: the ones you can actually go to, on this island, this summer.

There are fewer than there were. But the ones that survive are lovely, they cost about the same as a couple of drinks, and going to one is among the best evenings Crete offers a visitor. If you are here between late May and the end of September, go at least once.

Chania: the Kipos, in the Municipal Garden

This is the one to see. The Kipos sits inside the Municipal Garden in the middle of Chania — a walled Victorian-era garden of tall trees, a café and a clock tower — and watching a film there, under the canopy, with the town going on quietly around you, is the whole argument for summer cinema in a single evening.

It runs roughly from the end of May to around the 20th of September. Screenings start at 21:30 through late July, then move to 21:00 for the rest of the season as the nights draw in. The programming has a rhythm worth knowing: children's films early in the week, and more serious cinephile choices midweek.

One genuinely useful detail that catches people out: tickets are card or online only. No cash. You can buy at the box office by card or in advance through the municipal culture website. Turning up with a pocketful of euros and no card is a wasted trip.

Chania: the Attikon

Chania has a second summer screen, the open-air Attikon on Eleftheriou Venizelou, out towards the eastern side of town. It is less of an occasion than the Kipos — no botanical garden — but it is a proper working neighbourhood cinema, and if the Kipos is showing something you have already seen, this is your alternative. The same operator runs an indoor Attikon in winter.

Rethymno and the smaller towns

Rethymno has the Asteria open-air cinema, and the Municipal Garden there has hosted free summer screening series in some years, run with the university. Both are worth checking locally rather than online — programmes for these are often posted on a board outside rather than a website.

There is also a summer screen at Palaiochora on the south-west coast, which is exactly as romantic as watching a film a few streets from the Libyan Sea sounds.

Heraklion's summer cinema scene is harder to pin down from a distance, and listings change year to year. If you are based there, ask at your villa or hotel — someone local will know, and that is more reliable than anything you will find in English online.

What to expect when you get there

Films are shown in the original language with Greek subtitles. This is the single most important thing for a visiting family to understand and the thing people most often assume wrongly. An English-language film plays in English. A French one plays in French with Greek subtitles, which is less useful. The exception is children's films, which are frequently dubbed into Greek — so check before you take a six-year-old expecting to hear English.

An aside, because this is usually where visiting families come unstuck: if the programme or the language doesn't fit your crew, the private version does — your film, in your language, on your own terrace, from €450. Tell us your dates, then go to the Kipos anyway.

Nine-thirty is early, not late. Screenings start after full dark, which in high summer means half past nine. Eat first, at Greek time, and stroll over.

Nobody is silent. People arrive during the trailers, greet each other, get another drink. It is closer to a long evening out than to a reverent hush, and that is the point rather than a fault.

Take something warm for September. The evenings turn quickly once the season tips, and a garden under trees at eleven at night in late September is cooler than you expect.

And then the other kind of evening

We are, obviously, not neutral here. But we would still tell you to go.

The public therino and what we do are different things that happen to share a screen. The Kipos gives you a hundred strangers, a programme somebody else chose, and a genuine piece of Greek cultural life you cannot get anywhere else. It is wonderful and it costs almost nothing.

What we do is the private version: your terrace, your film, your people, nobody arriving late but you. We set up in the afternoon, screen after dark, stay through the evening and take the whole thing away before morning. It is the right answer on a different sort of night — an anniversary, a first night with the family all together, a proposal.

Do both, if you are here long enough. Go to the Kipos on a Tuesday, and let us build one in your garden on the Friday.

If you would like ideas for the rest of your evenings, we have written about Chania after dark. And when you want the private version, tell us your dates and we will tell you honestly whether we can do it well.

Season dates, times and programmes change every year. Everything above was accurate at the time of writing — check locally before you build an evening around it.