Alianthos Stables invites you to enjoy peaceful horse riding amongst the small hills and olive groves as well as the beautiful beaches of Plakias, in the south coast of Crete.

The horseback riding tours vary in length and can take one to three hours, depending on the pace that we ride and the terrain. In the high season we ride early in the morning and in the early evening due to the excessive heat, that is hard on rider as well as horse. Beach rides will start as early as 8 o'clock in the morning. When you arrive at the stable your horses will be tacked up and ready to go.

Special Equipment: We do ride using english saddles, but there's 2 western saddles available for those who prefer this. Caps are required for your safety and will be provided by us.

Suggested Clothing: Anything comfortable that's not too tight, long trousers. On the longer rides one may have to lead the horse from time to time, so sensible shoes are required.

All the horseback riding tours are guided. Our personnel is highly experienced in guiding tours and will watch out for our guests safety and well-being, and will try to give them an unforgettable and amazing ride.

Another way to get the real Cretan feeling is a ride on a donkey. These tours are mostly for children and light adults.

The donkey rides maybe guided or non-guided.

In the guided tours, our guests ride the donkeys, and our personnel lead the riding group on foot, following a short route around the Damnoni area. The duration of the guided tours is about 15 minutes.

You can also go out into the mountains for an hour or longer. This is an unguided tour. In this case, the parents will lead the donkey while the children ride. In case grown ups do this unguided tour, it's desirable that they have a little riding experience.

We will give you a route description and detailed information about the visiting area as well as the appropriate equipment.

Alianthos Stables offers a riding program especially for children.

Children can participate in riding lessons or experience an amazing pony or donkey ride.

Alianthos Stables has many small horses and donkeys that are very gentle, sweet and safe. We use them not only to give riding lessons to the children, but also to experience amazing horse riding.

The children program runs every 2nd FRIDAY in the summer at 10.30 AM, and includes:

• Pony and donkey riding, in the round pen (arena) of the Alianthos Stables in Damnoni
• A visit to the mini-zoo
• Refreshment

RIDING TOURS

All the riding tours on the beaches of Plakias, the olive groves, or the surrounding mountains are amazing and very picturesque. The scenery with it's beautiful flora and fauna is very enjoyable to take at an easy pace, but also suitable for active riding.

Our guests can select one or more of the following riding tours:

• DAMNONI-AMOUDI BEACH RIDE: This ride takes our guests over an amazing path near the sea including the amazing sandy beaches of Damnoni and Amoudi.
• PLAKIAS BEACH RIDE: On this ride our guests enjoy the horse riding through the beautiful countryside of Plakias, with the olive and orange groves, over several hills and the sandy beach of Plakias.
• PANORAMA RIDE: This ride takes our guests into the mountains arround Plakias, following the meandering "Avlaka". Avlakas is a waterchannel which provides all the fields of the area with water starting from the springs of the "Kourtaliotis" River in the mountains.
• EAST MOUNTAIN RIDE: Thid ride also follows the "Avlaka", but this time in the other direction. We go over hills and through valleys rich with Crete's flora and fauna.