Crete quad safari

Twelve quad safaris are bookable on this page and the fares run from $45 to $219. That spread is not one ride priced twelve ways. The starts are scattered across the whole island, the days run from three hours to six, and what happens between the tracks — a cave, an olive mill, a monastery, a meal, a sunset — changes listing by listing. Read where it starts and what it names before you read the fare.

Most of the evidence sits on two listings. The $48 backland safari carries 2,439 reviews at 4.9, and a three-hour run written around a tasting of local products carries 2,059, also at 4.9. Between them that is 4,498 of the 9,736 reviews on this page. A third, the half day out of Rethymno, holds 1,618 at 4.8. Below those three the counts drop fast: 796, then into the hundreds.

The starts are the part people get wrong. These twelve do not leave from one place. Agia Pelagia and Heraklion sit on the north coast; Panormos and Rethymno are further west; Kolymvari is out beyond Chania; Malia and Hersonissos are east of Heraklion; Georgioupolis is between Rethymno and Chania; and Makry Gialos is down in the south-east. A safari that reads perfectly is the wrong booking if its start is two hours from your hotel.

The three-hour safaris are the cheapest and the most reviewed. At $45 the sunset or morning run pairs the coast and the mountains with the history of olive oil production, a tasting of local products and the sunset itself. At $48 the backland safari is written around scenic landscapes, untouched nature, historic villages and a mix of off-road routes and coastal tracks. Neither description names a meal.

Four hours buys a different shape of day. The half day from Rethymno heads up into the mountains and drives through shallow water and canyons. The ATV safari from Georgioupolis is written around mountains and traditional villages, with riders taking turns at the wheel. The $73 run out of Panormos names ten traditional villages and the Cave of Melidoni. The fares in this group are $67 to $79.

The longer listings are the ones that stack stops. Five hours out of Hersonissos names a Byzantine monastery, a meal in a traditional tavern, a look at how olive oil is made and a finish on the beach. Five to five and a half hours out of Malia names Milatos Cave, an olive oil factory, coastal villages, lunch and a hotel transfer. The full day, six hours at $100, names a monastery, an olive tour, a Cretan lunch, a cave and a swim.

One listing sits far above the rest. The $219 day in the south-east is written as a 4x4 off-road safari through olive groves, pines and the tiny mountain villages its description calls the real Crete, five and a half hours long. It holds 74 reviews at 4.9 — the smallest count on this page, and the highest fare, $119 clear of the next one.

Two things are worth holding on to. Six of the twelve are rated 4.9 and six at 4.8, so the rating alone will not separate them — the number of reviews beside it will. And a buggy is not a quad: one listing offers a buggy, and it says so in its title rather than in its description, where ten of the twelve name a quad or an ATV instead.