Crete rewards an early start.
Balos before the day boats, the Samaria descent from Xyloskalo, Knossos at opening time, a Dia Island sail at five. What each day costs and which one to book.
The days everyone books first.
One boat day, one gorge, one palace and a long table somewhere inland. These fill up first in July, and they are the ones people come home talking about.
Day Trip to Agios Nikolaos and Spinalonga Island
A full-day guided loop of Agios Nikolaos, Elounda, and Spinalonga Island, with boat views and a swim stop off the coast.
From $44 per person
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Sixteen kilometres, all of it downhill.
The bus leaves Chania in the dark so you start at Xyloskalo by seven, drop a thousand metres through the pines, and squeeze sideways through the Iron Gates where the walls close to three metres apart. It finishes on the black sand at Agia Roumeli, and the only way out is the ferry to Sfakia.
Which end of the island?
Crete runs 260 kilometres end to end and the drive eats a whole day. Pick a base first and the tours fall into place behind it. Three ways to split a week, each one priced and rated.
The west
Chania and the lagoons
9 - 12 hours · from $41 · 3,191 reviews
A Venetian harbour you can walk in twenty minutes, Balos and Elafonisi within a morning’s drive, and the Samaria trailhead an hour up the mountain road. The west is why most people fly into Chania, and the old town is the best place on the island to eat afterwards.
See the Chania days →
The centre
Heraklion and Knossos
5.5 hours · from $95 · 2,579 reviews
The Minoan palace on one side of the city, the museum holding its frescoes on the other, sailing boats out to Dia Island from the marina and jeep tracks climbing to the Lasithi Plateau. Best base if you want ruins before lunch and water after it.
See the Heraklion days →
The east
Agios Nikolaos and Elounda
8 - 11 hours · from $44 · 4,416 reviews
Emptier roads, the fortress island of Spinalonga sitting across the bay, and boat trips that stop to swim on the way back. Fewer coaches, longer lunches, and the Lasithi windmills half an hour behind you.
See the eastern days →
The wind drops and the boats go out.
The meltemi drops around six. Catamarans pull out of Rethymno and Hersonissos with the sun still high enough to swim under, the quad tracks above Agia Pelagia turn the colour of the hills, and dinner arrives somewhere between the second stop and the harbour.
Lunch happens on a farm.
Crete presses its own oil and drinks its own wine, and the good days end at a long table under a vine. Expect raki nobody ordered and a drive home through villages with one square and four chairs outside it.
The interior needs a jeep.
Twenty minutes inland the tarmac gives up. Land Rovers grind up to abandoned villages and the Lasithi windmills, quads run the dirt above the north coast, and every route ends at a view with lunch waiting.
Europe’s oldest palace is still standing.
Knossos ran a trading empire across the Mediterranean while most of Europe was still building huts. The red columns and the charging bull are Evans’ reconstructions; the drainage, the storerooms and the throne are not. Take it at opening time, then walk the real frescoes down in the Heraklion museum.
Where you sleep decides your week.
Chania for the harbour and the lagoons. Heraklion for the palace and the sailing. Rethymno for the fortress and the long beach. Agios Nikolaos for the quiet end of the island.
Book by the kind of day you want.
Boat, gorge, jeep or table. Pick the shape of the day first and everything behind it is already priced, timed and rated.
The best beaches need a boat.
Balos and Gramvousa out of Kissamos, Elafonisi by road from Chania, Spinalonga across the bay from Elounda, Dia straight out of Heraklion marina. Most leave by nine and have you back before dinner.
Three days that set up the rest.
Land in Chania, work the west while you are fresh, then drive the north coast to Heraklion. This is the order that wastes the least time behind a coach.
Day 1
Chania harbour, slowly
Walk the Venetian waterfront out to the lighthouse, take the covered market for lunch, eat late in the back lanes. Book the Balos boat tonight and drive nowhere today.
Plan day one →
Day 2
The Balos morning
Kissamos port for the nine o’clock boat, Gramvousa fortress and the shipwreck first, then two hours anchored off the lagoon. Ashore by five with Falassarna still to come.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Knossos and the museum
Drive east early and take the palace before the coach parties. The archaeological museum in Heraklion holds the frescoes and the Phaistos disc. Sail to Dia if the wind has dropped.
Plan day three →
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