Crete or Greece

That's quite an interesting mix of countries/islands you have there. It may help you to know that Crete is a Greek island. It's quite large. I wouldn't want to have less than 5 full days there, and it sounds as if you would have less than four.

Where you are flying from and where you are going next might affect people's suggestions. With only four days, it's probably best to choose a final destination that won't take all day to reach.

If your previous stop is in Ukraine, that may limit you somewhat. I suspect there aren't an awful lot of air links between Ukraine and Greece. Will you be in L'viv? Kyiv? Odesa? somewhere else? You can go to the Wikipedia page of the airport in that Ukrainian city (Google Wikipedia Kyiv airport, Wikipedia Lviv airport, etc.) to find a list of destinations to which you can fly non-stop. Here's a link for Kyiv:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KyivInternationalAirport_(Zhuliany)

Look on the chart for Greek destinations. It appears that Bees Airline and Ellinair (neither of which I've heard of) both fly to Heraklion on Crete. Bees also flies to Patras (not an island) and Rhodes. Ellinair also flies to Corfu and Thessaloniki (not an island).

Wizz flies to Athens, from which you could connect to other Greek destinations--though at the cost of additional travel time and airfare.

At the end of your trip, when you're ready to fly home, you really should be in Athens on your last night. Flights back to Athens from islands can be canceled, as can ferries. It would be costly to miss your transatlantic flight if you got stuck on one of the islands.

Hello and thank you so much. We are flying from Florida in Sept 2022 and visiting family in Germany, Italy and Lviv Ukraine. We’re in our 70’s and. We don’t travel much, but I always wanted to see the history in Greece and Crete. Your suggestions are much appreciated.

Hi blueangel, I agree with everything acraven said. If you go to Greece, Athens might be a better choice since you only have four days. Athens has the Parthenon and Ancient Agora plus two fabulous museums. From Athens you can easily take a direct bus to Nafplio and spend a night or two since you’re interested in historical landmarks.

Something called "Jonika Airlines" (never heard of it) has seasonal flights from L'viv to Athens. I have no idea when "seasonal" is, when you're taking your trip, or how frequently those flights operate. You can use skyscanner.com to check for information on flights within Europe.

There are more (and better-known) options from the Kyiv airport, with service to Athens by Aegean Airlines, Ryanair, or Ukraine International Airlines. Unfortunately, there's not a quick way to get from Lviv to Kyiv other than flying, so you may as well tell skyscanner you want to fly from Lviv to Athens (or somewhere else) and see what sort of connections it suggests; going to Kyiv may not be the fastest or cheapest way. Unfortunately, when you need to take two budget-airline flights to reach your destination, you often end up with two separate tickets. If the first flight is delayed, you need to buy a replacement ticket to get where you want to go. I'm not saying that two-ticket situation happens all the time, but it's pretty frequent. Be sure you know what you're buying so you can properly evaluate the fare and the time allowed to make any necessary connection.

As mentioned by a poster above, Crete is part of Greece and you do not have enough time to include it unless you add more days and nights to your trip. Crete became part of Greece in 1913 after separating from the Ottoman Empire and cities like Chania have remnants of those earlier times. It also once belonged to the Venetian Empire.

The interesting/famous ancient ruin on Crete is Knossos. If ancient is your primary focus, Athens is much better, with sights that are much more impressive (and famous) than Knossos, plus a fabulous archaeology museum and much more. 4 full busy days will fill up quickly.

With such a limited amount of time, I would stick to Athens. As another poster pointed out, you will want to be there the night before your return flight. Athens actually has many more than two fabulous museums. Besides the National Archaeological Museum and the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art has a stunning collection. Then there are the Benaki and the Byzantine . . .
Much as I liked Napflio, I think you shouldn’t try to include it, unless you limit it to a day trip, perhaps with a guide.
Btw, my favorite guide books are the Cadogans. They have an extremely comprehensive one, “Peloponnese and Athens,” that would help you maximize your time. Athens is overflowing with ancient sites and the collections of artifacts from them. We’ve been there twice and didn’t have time for all that we wanted to visit

One of the best preserved ancient Greek ruins is in Sicily. Crete has ruins of the Minoan culture, which preceded ancient Greece (in Homer's legends). Athen's ancient Greek ruins would be in context and the National Archeaology Museum is the best ancient Greece collection.

Thank you all for your great advice. I appreciate it much