We will be ending a week's stay in Chania at the beginning of June. And our next stop is Santorini. I've been doing some research and I am totally confused.
What is the best way to travel from Chania to Santorini? We don't have an extra day in our itinerary to travel from Chania and spend the night in Heraklion before heading to Santorini. So I am looking for the best way to travel from Chania to Santorini in 1 day. Fly or ferry? TIA.
You have mentioned the two ways to get from Chania to Santorini.
You could book an Aegean flight and fly early morning to Athens and catch a connecting flight on Aegean that goes to Santorini. We did just that once and were able to get a seat sale on both flights. It took a 6am flight from Chania and an 8am connecting flight. Aegean announced a seat sale last week. If its still on you should grab those flights right now.
Ferry is a bit more complicated. If you are traveling on a Sat or Tuesday in past years there has been a Seajet ferry from Rethymnon to Santorini. You should be able to catch the first bus to Rethymnon and a taxi to the ferry port in time to make that ferry.
You could also take the first bus from Chania to Heraklion to catch one of the 3 or 4 ferries that make the Santorini run. they depart between 8:30 and 9:30. Thats my recollection but I might be off a littler bit in the timing. Yo have two risks doing this. The as I recall the Chania bus stops in Rethymnon where you have to transfer to a second bus to Heraklion. If the first bus has a delay and you miss the connection you probably will miss the ferries. Having said that the KTEL bus system is very good and they know that there are people traveling form Chania to Heraklion for the morning ferries so their schedule is set up for that.
We always choose to travel to Heraklion the night before.
For fun here are some images of where you will be.
Santorini http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157632154800782/
Chania http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157632117917828/
I used this website to find ferry schedules.
Depending your time and if you u rent a car on not you can also take a taxi to heraklion to ease thing up. Prebooking is advised for such a ride so to be certain that you get everything in time, you can check for a quote in sougiataxi-meletis. Not sure about the prices.
To avoid the trouble I'd choose to fly, but still the ferry might be a relaxing experience. Just check the hours it takes to get there to avoid any discomfort.
I believe.minoan lines got as of these days a new ferry from heraklion to Santorini.
Thank you for all the information. We have decided to fly from Chania to Santorini, via Athens. This seemed to us, the best use of our time.
You need to read up on the virus and the restrictions the Greek government is ordering to prevent the spread including all unnecessary travel to islands except for locals.
I doubt the virus/restrictions will be lifted by early June.
Yes, you need to check with restrictions in Greece. My friends on Crete are very limited by what is allowed as far as leaving their home.
Many times, travel in Greece and asking directions is like the old yarn, "you can't get there from here".
Our first trip we had a number of things planned, quickly cut the itinerary in half once we figured out transport. You likely have a good option, though any option is way more hours of travel than what seems logical.
