Connection from Naxos to Hydra?

You'll have to return to Athens/Piraeus for a ferry to Hydra. There's no other option.

Please please don't keep trying to add more notches to your belt.... just spend that extra night in Naxos ... I guarantee you, once you get there, you won't want to leave. If you have not yet seen some pix of Naxian highlights, here are a few, not from commercial promotion, just from Naxophile "stanbr" someone who goes there annually & captures its beauty:

A trip around Naxos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157634605629689/
10 days in Naxos 2015 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157656336387898/page1
Naxos Town - https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157632094558042/

I guarantee you won't find such an array of beauty in a Hydra album -- it has a pretty harbor but then ?? It is tirelessly promoted by the R Steves organization, because it fits in well with their all-mainland organized tours & provides a do-able day-trip for persons who otherwise would not see an island. You already plan to snatch a day from Naxos in order to visit the Designer-Label-Capital of the Cyclades... Mykonos with its line-up of Hermes, Chanel, DKNY, Cartier, Boss, Dolce etc etc ... and you're trying to grasp an entire Country (Crete) in 3 days... so please give Naxos one last day!

TIP: You can enjoy a full-day on Naxos and still take a comfortable large conventional ferry back to the mainland; here's how. You take what I call the "sunset sailing" of the BLUE STAR ferry line; it leaves Naxos 6 pm -- arrives Piraeus 11:45 pm. You'd have to exit you hotel room @noon, but you can enjoy the afternoon with this strategy: Leave your big luggage behind reception at your hotel. Then arrange with Hotelier (never a problem) for use of a bathroom around 4:30pm to quickly wash-up & change to traveling clothes. Then you'll have a whole extra afternoon for the beach, or wandering the town, or just cafe-sitting. On arrival in Naxos you will have gone to a Naxos seafront agency to buy "reserved economy" seats (a large, upholstered lean-back seat with traytable & footrest; ask for SIDE compartment location, smaller, quieter). You don't have to spend the whole time in these seats -- if you scamper quickly upstairs to back deck(s) you can garner deck seats to enjoy the sunset, when it's dark go inside to your seat to snack, read, nap. On arrival, hustle to taxi line OR email in advance for car pick-up & you'll be checked into your central athens hotel within 30 minutes. You're welcom.

Thanks for dedicating yourself to helping us in our craziness. I'll look into your fine details. You make a lot of sense when we don't even know we need help. Thanks, again. I'll be back....here.

Well, I think you'd be glad we added a night to Crete. After landing at Heraklion at 10:30 p.m., we have Kronos Hotel. Next morning we plan to rent a car and get over to Chania for two nights. (We need a hotel still...any recommendations?) Then for the day, we will drive back to Heraklion, turn in the car. We'll do the Arch Museum and the Knossos Palace, overnight at the Kronos Hotel. Early morning, we'll catch the ferry to Santorini. Counting let arrival first night, that is four nights on Crete. Three days.

mY Chania recommend - Hotel Palazzo ... 2 years ago the longtime owner sold out to Elia Hotels, they upgraded the linens & decor & upped prices: https://www.eliahotels.com/en/796086/elia-palazzo-hotel1 -- still a winner for location, its a modernized Venetian Mansion/townhouse on the BEST street to stay on, flag-stoned,no/cars Theotokoupolu Street (that's the actual famiy name of El Greco) ... Palazzo is at seaward end of Street -- you park y our rental in a FREE lot right by the park at the sea, and walk up a gentle ramp to the start of Theotokopoulu. If Palazzo is full (I forget when you are going - NOTE! when you do multiple threads, it is thoughtful to repeat trip dates, so we won't have to remember, after all we're not getting paid) ... if Palazzo is full, check booking.com for availability on Hotel Hera, only 3-4 rooms and simple, http://www.hera-studios-rooms.com/en/index.htm -- or Casa di Pietra, also small & quaint ... those 2 are the 2 that are closer to the sea than Palazzo ... have stayed in all 3. Pietra a bit eccentric, owner Josef has a vineyard & keeps a small barrel of his product over his desk & dispenses samples lavishly. All 3 have balconies on the street, ask for rooms that have these ... Palazzo also has a small roof terrace.

On Naxos, check booking.com for availability on these places right ON or just yards off Ag. Giorgios beach places (adjacent to port town) : Villa Naxia, wonderful but hard to book ... or top floor of Hotel Kymata, 18o° view, Hotel Kalergis (all rooms w seaview balcony) Hotel Asteria (ditto), Hotel Palatia (top floor has seaview balcony), HOtel Palatia, (upper floor balcony). If u want uniformed staff plus pool and massages/spa ladidah, etc, there are on ly 3 convenient ones -- I like Naxos Resort Beach hotel better than Galaxy or Nissaki.