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Crete & Athens : Allocation of Time

We’ll be arriving in Heraklion from Istanbul and departing Crete via Chania, flying onward to Athens. For the Greece portion of our trip, we have 14 full days on the ground.
Our current plan is:

• Heraklion: 4 full days (we arrive late the night before)

• Chania: 5 days, reached by bus from Heraklion (minus travel time)

• Athens: 5 days (minus travel time from Chania)

This will be our first visit to Greece. We’re especially drawn to archaeological sites, places of historical and cultural significance, and museums. We typically stay in historic city centers and prefer walking to other forms of transport. That said, for walks longer than 30 minutes, we opt for public transportation over private drivers.
Based on our research so far, it seems we may need to rent a car for a day or two while on Crete if we want to explore beyond the major towns.

How would you suggest we allocate our time?

Thank you for your time and comments.

Posted by
135 posts

Hello,

Since you especially enjoy archeological and historical sites, I am wondering if you would like to include a 3 night/4 day tour of the Peloponnese? You have plenty of time to do this if you subtract one or two days from Crete. Chat Tours does a Classical Tour that we enjoyed: https://www.chat-tours.com/index.php/Tour/view/6

You mention that you plan to fly from Chania to Athens, but we took the overnight ferry. This will save you some time and help make the 4 day Classical Tour work.

Finally, if you want some 'down time' on the beach, cooling off in the water, Rethymno is a favorite of ours. We were able to stay at a locally owned hotel that was a few steps from old town and the water. And the cool water was very welcome after a 117 degree day touring Gortys and Phaistos!

While Chania harbor is also charming, you need transportation of some type to get into the water. We took a full day 'tour' to hike the Samaria Gorge while in Chania. (Bus to the top, walk down, lots of free time, boat over to the bus and then back to town)

We have never rented a car while in Greece, so all of these suggestions were done via local busses or day tours.

I hope this helps. Enjoy!