Looking for some help/useful tips for a planned Greece trip. Athens-Crete-Naxos-Athens-home
What’s the best way to get from Athens to Crete. We arrive on an overnight transatlantic flight around 1pm?
How do we get from Crete to Naxos? Do we need a car in Naxos?
Best way to get from Naxos to Athens?
Thank you!
We flew from Athens to Crete-flying into Chania this past May. We were on one ticket but on a different trip we flew to Santorini the same day we arrived. You need to allow several hours to do this.
You can ferry to Naxos from Heraklion on Crete but I think you have to go via Santorini.
You can fly or ferry back to Athens from Naxos.
How much time do you have? Crete is a large and varied island. We spent 11 nights there last May and could have easily spent more. I have also been to Naxos on different trip. I loved them both but if you have a typical American vacation of two weeks I would encourage you to consider spending all your time in Crete and in Athens and save Naxos for another time.
Athens to Crete; Take a ferry or fly. Chania and Heraklion both have airports.
Fly to Athens, then fly to Naxos or take ferry to Santorini to Naxos.
The overnight transatlantic flights get in midday. You will need 2 hours to make a transfer for your connecting flight. Aegean is a code share partner in Star alliance. You can book your trip on one ticket. In that case Aegean/Olympic has to get you on that connecting flight, so you may not need the two hours.
Fly to the furthest island first, thats Crete. For you next hop to Naxos you have 2 choices, already suggested. We have always taken the early ferry from Heraklion to Santorini which takes just over 2 hours. You can change ferries in Santorini but the one we took continued to Naxos. We got in to Naxos just after noon.
While we have never flown Crete to Athens to Naxos we did use that technique a couple of times for different island hops. It is very likely that you can take the early flight Crete to Athens and connect on the Olympic flight to Naxos. You likely will be in Naxos by 9 or 10 in the morning.
The fast ferries are fairly expensive so you might find that the Crete, Athens,Naxos flights might not cost much more that the ferry trip.
The one big thing you will be missing by flying is the stop in Santorini. Arriving and departing Santorini is a remarkable sight.
Fly to Crete either Chania or Heraklion by Aegean Air takes less than an hour. Crete to Naxos take Ferry from Heraklion, takes four hours or so. Fly back to Athens from Naxos.
About Crete-Naxos ferries:
In summer 2023
Seajets will operate a direct daily connection from Heraklion to Naxos with its Powerjet.
Departure around 08:00 am arrival around noon. (from €100).
On Tuesdays only with the Minoan Lines, the Santorini Palace ferry leaves Heraklion at 09:00 and arrives at 12:50 in Naxos. It stops 15 minutes in Santorini (from €79).
As BetFL mentioned, the other possibilities have long stopovers in Santorini
