Knossos Palace advice please

(3) YES on a guide. The site is poorly signed. Guides are available at the entrance. They usually wait until they get a sufficient sized group.
We took the bus, so no idea on parking.

There are tons of parking lots, mostly for a fee... but several FREE ones... just keep looking. And yes, get up early to beat the cruise crowdfs. Sometimes the guides at gate want to wait round up a group of TEN -- try to persuade them not to delay too long (maybe promising an extra tip)... its worth it to be ahed of huge crowds.

We took a guided tour with a guide at the gate. How long you wait depends on how much you want to pay. We were happy to share the cost with another couple so ended up with a couple from Norway.

The guide was excellent and knew how to get around crowds.

We stayed in Archanes as well and really liked it. There was plenty of parking at Knossos when we arrived. We decided though to take the bus to Heraklion to see the archeological museum. The bus stop was right next to the museum. We had brought sandwiches with us, although there turned out to be food for purchase. There was a nice garden we sat and ate in. We then wandered around-went down to the water and walked through the pedestrianized district. We took the bus back and picked up our car.

Thank you so much @leonard, @janet and @BethFL. So appreciate your help!

Hoping for feedback about the possibility of buying tickets on site. Per the website, the site opens at 8AM. But, the first ticket available online, regardless of day, is 9AM. Would love to hear if anyone has walked up between 8-9AM to buy tickets on site and how it went. Thanks!

We bought tickets online but I observed plenty of people buying tickets at the entrance. There is plenty of parking space and it's a very short walk to the site.

Personally I found it very overrated and I'm of the opinion that Sir Arthur Evans ruined it with his reconstructions. Be prepared for huge crowds!

We bought tickets between 8-9 am after agreeing to a tour with a guide, assuming two more people could be found. There was not much of a line.

Thank you @JC for sharing your insights. It is disappointing, though, to hear about your negative experience.

Thank you for sharing your experience @BethFL.

So, it was necessary to agree to a guide in order to enter before 9A, correct? Would you recommend a guide? If not, maybe the thing to do would be purchase tickets for 9A online and hope to be admitted at 8:45A? Lastly, for you, was the visit worthwhile…or, as for @JC, a disappointment?

I don’t remember that we had to agree to a guide to enter before 9 am. We agreed to a guide before we bought our tickets but then we waited for two other people who wanted to join us. I am sure though it was after 9 am before we went in. I would highly recommend a guide. Our guide helped us to work around the people. The fact there was o ly four of us helped a lot I am sure.

We enjoyed it very much. I realize it is one man’s interpretation of what it looked like and many find that problematic. But I am not a purist and I found the reconstructions helped me imagine what it might have been like so many years ago. At the archeological museum in Heraklion you see the originals of many things and that I really enjoyed as well.

Thanks so much, @BethFL!!