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Travel to Crete
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GREEK AIRPORTS
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Thessaloniki Airport, the second biggest in Greece, is located 14 km from the city centre. Handling European charters and international and domestic scheduled services it serves 3.5 million passengers per year.
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Heraklion airport is the main airport in Crete and 3rd largest in Greece, handling European charters, scheduled services and domestic flights.
- The airport is about 500m from the National Highway which runs almost the entire length of the north coast.
- Regular bus service to the city centre and central bus station.
- Taxis and hire cars are readily available.
- Many hotels provide a courtesy shuttle service for visitors with reservations.
- From airport to city centre takes just about 10 minutes.
- Excellent bus services from the central bus station to many destinations on the island (in modern, air-conditioned coaches). E.g. the journey to Chania takes about 2¾ hours: adult fare is €13.80.
- There is a large car park opposite the arrivals hall (about 100m).
Crete’s second airport is Chania, handling European charter flights and domestic services. It is also one of Greece’s most important military airfields.
The airport is about 20 minutes by car from Chania city centre and many popular resorts are between 20 and 50 minutes drive.
There are regular bus services taking about 30 minutes to the city centre at a cost of €2.30 and usually many taxis at the rank immediately opposite Arrivals. The taxi fare to central Chania is about 30 to 35 Euros.
Transfer coaches park about 50 metres from the terminal building.
There are car parks within the airport perimeter and others about 200m from the airport entrance (450m from the terminal building). Shuttle service is available.
Sitia airport is on the north coast of Crete only about 3 Km from the town of Sitia at the eastern end of the island. Ongoing development to allow the airport to accept European charter flights has been very slow and the airport remains suitable only for domestic flights using small aircraft.
The only people to gain any real advantage by using Sitia will be those travelling to Crete via Athens and who also wish to avoid the drive from Heraklion to the far east of the island.
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CRETE AIRPORTS
- Over 80% of direct flights from the UK fly to Heraklion with the remainder using Chania. Heraklion offers a wider choice of airlines, flight times and days for travel.
- There are direct flights to Heraklion from 12 UK airports and to Chania from 6.
- Rethimnon is about half way between the airports so, if you’re heading anywhere to the east of Rethimnon, Heraklion is the better choice. Anywhere west of Rethimnon is closer to Chania.
- Fares to Heraklion are often cheaper than those to Chania with the same airline.
- A taxi from Heraklion to the Chania area will cost €150+, depending on precise destination, eliminating any saving in air fares.
- The cost of a return cab fare from Heraklion to Chania could pay for almost two weeks’ holiday car hire.
- Sitia airport is an option for passengers travelling via Athens to anywhere in Crete further east than Agios Nikolaos.
Chania
Heraklion
Sitia
Eleftherios Venizelos International airport is one of the most modern in Europe with excellent facilities for domestic and international scheduled flights. There’s a useful interactive map showing all facilities in the terminal building.
If you have a fairly long stopover, the airport is close enough to Athens for a trip into the city centre.
- Express bus is the cheapest transport to central Athens or the ferry port.
- Bus stop outside arrivals hall.
- Fare €3.20 each way.
- Average journey time is about 90 minutes to the ferry port.
- Services every twenty minutes in daytime and every forty minutes 00:01 and 02:00.
- Taxi is relatively inexpensive and takes about 45 minutes to the city centre. Taxi stand immediately outside arrivals
- The metro is the best option for speed and cost. 5 minutes walk to the airport station
- 40 minutes to central Athens.
- Frequent service.
- Fare: €6.00 one way (€3 for over 65s).
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