Explore the Minoan Palace of Knossos and the nearby city of Heraklion on a 5-hour Crete tour! With an expert local guide, walk around the ruins and excavations of the island’s vast ancient palace (entrance own expense), and learn about the Greek mythological tales that are linked to it. After exploring the labyrinth of corridors and rooms on the Knossos tour, travel into central Heraklion to learn all about Crete’s main town. Relax as you pass sights like the Church of Agios Titos, Koules Venetian Fortress and more.
Leave your Crete hotel by air-conditioned coach and travel to the Minoan Palace of Knossos, one of the island’s showstopping historical attractions. The original site is believed to have been built around 1900 BC, but – following an earthquake – it was rebuilt on a grand scale, and lavish royal quarters, shrines, treasuries and storerooms were added around the Central Court.
After paying your entrance fee, head inside to explore the reconstructed site that was brought to life from a series of 20th-century excavations by British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. As you walk, listen to tales and trivia about the palace’s glory days during the Minoan era – a Bronze Age civilization that made Knossos its capital.
Greek mythology was ingrained in Minoan culture, and the Palace of Knossos featured in many popular tales such as the famous myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Hear of legends and Greek folklore while exploring areas of the palace like the Throne Room, home to frescoes of the Minoan’s sacred mythical beasts.
Wander through the Central Court and gaze up at sights like the Grand Staircase. See an impressive fresco of rampaging bulls, and explore the corridors and labyrinth-like alleyways that lead to intriguing rooms such as the Theatral Area – a place that may have once existed as a theater.
Then return to your coach for the short journey to central Heraklion. In the comfort of your air-conditioned coach, gaze out at attractions like Koules Venetian Fortress, Lion Fountain (Morosini Fountain) and the Church of Agios Titos on a city tour. Hear fascinating snippets of history about each sight and learn about the city under Venetian rule – an era that influenced the architecture of Heraklion – and enjoy a short break for lunch (own expense) .
After seeing the sights of Crete’s main city, your day trip finishes with a hotel drop-off.
Very nice, intersting place to visit, for sure if you like Greece history. The archeological museum interesting as wel. You have also about 2 free hours to visit Heraklion. The centre and the old port are beautiful. It was a hot day but worth it. Profesional quide.
Review by: Geoffrey T, October 2017
This was a great tour. A long journey from Elounda but well worth it. The palace is really interesting and fills you with awe at what the Minoans achieved. Our guide, Katerina was superb, she had a great depth of knowledge and love for her subject combined with good humour. The visit to the museum was also spectacular and again quite humbling to see the skill of the Minoans and the beauty of their work. We had a couple of hours to see Heraklion which was a fascinating contrast to the area in which we were staying. Also recommend the cafe at back of the museum. All in all a fabulous day!
Review by: Diane S., October 2017
If you're heading to Greece and specifically Crete, this is a must-see. I did a similar tour 40 years ago yikes! and wanted to see Knossos again on a recent trip with my husband. The history of the Minoan civilization and their culture is fascinating and the art and artifacts are breath-taking. It is very important to have a tour guide while seeing the Palace of Knossos and the Museum in order to understand the history. The guide was so knowledgeable and gave us such insight into the lives and culture of this incredible civilization.
Review by: travelgal6979, October 2017
If you're heading to Greece and specifically Crete, this is a must-see. I did a similar tour 40 years ago yikes! and wanted to see Knossos again on a recent trip with my husband. The history of the Minoan civilization and their culture is fascinating and the art and artifacts are breath-taking. It is very important to have a tour guide while seeing the Palace of Knossos and the Museum in order to understand the history. The guide was so knowledgeable and gave us such insight into the lives and culture of this incredible civilization.
Review by: John A, September 2017
Great. Super guide in both Russian and English. 2 plus hours on site and another 2 plus hours at the museum. Well worth it. Highly recommended.
Review by: Frances J, July 2017
We had a nice time on July 1st. I'm 80 years old and in pretty good health, but my 82 year old husband wouldn't have been able to get around at all. People with bad knees or a walker aren't able to get around very well at all. _br/_ The tour guide was a little bit more friendly with the Russian tourists than the English speaking people, and seemed to especially not care for Americans. We took a tour of the city by ourselves and then went to the museum. I found it very interesting and glad I went._br/_ I hope you enjoy this tour too. Don't forget to bring water!
Review by: Frances J, July 2017
It was a hot day when we went on July 1, 2017, but it was worth the heat and humidity. The tour guide was quite knowledgeable and explained everything in English and for the six others in Russian. To be there and see the ruins was incredible. You can bring water inside with you and I highly recommend that you do! There's little shade. _br/_ If you or anyone with you who has difficulty getting around, this is NOT for them! No wheelchair access whatsoever and the terrain is uneven with rocks. _br/_ The second part wasn't so much a tour of Heraklion as the bus parked and the guide just let everyone roam around on their own. I was expecting SOME information about the city's history but didn't get any. _br/_ We took the option at Knossos to pay for the Palace and the museum for one euro more for 16 total per person. We found that to be a deal. Our same tour guide met us at the entrance and showed us the highlights. Unfortunately, he gravitated to the Russian tourists and spent the majority of the time with four of them and less with the approximately 20 English speaking tourists. This didn't go unnoticed by just about everyone. This would be my biggest complaint. My husband was more upset by his obvious bias against Americans with snide remarks every now and then, trying to joke it off._br/_ In the end, I do recommend this tour but hopefully you get a different tour guide. We dropped ours off at his home since he lives in Heraklion.
Review by: Peter C, June 2017
I felt we were short changed a little - the Russian's had a dedicated tour guide, we as English Speakers and the German speakers had to share a guide - difficult for the guide and less time with each group to talk about the Palace and the items at the Museum compared to the Russians. There was very little time for us to look at other parts of the site. In future I think I would prefer to have a more personalised tour than go in a big group.
Review by: Robyndrake, June 2017
I studied the history of Knossos in college, and it was amazing to finally visit the site. Very knowledgeable and fun guide. I wanted more time at Knossos, and so went back a couple days later. I also felt a bit rushed at the Archeaological Museum, but honestly, you could spend an entire day there, so I think this tour gives you a great starting point for futher exploration.
Review by: Gorenberg.k, September 2016
Fascinating
Review by: Phil C, September 2016
A thoroughly dispiriting experience, offhand and disinterested tour guides and an interminable wait for the tickets at Knossos - or should I say Disneyland - itself.
Review by: Yasuyuki K, August 2016
mmmuuu
Review by: George K, August 2016
The trip included a tour of the palace of Knossos, a tour of a winery/olive oil store, and time in Heraklion to walk around, eat lunch or go to the museum. Overall the tour guides were very knowledgeable particularly about the palace and it was a very full and comprehensive day. Coming from Elounda, the bus ride was a bit long, but it was also nice to drive through the different towns and see the other cities in Crete.
Review by: Avery K, June 2016
The tour and our guide were great! We learned a lot about the history of the ancient palace and then had an hour to explore and take pictures on our own time. 1.5 hours guided tour and 1 hour on our own it was the perfect length of time to fully experience Knossos.
Review by: Rodger G, May 2016
our guide was excellent...she was able to highlight the best in a museum filled with artifacts and then bring it all the together as we explored the old ruins of the palace...well done
Review by: davidjciardi, November 2015
shocking tour _br/_ shame that the tour of the museum you have to do by yourself!!!
Review by: Nany, October 2015
We paid a high price for this tour of the Palace at Knossos and a tour of the city of Heraklion. This tour consisted of a bus trip to the site as short 6 km trip we could have taken by taxi or bus from next to our hotel and a TERRIBLE guided tour of the palace. The guide was absolutely awful. All she was worried about was her next cigarette. She forgot her photographs of the palace and simply went through the motions of the guided tour. We had studied the site quite a bit before the tour or we would have not gotten anything out of it. The tour of Heraklion was just to drop us off in the middle of town. A TAXI to Knossos is 8 Euros. We could have hired a private guide for so much less than we paid. We have traveled a lot in Europe and have taken this type of tour before, but this one was the worst ever.
Review by: Aparna J, October 2015
Knossos is not a very interesting artifact and our tour was horrible! Tour was in German and English. She seemed annoyed at questions and sounded like she was reciting from a memorize script. We left early to make better use of the day.
Review by: Kevin K, August 2015
We have been booking with Viator for many years but have never been so disappointed with one of their tours. This was not the tour as advertised by Viator. Specifically -_br/_
- the tour lasted some 8 hours even ignoring the pickup time etc of which only 1.5 hours was at Knossos - we didn't even get to see the full site._br/_
- we spent an hour and a half at a winery which isn't mentioned by Viator - we had no desire to pay money to see a film about wine making!_br/_
- there was no bus tour of Heraklion - we were escorted into the city centre and then left to our own devices. _br/_
In addition, the coach was very old with almost no air conditioning. It was genuinely unpleasantly hot. Also worth noting the tour was bilingual with half the tour being Russian. Many of the English speaking folks just wandered off at Knossos because they lost interest waiting for the guide to finish talking to the Russian guests. _br/_
Overall, it seems Viator just haven't done their due diligence here. Would not recommend this tour.
Review by: Barbara, August 2015
Book the morning tour and avoid some of the crowds and heat. A great start to our vacation. Tour included wine and olive oil tasting at a nearby town. Delicious and informative.
Review by: Thomas J F, July 2015
The guided tour to Knossos was very good. We could have spent more time there and there were a few too many people on the tour.
Review by: cruiser2005, June 2015
The guide let us spend too much time shopping, otherwise, the trip is ok.
Review by: Charlotte Turner, June 2015
Was picked up on time and the trip was well worth it. I would have given five stars but from our hotel in Elounds to Knossos took over two hours due to picks ups along the way and back. Seeing history in the making when you discover the palace was built over 400 years ago only to be discovered by an Englishmen in the 1900's
Review by: Joseph O, November 2014
had a great time on this tour, the guide was very knowledgeable, friendly and informative. I highly recommend this tour.
Review by: Margaret M, October 2014
Pick up process too long (over 2 hours). When arrived at Knossos guide did not wait for people to go to toilet after being on coach for 2.5hrs. Also did not have time to purchase tickets or water. She disappeared into the site and we never found her. Went around on our own in the end. Would have preferred to skip wine tasting and have more time in Heraklion to go to musum etc.
Review by: sha, September 2014
Super, a well organised day. The guide was extremely knowledgeable, the day well organised
Review by: Reece K, September 2014
Perfect amount of time and very great your guides! Highly recommend and I'm not a big tour/history person;)
Review by: HARSHAD P, September 2014
Went on this tour on the 26th, coach was prompt collected us on time, although almost immediately after we were moved onto another coach, we then picked up seemingly many other visitors from other hotels, this took up another hour and then it was finally onto the tour, the first thing you'll notice is you will get a english/german speaking guide, I was hoping to be in English, the actual tour of Knossos was informative, but being an English/German speaking guide it took double the amount of time to see and in the immense heat as well was not too good i thought. After this we went to Peza to try out the wine sampling this strangely isnt documented at all on Viator but it is in the local iternarys over there in Crete, I actually enjoyed this and we actually got a bottle back home, the guide mentions we were meant to be taken to a factory but this definitely didn't happen, instead we were shown a 10 minute DVD. The Heraklion tour was literally a coach ride into the city, and then from the fountain we were left to roam around on our own for a hour and a bit, I expected this to be guided but this didnt happen hence we only located the church and by the time we found the archelogical museum it was time to get back on the coach, all in all we felt the tour could have been better and because of the lack of guiding at Heraklion, we felt the tour was incomplete.
Review by: Jessica M, September 2014
Very well organised and knowledgeable tour guide. Would have preferred to independently explore museum but was fantastic at knossos.
Review by: Derek P, August 2014
A long hot day! Driver and your guide were courteous and helpful.
Review by: Andoni S, July 2014
Our guide was knowledgeable and thorough, and she led us around the site expertly. I found some of what she said repetitious, but as a teacher, I realize it may have been intentional; some people just don't listen very well! Our travel schedule posed some difficulties for us (our flight was to leave only an hour after the proposed end of the afternoon segment at the Archaeological Museum), but our guide helpfully explained what highlights to see and let us skip lunch to visit the museum on our own ahead of the group. Despite this personal glitch, the tour was informative, enjoyable, and well conducted.
Review by: Scott K, July 2014
The tour started with an 7:30 pick-up at our hotel. After 2.5 hours later and countless other hotel pick-ups, we made it to Knossos. There must have been a couple thousand people at the site (cruise ship tours) and i estimate Knossos can comfortably accommodate 500 people. We had a bi-lingual tour guide that gave half the tour in English, and half in German which was very difficult to follow/understand. She took a couple cell phone calls in the middle of the tour - I got the impression she was in a rush to finish and get back to the air conditioned bus. _br/_
We then went to a small co-op winery that was more of a plug for local business and farmers - waste of time. Following the winery, we went back to Heraklion for some free time, shopping, or museum visit. I was in no mood for more crowds and German/English doublespeak, so I opted for a small cafe and several cold beers. _br/_
Traffic was worse in the afternoon, meaning it took us over three hours to make it back to our hotel after all of the stops at other hotels. All said, the tour was close to 12 hours long, 2 hours being at the Knossos site._br/_
This tour needs to be streamlined to make the customer hotel pick-up more efficient. I was told tat we could have hired a local cab company to drive me around in a Mercedes to see Knossos in four hours, skipping the wine and Heraklion side trips. _br/_
I went on other Viator tours on this vacation that were fantastic with great tour guides and efficient operation. Unfortunately, this one was a complete dud.
Review by: ANNA P, September 2013
Very beautiful and interesting Tour!! Our Guide Mrs. Maria was very expert. We thank the organization also because the tour was in italian Language. Tour was organized very very well. After Ancient Palace of Knossos Tour, we have had also time to see Heraklion City.
Review by: Sally H, September 2013
Interesting tour with a very knowledgeable guide, but the group was quite large so we couldn't hear her all the time. This tour also included a trip to Heraklion with 1.5hrs of free time to explore, plus a 45-minute visit to Peza, where we had a complimentary glass of local wine and sampled olive oil. This wasn't included on the itinerary so would've been nice to know beforehand, but was still enjoyable.
Review by: Alen K, July 2013
We are very satisfied. Your staff was wonderful. We had one problem with the change in the museum hours. It greatly limited our time at the museum.
Review by: Nina, July 2013
This is one of many well-organised and well maintained sites across Greece. We skipped the queue by joining this tour. The guide was excellent, an expert and qualified archaeologist.
Review by: Elizabeth H, June 2013
The half day tour I booked for was on a Monday, but I was contacted to be told that the date was to be changed to Saturday, which was not suitable and so I was scheduled for a Tuesday tour. Although no one told us so, it turned out that we had been put on a full day tour with a Russian group which also included a visit to a winery/olive pressing plant and an hour or so in Heraklion. Luckily, we had the time to accommodate this change, but I think we should have been told about it. Having said that, our English speaking guide at Knossos was excellent and we enjoyed the day.
Review by: Panagiota B, April 2013
This is one of the worst tours we have ever taken. I was surprised as this was not our first tour with Viator and we really expected it to be much better. The tour was rushed, and we did not even enter the most important part of the palace, the throne and painting rooms. The tour guide said we had to do that on our own, but with only half an hour and hundreds of people waiting in line we were left with absolutely no time. The tour included a trip to see a film about wine making in Crete, which was not part of the original itinerary, and I really did not see what that had to do with an archeological tour. I do not recommend this tour. It was a huge disappointment.
Review by: Panagiota B, August 2012
This is one of the worst tours we have ever taken. I was surprised as this was not our first tour with Viator and we really expected it to be much better. The tour was rushed, and we did not even enter the most important part of the palace, the throne and painting rooms. The tour guide said we had to do that on our own, but with only half an hour and hundreds of people waiting in line we were left with absolutely no time. The tour included a trip to see a film about wine making in Crete, which was not part of the original itinerary, and I really did not see what that had to do with an archeological tour. I do not recommend this tour. It was a huge disappointment.
Review by: Soloracer, October 2011
Both of our guides were really good and had a lot of knowledge on the area. They were also helpful in making sure we made our connections back to the hotel so that we could catch our flight to Rhodes. The only complaint would be the cost of the tour for what we received. The booking said it was a 5 hour tour but really was 1.5 hours at site and then a short bus ride to the town square for a couple hours of shopping / free time. I expected more. The museum is closed due to renovations so perhaps that is part of the problem.
Review by: Julia G, August 2011
We enjoyed the trip and had a first class guide for the palace of Knossos. Glad that the trip was in the morning as it was very hot as we were leaving.
Review by: JOSEPH R, October 2010
Wonderful tour with excellent guide. Fascinating place. All the most famous pieces are in archaeological museum though. It's still amazing to walk thru
Review by: JOSEPH R, September 2010
Wonderful tour with excellent guide. Fascinating place. All the most famous pieces are in archaeological museum though. It's still amazing to walk thru
Review by: Anonymous, October 2009
My mum had really wanted to visit this so I booked a trip. It was very expensive and when we got there we still had to pay an additional 6 euros to get in. What was even more annoying was that most of the artifacts found had been moved to the museum in the main town. This meant yet another entrance fee to pay and another coach trek. The guide was knowledgeable, but the lack of artifacts and the "partial rebuild" made this not the most interesting of history trips.
Review by: Jenny S, October 2009
My mum had really wanted to visit this so I booked a trip. It was very expensive and when we got there we still had to pay an additional 6 euros to get in. What was even more annoying was that most of the artifacts found had been moved to the museum in the main town. This meant yet another entrance fee to pay and another coach trek. The guide was knowledgeable, but the lack of artifacts and the "partial rebuild" made this not the most interesting of history trips.
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