Greece
Crete
Crete: The Island of the Minoans
In Greek myth Crete is where Zeus was born and where King Minos kept the Minotaur in its labyrinth, and the ruins of Minoan palaces are spread across the island. Rain falls on only about 60 days a year.
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Good to know
Which Harbor Your Ship Uses
Most cruises that list Crete call at Heraklion, the island's capital and largest city, on the north coast. A few call at Chania or at Agios Nikolaos instead, so check your itinerary for the harbor, because each leads to a different day ashore.
- Crete runs about 260 km from west to east and is about 60 km across at its widest point.
- The island is the fifth largest in the Mediterranean, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and Corsica.
- A mountain range crosses the island from west to east, rising to 2,456 meters at Mount Ida.
- The island keeps Eastern European Time.
Crete on Your Own
What you can do on your own depends on the harbor. From Heraklion, the archaeological museum and the palace of Knossos fill a day, while in Agios Nikolaos the town's lake and a boat trip to the island fortress of Spinalonga are the choices.
- Heraklion, the museum: The Heraklion Archaeological Museum, on Xanthoudidou Street in the city center, holds Minoan finds from across the island, among them the Bull-Leaping Fresco, the Snake Goddess figures and the Phaistos Disc.
- Heraklion, Knossos: The palace lies about 5 km south of the city center. City bus line 2 runs there to the end of the line, and tickets from the machines at the main stops cost less than tickets bought on board.
- Agios Nikolaos, the lake: Lake Voulismeni, in the middle of the town, is a round lake 48.8 meters deep, joined to the harbor by a channel that the French Army built in its present form between 1905 and 1907.
- Agios Nikolaos, Spinalonga: Boat trips from Agios Nikolaos, Elounda and Plaka visit Spinalonga, a Venetian sea fort that later became a leper colony.
- Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own.
- Watch the clock: All-aboard is given in ship's time, which may not match local clocks or your phone. Greece keeps Eastern European Time, UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
Getting Around
Buses link Crete's towns, and services along the north coast are frequent and cheap. Taxis are expensive for touring, and the island's roads can be dangerous for drivers who do not know them.
- Most intercity buses are run by KTEL, an association of family-owned bus companies, and timetables are reliable.
- Heraklion's intercity bus station is just east of the city walls, near the ferry port.
- Agree the price before you get into a taxi.
- Helmets are compulsory on scooters and motorcycles, and quad bikes and motorcycles do not come with personal injury insurance.
Cretan Food
Traditional Cretan cooking was built mostly on plants: fruit, pulses, wild herbs and coarse grains, with olive oil used for salads and cooking alike. Cheese was eaten every day in modest amounts, and the usual dessert was yogurt with fresh fruit.
- Kalitsounia are small cheese or herb pastries; around Chania they are often savory, and in the Lasithi region in the east they are mainly sweet, filled with mizithra cheese and cinnamon.
- Chochlioi boubouristoi are snails fried with rosemary and vinegar, and antikristo is a Cretan lamb dish.
- Graviera is the island's everyday hard cheese, and mizithra is a fresh cheese of ewe's or goat's milk.
- Tsikoudia, a grape spirit distilled once from the skins and stems left after winemaking, is served chilled and is often offered free after a meal.
- Thyme honey, from bees that feed on wild thyme, is sold around Agios Nikolaos.
Tipping in Greece
Greece uses the euro. Tipping in restaurants was not traditionally a Greek custom, though in tourist areas that has changed, and customers usually leave a small tip on the table.
- Restaurants: The tip left on the table was usually about €1 to €2 in 2026.
- Taxis: Tipping the driver is uncommon.
Music, Poetry and Village Life
Crete keeps traditions of its own within Greece, above all its music and its verse. The Cretan lyra is central to the island's traditional music, and mantinades, rhyming couplets sung to it, are often improvised during dance music.
- The Cretan lyra is a pear-shaped, three-stringed instrument held upright on the player's lap. The player stops the strings with the fingernails rather than pressing them to the fingerboard, which gives it a different tone from a violin.
- Mantinades take love or satire as their subject, and one couplet often prompts a reply in another. The name comes from a Venetian word for a morning song.
- Many coastal places come in two halves: the older village on the hill above, called epano, and the newer settlement by the water, called kato, much of it built as tourism grew from the 1960s.
- In October or November, villages hold a rakazani at the still to mark the season's first tsikoudia, with music and food.
- Greeting people in Greek before asking whether they speak English is taken as good manners.
A Brief History
Crete was the center of the Minoan civilization in the Bronze Age, then passed through Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Venetian and Ottoman hands. It became autonomous in 1898 and joined Greece in 1913.
- The Minoans: People settled on the hill at Knossos around 7000 BC, and the first palace there was built around 1900 BC. The island was the center of the Minoan civilization, which the Mycenaeans from mainland Greece later overran.
- Rome and Byzantium: Crete was then ruled by Rome and later by the Byzantine Empire.
- The Emirate of Crete: Muslims from al-Andalus captured the island in the 820s and made a new capital at Chandax, today's Heraklion. Byzantium took the island back in 961.
- Venice: Venice ruled Crete from the early 13th century, for more than four centuries, and fortified its harbor towns and the island of Spinalonga.
- The Ottomans: In the Cretan War from 1645 to 1669 the Ottomans took the island, but Venice kept a few forts, and it held Spinalonga until 1715.
- The Cretan State, 1898: Crete gained autonomy under Ottoman sovereignty, and in December 1913 it became part of Greece.
- Spinalonga's leper colony: From 1904 to 1957, people with leprosy were sent to Spinalonga, and the island has been uninhabited since 1962.
- The Battle of Crete, 1941: German airborne landings began on the morning of 20 May 1941, and Greek and Allied troops and Cretan civilians fought to defend the island.
- UNESCO, 2025: Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros, Zominthos and Kydonia were inscribed together as the Minoan Palatial Centres World Heritage Site.
- To learn more ashore: The Heraklion Archaeological Museum, at 2 Xanthoudidou Street in Heraklion, holds the great majority of the finds from Knossos and covers Cretan history from the Neolithic to Roman times.
Crete with Children
With children, start from the legend: the story of Theseus and the Minotaur is set at Knossos, and the archaeologist Arthur Evans named the Minoans after the legendary King Minos. From Heraklion, pair the palace with the museum's frescoes, or choose an aquarium if younger children would rather see fish than ruins.
- Younger children: CretAquarium, about 15 km east of Heraklion on the road to Malia, is the biggest aquarium in the eastern Mediterranean. In Agios Nikolaos, a small park above Lake Voulismeni has a panoramic view of the lake.
- School age: At Knossos, tell the story of Theseus and the Minotaur where the labyrinth legend is set. Then find the Bull-Leaping Fresco in the museum.
- Teenagers: Spinalonga combines a Venetian sea fort with the story of the people with leprosy who were sent there and struck from the registers of their home towns.
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