Crete Road Trip: 5 days
 

Hi all!

My husband and I will be in Crete for about 5 days in mid-September. Here is our general time frame and activities. We need help with drive time reality, places to stop/stay/sleep, etc. THis is the beginning stages of planning Crete, so there are a lot of holes. Thanks for all of your input and advice.

Friday Sept 20: Arrive Heraklion via ferry from Santorini around 8pm, stay in Heraklion

Sat Sept 21: plan to see Knossos and Archaeological museum (is the museum fully open? I heard it was closed for a while) Either stay another night in Heraklion or start driving west.

The rest is still in the works. We would love to see Elafonisi beach, and need to stay the night in Hania on Mon Sept 23. We leave Hania to Athens on Wed Sept 24 on an overnight ferry.

My main question is the drive from Heraklion to Elafonisi. Should we stop and stay the night somewhere in between or go straight. Either way, we would like to spend a night near Elafonisi.

Thank you!!

Museum is still partly open but closes at 3pm ("we can't afford more staff")
Heraklion is not so nice but Agios Nikolos is great consider a night there. Anyway maybe drive to Matala next day (Hotel Fantastic) then see the 3 "must-see" ruin sites nearby and head along south coast to Hora Sfakion. Then up to Chania (easily the nicest town in Crete) stay there and drive to Elefonisi and back to Chania. That's a very full 5 days!
I'd much rather take the day cruise from Kissamos to Balos instead of the loooong drive to Elafonisi (somewhat overrated)

Here are the opening hours of the Archaeological Museum OF Heraklion, valid until the 30th of November :

Monday: 13:00 - 20:00
Tuesday-Saturday: 08:00 - 20:00
Sunday and national holidays: 08:00 - 15:00

Open

Official hours of opening:

Winter:
From the 1st of December 2012 until the 23rd of May 2013:

Monday 11:00- 17:00
Tuesday-Sunday 08:00-15:00

Summer:
From the 24th of May 2013 until the 30th November 2013:

Monday: 13:00 - 20:00
Tuesday-Saturday: 08:00 - 20:00
Sunday and national holidays: 08:00 - 15:00

Here is a very useful website about Crete.
Watch the video on the front page, it's the latest promotion for Crete and a great video :)

http://www.incrediblecrete.gr/