We are trying to get from Santorini to Crete on Wednesday, April 5th. A car ferry would be great because we could just keep the car we pick up in Santorini. The problem I'm finding is that at least one ferry doesn't start running until April 7th. Are there any others??

Thanks!

Santorini - Crete is not a regular ferry route. There are catamarans that operate in summer, generally starting about a week before Greek Easter, which is April 16th this year. That confirms what you have seen on the ferry websites.

Apart from that, there is a once per week conventional ferry that stops at Santorini and Heraklion on a long route between Piraeus and Rhodes. This is Prevelis, the conventional ferry that operates year-round on more or less the same schedule. It publishes its timetable only a few weeks in advance, currently leaving Santorini at 03:40 am every Saturday.

It looks like your only hope of getting from Santorini to Crete is to wait a few days for the start of the catamaran season, or to fly/ferry back to Athens and go to Crete from there. You can get flights from Athens to Chania, if that's your destination on Crete. That will save travelling overland from Heraklion where all the ferries from Santorini arrive.

We have our plane tickets from Athens to Santorini. Is there a better second island we should try to get to? We will have 2 days in Santorini and two days somewhere else and then back to Athens.

Thanks for the help!

Two days is not enough for Crete anyway. With such a short time I would spend all four days on Santorini.

Even if there were a car ferry available when you need it you will not be allowed to take your rental car from Santorini to Crete.

Thanks all. We gave up on the car ferry. Santorini and then flying back to travel the Delphi area.