Knossos excursion from Chania Crete
 

Can anyone recommend a tour company with buses or vans that go from Chania to Knossos? Or is it so easy to get from Chania to Knossos that you recommend we take public transportation and get a guided tour at the site? Thanks for your help.
Roni

No idea but... 2+ hours each way on a not very interesting road for 1 hour at a not that great site with large tour groups.

There are organized tours from Chania that take you to Heraklion and Knossos. Just go to a local travel agency, they all sell the same excursions. It is a full day tour with an official guide. Just keep in mind that the distance from Chania to Heraklion is 150 km one way.
You also can take the public bus, go to Heraklion and take a local bus to Knossos. This way you can visit Knossos on your own, i am not sure though if there are local guides there offering tours on the spot.

Thank you for your responses. Always: you said "not that great a site with large tour groups". Is it a great/don't miss it site if I am not with a large tour group? Or do you think it isn't worth the drive period. Anyone else have a comment on this?
Inor

personally i would skip it..... it would have been of interest if you could visit also the archeological museum of Heraklion, the biggest museum of minoan art in the world. But as far as i know the museum is closed since 2006 for renovation.... you can only visit a small fraction of the old musuem...
The city of Heraklion isn't nice either( was bombed in ww2) compared to Rethymnon or Chania.....

We did visit the "small fraction of the old museum", but that was about the right amount of museum for us! I think that they probably collected most of the best stuff and put them in this small area, so unless you are crazy about Minoan art, it may be just the right amount for you too.

think visiting ruins may be an acquired taste, which I haven't quite acquired. If you like ruins, Knossos is pretty impressive. We didn't hire a guide at the gate, but it can be done (or could have been done when we were there about two years ago). Perhaps we should have and the ruins would have made more sense.

We were in Heraklion and took a local bus to Knossos, which wasn't very difficult.

The sad fact about Knossos is what you see isn't necessarily what it looked like when it was occupied. Sir Arthur Evans is responsible for what happened to the original site and "reconstructed" it to fit his own vision. It's my understanding that modern-day archaeologists are not necessarily in agreement with his interpretation, and consider his efforts more of a hindrance than a help to the accurate historical preservation of this historical site.

very well said brotherlee !!!!!!

I think others have generally said what I would add. Not worth it either for the time it takes to get there or the site itself. I am not keen on places that see coach after coach of tour groups arriving. I find sites like Lato, Gortys, Faetos, and Ayia Triadha much nicer. These are all in Crete but really out of range, in my opinion, from Chania. If you go, you don't need a guide, just the pages from a book such as Rough Guide.