Santorini to Crete and Back
 

I am trying to find out if there is any way, short of purchasing a private yacht, to get from the Aegean island of Santorini across the sea a short sixty-five or seventy miles to Heraklion on the North coast of Crete, spend about six hours on the island (I want to see Knossos) and then get back to Santorini later in the evening of the same day, say around 9:00 pm or so.

The super fast catamarans are not scheduled to provide a morning departure from Santorini with an evening return, but make a sort of milk run to numerous other of the Cyclades islands.

Maybe a "day trip to Knossos" is not possible from Santorini, but it is very frustrating to be within a hundred miles of Knossos and not be able to go there.

My cruise ship arrives at Santorini at 7:00 am and does not leave until 11:30 pm....all of this is in mid-September of this year.

Have you checked out flights? You can fly to Santorini and Crete from Athens, maybe you can fly between the two islands.
Here is a very helpful website I found before our trip to Greece a few years ago -
www.greektravel.com
Kay

I know that there is a "fast" ferry scheduled on that route every day. I don't know if it will fit your schedule, if it does, the trip to Knossos along with the museum in Heraklion is great! I can't recall the website for Greek ferries but it might be..... www.ferries.gr or something like that.

Hello, everyone!

Here are tentative plans to get from MYkonos to Crete and back to Santorini!
Any comments would be welcome. My thanks to KayF, above, for suggesting the air alternative to sea travel.

Leave Mykonos at 10:40 pm for Athens, arriving at Athens at 11:30 pm, all on September 12. Olympic Airlines.

Leave Athens at 7:00 am the next morning, the 13th, and arrive a bit less than an hour later on Crete at Heraklion at 7:50 am. The carrier on this hop is also Olympic Airlines.

The whole day on Crete, especially Knossos!

Leave Crete at 5:00 pm for Athens, arriving back at Athens at 5:50 pm. Then, leave Athens for Santorini at 8:45 pm and arrive at Santorini at 9:30 pm. The carrier on the trip from Crete to Santorini, via Athens, is Aegean Air.

I must be on my cruise ship, leaving Santorini at 11:15 pm, so I THINK getting into Santorini airport by 9:30 is reasonable.

Total cost for all these flights is about $360 Canadian (converted from Euros).

I am assuming I can sit up and read at Athens airport itself overnight between flights (in theory all one flight).

Any comments, suggestions or information would be appreciated. I know I will miss the Minoan ruins on Santorini (ancient Thira), but I hope Knossos will not disappoint...

Hi,
Are there any flights between Santorini and Crete? We flew from Santorini to Rhodes without going to Athens. I assume you checked this out, but I felt a need to ask.

Hello, Yipper!

In checking as best I could on the net, I was not able to discover any direct flights from Santorini or Mykonos to Crete. That is not to say they don't exist, but I was not able to discover any. Direct flights, avoiding the dog leg to Athens were, of course, my first thought. Such flights still would be.