Heraklion Transportation

Heraklion airport is relatively busy :) because all people who love sun want to be on Crete as fast as possible and there is really busy day, just take-offs and landing :). From the downtown take bus 1 to get to the airport and avoid taking taxi from the airport. As everywhere it is more expensive then from downtown. We landed in the early morning and took taxi from airport to Matala (aprox. 75 km) and is was around 50 Euro. From downtown it is 8 Euro less.
In front of the building of airport u can leave your luggage for a while if you want to see the city and have no accomodation. There is a small duty-free shop :) upstairs and lots of kiosk of course.
Toilets are clean and well equiped. Howgh :)

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"Ocean Village"

Length : 806FT
Breadth: 116Ft at Bridge wings
Draught: 27' 06"
Weight: 35092 Tonnes (Summer displacement)
Max Speed 20.5Knots
Max Number of passenger Cabins 735
Max Number of Passengers 1.856
Total Number of crew 550

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He!He! And I don't even drive!! Just there just something about Heraklion, after the total chaos of Athens, that just made me an observer of these sort of things. As car parks go this certainly has to be the coolest, certainly the shadiest, and definitely the sort of place I would choose to park if I ever actually learnt how to pilot one of the infernal cumbusting engined machines - a tad different from the concrete multi-storey monstrocities to be found elsewhere!!!

For a taxi ride from the Heraklion city centre, expect to pay about:
10E to the airport
4E to the harbor, or other place inside the city
8E to Knossos
20E to Hersonissos
40E to Ag. Nikolaos
50E to Rethymno

Central regional bus station is on the port avenue. It is on a walking distance from the port. There are urban busses to connect it with city centre, airport and the 2nd regional bus station.
Several daily routes to Chania, Rethymno, Ag. Nikolaos, Ierapetra and Sitia and all the interval resorts.
Find also routes to Acquarium.
Finally there are also services to other greek cities such as Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Patra

There are 2 Regional bus stations in Heraklion.
The 1st, the central bus station (see relevant detailed tip) is on the port avenue and it is housed in the restored stone-buildings of old factories. The station serves the lines towards
Chania,
Rethymno,
different destinations in the prefecture of Lassithi including Ag. Nikolaos, Ierapetra and Sitia,
the coastline northeast of Heraklion,
the eastern part of prefecture of Heraklion.

The second bus station (see relevant detailed tip) is right outside the city walls on the west side, on the Chanioporta gate.
The station serves the east part of th prefecture of Heraklion, including the south eastern coast line.

Taxis in Heraklion are grey. You can find a lot around in the city streets. You can find them also waiting at the airport, the port, and the bus stations. Also in the lion's sq. and the Liberty sq.
Rates are as follows:
Flag:0.85
Single tariff (normal daytime):0.30 per km.
Double tariff (nighttime+holidays+sundays):0.56 per km.

The telephone to pre-arrange a ride is 2810 210102.

For those who want to experience the island with their own cars or just don't have enough for airticket is here the ferry boat :) There are lines from Pireaus, Thessaloniki, neighbour islands, or even from Hania...

There is a good access to every place thanks public transport. You must buy tickets in the kiosk and if u are not sure about zone, just say where are you going. Then in the bus, give the ticket to the driver he will rip it off. Tickets are different according the zones, e.g. for Knossos u will pay 0,90 Euro (one way) and get blue ticket, for airport just 0,65 Euro form the downtown and u will get orange ticket. :) Anyway, to Knossos take bus number 2 from the Lion Square.

These new highspeed ships have made the trip from Piraeus, the port of Athens, to the capital of Crete pleasant and not so tiring as in the past (you arrive in Irakleio in 6-7 hours).
The airport of the city is not far away. It is too busy in the summer!