Airports of Crete:
There are two international airports in the island; the bigger is located in Heraklion (5 km east of the city) and the smaller in Chania (14 km east of the city). There is also a small domestic airport in Sitia. The two major airports are connected with the international airport of Athens through 45-minute flights and with the most of the airports in Greece. Also, there are many regular or charter flights organised to and from many European countries and Cyprus during the tourist season from early May to the end of October.
Companies that operate regularly on these airports are the Olympic Airways, Air Greece, and Transavia (with direct flights from Amsterdam to Heraklion). The airport of Heraklion is also linked to Rhodes (all year long) and to Santorini, Mykonos and Paros during summer.
When you arrive in Crete you can hire a taxi or bus to go to your final destination. Chania''s airport does not have a permanent public means of transport, so you should hire a taxi. The charge to go to Chania is about 10-15 Euros and it lasts about half an hour. Alternatively, you can rent a car by one of the car rentals existing at the airport.
The distance between Chania and Heraklion is about 140 kilometres. Rethymnon lies in the middle, 80 km west of Heraklion and 60 km east of Chania. To hire a taxi from Heraklion to Chania costs about 125 Euros. Another option is to use the public busses passing every hour, with a fare of about 12 Euros per person and a duration of about 2 and a half hours.
Ports of Crete:
There are two very important ports in Crete; the port of Heraklion and the port of Chania in Souda. Moreover, there are three smaller ports, in Rethymno, Sitia and Kastelli. All the ports are connected with the central Greece mainly through the port of Piraeus.
Every day during the summer there are fast ferries overnight and very fast ferries (4 and a half-hour trip) during evening connecting Piraeus with Crete.
Especially for Chania, there are daily itineraries from Piraeus (Athens) to Souda (Chania) and from Souda to Piraeus by Anek Lines. The trip lasts about 9 hours during the night and the passengers may have dinner and sleep in cabins. The departure time from Piraeus is at 21:00 and the arrival time at Chania is at about 5:30 next day morning. As far as considering the very fast ferries, the departure time from Piraeus is at 4:00 a.m. and the arrival time at Chania at 8:30 a.m. of the same day.
Especially for Heraklion, there is a ferry three times per week going from Heraklion to Thessaloniki via Santorini, twice a week, via Paros, Tinos and Skiathos and once per week via Naxos, Syros and Volos. Moreover, there is a weekly ferry from Heraklion going to Rhodes and to Agios Nikolaos, stopping at Sitia, Karpathos and Halki.
Finally, two weekly ferries are linking Kastelli-Kissamos to Antikythira, Kythira and Githio connecting in this way the west Crete with Peloponissos.
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