From Rethymno: Full-day Knossos And Heraklion With Free Time

Easy way to get more out of visiting Crete without a car.

Excellent tour, can recommend. It is more like a transfer with tour operator. There are no guided tours on the spots, unless you book one from others. The tour operator does some explanations and a bit of history telling on the bus. Heraklion museum is great, can recommend historical museum too. Knossos is excellent and must see spot, be warned, it is very hot with few shaded places. But you can cool down a bit in the museum afterwards. Heraklion could have been 1 hour less for my feeling, time at Knossos is fine. (2 hours).

I feel as though this tour was amazing besides the false advertisement about hotel “pick up and drop off.” They in fact DO NOT pick you up or drop you off at a hotel - they make you walk to an undisclosed location that they dont send out til less than 24 hours before. They also are notorious for being late despite asking you to arrive to the station 10 minutes early. The itinerary was changed when we arrived compared to what we booked - but it actually ended up being better than the original plans. It is important to note this tour is in English German and French so you will hear the speaker on the bus the whole entire time - there is no silence on the drive. Other than that the tour was super fun loved seeing Herkalion and the palace. Wish it was actually a guided tour like it is advertised as cuz the bus driver makes it very clear he is not a guide just there to give information Kinda passive aggressively too

Safe transportation, nice recommendations from the driver, enough time to see the Knossos Palace and Iraklion, had to go fast in the Archeological Museum but still a great experience and tour

Great to have time to see and do what I wsnted. The idea of this tour is really just a transfer to heriklion and Knossos but that suited me

Nobody turned up to collect us at the agreed location. When I called the operator I was given a new location ten minutes away. When we arrived there there was still no bus waiting, and when I tried to contact them again, my call wasn’t answered, and I was just sent a text saying that we were too late.

Good trip I would recommend it to others, bus driver & the guide ( George) very professional & helpful. My family enjoyed the experience. Pick up & was 5 minutes from hotel no issues.

Excellent guide who spoke English, French, German and Italian. Very informative. Visited Herkalion city for 4 hours, great shopping and restaurants and short drive to Knossos Palace for 2 hours. Very enjoyable and would recommend

I don't have a memorable experience as we didn't end up going. An email was sent to us stating the pick up point 2 days before the event. We turned up in plenty of time. No bus. We rang and were told that the pick up point was actually across the road and therefore we had missed the bus. We were told we could get a taxi! We sent a screen shot to a WhatsApp number verifying the pick up point we had, no response. Messaged again, no response. Very disappointed to say the least.

It was a great trip to both Knossos and Heraklion. The guide was really informative, we had a good amount of time at both locations, and I would definitely recommend this trip.

Very well organised, tour guide was amazing and very informative. 4 hours of free time in Heraklion, just enough time to visit the museum and have a good look round Heraklion, and 2 hours in Knossos.

We thought we were booking a TOUR but this was not a tour. This was simply bus transportation, and the individual in charge made it clear right up front that he was NOT a tour guide. We were simply taken to Heraklion and dropped off for 4 hours, and then transported to Knossos, and dropped off there for 2 hours. All this free time was on our own. Especially at the Knossos Palace, you need an experienced tour guide so you know what you're looking at. Also, when we booked the "tour," we selected to be picked up at our hotel, the Anemos Resort, which was in the dropdown menu for hotels serviced. Then about a week before the "tour" we were sent an email stating that our hotel was not on the "pickup list," so we had to take a separate bus to a bus stop in Rethymno where we were picked up. This was a major hassle. Take the Anemos hotel OFF your selections of hotels to be picked up!

I booked this trip on line, very satisfactory, slight confusion as to pick up point but no real problem. George was our driver and Anastasia our guide. Her classics degree is more than evident and her skills in languages to be envied. Wonderful days value

Fab day walking around Heraklion, loved getting sea spray on us down at the Marina walls! Visiting the museum at the start is a must, mind blowing ancient culture. Also helped to make much more sense of Knossos Palace when we visited later in the afternoon.

Ticket from Trip advisor and Viator said pick-up was from hotel, but to confirm with Platanos tours who would send an email. Tried phoning Platanos, constant answer machine in Greek so wasn’t even sure if I had the right number. No email arrived so we waited for over an hour at designated spot on ticket. Eventually got hold of Platanos who insisted they had sent an email with new pick-up point and earlier time slot. Would not confirm my email address. Viator no help in getting refund, just kept quoting email that had not arrived. They had my mobile number, why not ring me? Very disillusioned after years of successful tours with Viator. Refund refused - I wasn’t in the right place as per never received email.

Well worth the visit the trip but I would be more careful walking around Knossos as the ground is very uneven, The tourist areas of Heraklion were also enjoyable, Anna and Kostos were great!

Bus didn't turn up at pick up point on ticket. Viator refusing refund. Local tour company unhelpful and did not send revised instructions.

It was a very pleasant trip. The translator was very nice and knowledgeable. We had plenty of time at each stop

We can fully recommend this tour. The tour was really well organized and our tour guide (George) was absolutely fantastic. He was very friendly and helpful.

The trip ambassador was a lovely guy, very welcoming and friendly. Great trip to Knossos insightful and definitely a must visit!

Enjoyed this trip immensely, plenty of time to see the sites and shop in Heraklion, and a good amount of time to explore Knossos. George our multilingual tour guide was excellent, and made sure we knew when the coach would depart from both stop offs, and wasn’t constantly talking through the trip, which allowed us to see the countryside. Would recommend this trip if visiting Crete

We really loved the Museum in Heraklion. It was a good size and had some wonderful things to see that have been obtained from Knossos and other sights. It took 2 hours to see. But Knossos was very disappointing. There seems to have been a large amount of recent cement pours(in last 100 years) making it seem very unauthentic. Would have been cheaper to get a local bus from Rethymno. You have to pay for entry to both the museum and Knossos separately plus if you wish a guide at Knossos that’s more money (which we have heard is not worthwhile). Do your reading before you go on the history. Very little information at the site. These additions almost doubles the cost of the bus ticket. The tour would be better with less time in Heraklion and less talking by the bus escort as he was talking too much (in 4 languages so kudos to him). Like I said disappointing.

Great trip and a brilliant guide who was very informative. Plenty of time in Heraklion to see museum and Venetian fort and we’ll times for Knossos as well. Only negative was the bus whose air conditioning was very poor!

Precise on time at all places, decent, comfortable bus. The guide with rich knowledge to part with travellers in two foreign languages. Enough time on all places. We did not join the guided tours, went on our own through both the museum and the site. Over all, a succesfull, pleasant day. Recommended!

Great tour which included the palace, museum as well as some shopping time in town. Tour guide very knowledgable.

We had a great day out enjoying both the museum and Knossoss. The tour guide was very good and a master of languages giving us lots of detail. We would say though that the first floor of the museum was mostly closed with only one section open to the public which was disappointing. As a result there was quite a bit of spare time to hand so we visited the Venetian Harbour and went around the Fort which is well worth a visit at €2 each. Great views of the harbour and city. Knossos was wonderful with extensive ruins and reconstructed sections All said its a great day out and would recommend it to a yo e interested in history.

Exactly what I expected from the description. Quick and efficient email response, collection point very close to the hotel and collection of other passengers carried out efficiently. The directions provided by the guide were clear and precise and the established departure and arrival times were respected.

notre accompagnateur la ponctualite et rigueur par contre le bar irrini lieu de rdv a refuse de le servir un cafe