Simply the best. The highlight of our trip. Akrivi is an ideal guide and makes everyone feel she speaks to them. I studied classics at university, and I still found I learnt new things; my friend knew very little about the subject but also felt it was perfectly pitched for her. It's not a private tour that you can book just for your own family, but the groups are still so small that it feels like it is and everyone gets their questions answered in detail. (She had sophisticated answers to everything we threw at her!) We were really impressed by her fluency, both in the English language and just in her natural speaking style. She must give this tour several times a week, and yet we still felt like the jokes and key lines were being delivered fresh, for the very first time, just for us.
About Activity
What's Included
Includes
- Original reseller of service - Authorized travel agent.
- Headset to hear the guide better, if group size is over 6 participants (7-16 pax).
- Entry ticket for the Knossos Palace, general admission fee ( 20 EUR ).
- Licensed tour guide for a guided tour in a small group at Knossos palace.
- Skip-the-ticket-line service, to avoid the queue at the ticket counter.
- All Fees and Taxes (VAT 24% etc).
Excludes
- Gratuities
Departure & Return
Departure Point
- Check-in start 20 min before tour starting time, in front of the ticket office, where guests can meet their exclusive guide and receive their tickets. Tickets are valid for the selected time slot. Arriving outside this window result in denied entry, necessitating the purchase of a new entry ticket.
Return
- Check-in start 20 min before tour starting time, in front of the ticket office, where guests can meet their exclusive guide and receive their tickets. Tickets are valid for the selected time slot. Arriving outside this window result in denied entry, necessitating the purchase of a new entry ticket.
Itinerary
Step into the world of myth and history at the Palace of Knossos, the legendary home of King Minos and the mythical Minotaur. This must-visit archaeological site in Crete spans an impressive 20,000 square meters and represents the pinnacle of Minoan civilization during the Bronze Age. Intricately designed workshops, temples, royal apartments, and cult areas. Lavishly decorated frescoes and ceremonial courts used for feasts and public events. Originally constructed just after 2000 BC, the palace was rebuilt in 1700 BC following a devastating earthquake. The second iteration became a monumental, four-story structure and the center of political, religious, and cultural life in Bronze Age Crete for over three centuries. As you explore the labyrinthine ruins, your guide will share insights into the daily lives, rituals, and technological innovations of the ancient Minoans, bringing Europe’s earliest urban culture vividly to life.
Language Offered
Additional Info
Cancellation Policy
Reviews
Great tour of the Knossos Palace with Katarina on Sunday, September 18th. She was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. She also brought great visual aids to help explain the environment at the site. You definitely need a guide for this tour to be able to grasp the magnitude of Knossos. The combo Knossos tour and Archaeological Museum of Heraklion is as great value. Both places need to be on your Crete itinerary.
Wonderful experience! Akrivi was amazing. She paid attention to everyone in the group and she is a natural story teller. The tour is totally worth the time and money and I would recommend it to anyone who visits Heraklion . Thank you, Akrivi!
Our tour guide (Eirini X.) was lovely; very friendly, very warm person. It was obvious she knew everything about the place, its history, the architecture, all the details. We were very exited throughout the visit, we enjoyed the experience and highly recommend to everyone who visits Crete. It's a unique place with so much to offer, but all of this is easy to miss without an experienced tour guide. Bottom line: don't miss on a guided tour in Knossos, you'll definitely not regret it.
Upon arriving to Knossós, the meeting point was easy to find. There is also a café at the entrance if you arrive early and want a drink or snack. Our tour guide, Katerina was fantastic and passionate; she guided us gracefully around the site, feeding our imagination with interesting facts, making the whole experience very enjoyable and stimulating. 5* tour - would definitely recommend!
We really enjoyed our visit of Knossos Palace with our guide. Easy to find our guide and she (Akrivi) was really good and knowledgeable. We really enjoy the visit with her. It is important to know that the skip the line is for Knossos and even with ticket you may wait really long time to enter the Archeological museum in Heraklion (we had to wait 1 hour to enter).
Wow! This was such a great tour. After all the negative reviews online about the actual site I can say just ignore them. It’s a site well worth visiting and my guide was amazing! She was punctual waiting fir me with a sign with my name. She was really knowledgeable and really made this tour a good History abs cultural lesson! I would highly recommend this tour !
The palace was a must see for us and it did not disappoint. Our guide Joanna added so much to our visit. She gave us a true appreciation for the history and significance of where we stood.
Joanna was an excellent guide- free of hyped untrue stories. A welcomed academic experience. Would definitely recommend this tour and this guide.
A wonderful and informative experience. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and informative. Getting in front of the long lines was a added bonus. We highly recommend this tour.
We went to Knossos at 11am, 12 of August, joining the tour of the palace with an excellent guide, Joanna. She made sure we were all in the shade as a group, a mini private tour of two couples, during a heat wave. We had the opportunity in a 90 minutes tour (in shade wherever possible), to learn from an exceptional informative and pleasant tour guide, A.Evans' theories of Knossos from the 19th century, the approach of the 21st century archaeologists and the speculations of modern time archaeology. She understood that archaeology is a science that is constantly evolving through past, present and future. At the end of the 1,5 hour tour, we had time to testify our questions, given the facts we received about chronology, materials, myths and history. Thank you a lot for this wonderful experience.
Very nice, semi-private tour with a good guide HOWEVER the ticket for entry including the museum is 16 euros. This tour lasted a little over an hour so it was certainly not worth the extended mark up especially since transport is not offered
We did this tour on the 16.4.19. We were late due to not finding the parking. I would like to say thank yours u so much to th extremely knowledgeable and really nice tour guide who had so.much interesting information for us. My children are 10 and 11 with not the best attention span and she managed to keep them interested. The tour felt verypersonal. I don't normally pay for guides but this guide was simply amazing. Thank you! Jonathan Grendelmeier. Milton Keynes UK
Guided tour of Knossos Palace. I took advantage of the Transfer Service, they picked me up directly from the hotel. All very kind and also available to organizations before the tour via whatsapp. There were only 3 of us participating and it was magnificent, much easier to follow! Our guide Akrivi was fantastic and very nice! Tour really recommended!
Akrivi accompanied us to visit the ruins of Knossos. We were a family of 7 with children and a baby. It was perfect, adapting to our rhythm and bringing Minoan civilization to life throughout the visit. With the skip-the-line option, we didn’t queue to get our tickets, which is nice because the site attracts a lot of people. Recommend without hesitation
You really have to have a lot of imagination because unfortunately there is not much left of the palace of the time , for history buffs it is worth a visit for lovers of old stones no . Then obviously the top is the visit accompanied by a guide because he can tell you better the history of the place but the catch is the price we were offered a guided tour at 20€ per person too expensive for a site where nothing remains original.
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