Flights to Crete
Budget and low cost cheap Flights to Crete
Flight and travel information: International airlines fly direct to
Heraklion airport. During the holiday season Charter flights and low
budget flights have direct flights Crete in Heraklion and Chania
airports .
General information:Crete (Kriti) is the largest of Greece's
islands, and the most important one historically; it is also the
southernmost part of Europe, and the fourth largest island in the
Mediterranean. Famous for its ancient Minoan- civilization, Crete can
provide modern excitements in penetrating mountains and remote villages
and discovering barely known beaches.
It is a beautiful island of large plateaux and high mountains, such as
Mount Idi, the White Mountains (Lefka Ori), and Mount Dikte,
all over 7,000 ft. The climate is mild, the vegetation luxuriant.
Despite their sometimes fierce appearance, the Cretans are perhaps the
most hospitable members of a hospitable nation.
From Athens, Crete is I hourr by air, 5-10. hrs by super fast ferries
and car-ferry. The main road through Heraklion (Iraklion) and Rethimnon
from Canea (Khania) to Ayios Nikolaos is good. This cannot be said of
all the others the mountain roads particularly, although being
improved, have some very bad stretches.
Accommodation is mainly in and around Heraklion, where you will find modern beach
colonies like in most holiday resorts of Crete. Ayios Nikolaos, too, has smart hotels as well
as the simpler kind, and there are unpretentious inns elsewhere Other
places in Crete ideal for holidays are Chania and Rethymno, the small
towns and villages like Agia Galini, Ierapetra, Matala the upmarket
resorts of Elounda and many others. Even
the smallest place has its taverna, where you can eat simply and well. The
local wine is pleasant, the fruit and cheeses are excellent.
Our knowledge of Crete's extraordinary Minoan civilization owes much to Sir Arthur Evans, the British archaeologist, who excavated the ancient Palace of Knossos, 3 miles from modern Heraklion. The exceptionally well-restored site displays the royal chambers and their brilliant frescoes, the theatre, traces of a remarkable drainage system, and the labyrinthine corridors around which grew the legend of the bull-headed Minotaur.
The administrative capital of the island is Chania, which has a small museum of archaeological treasures from western Crete. But the largest town and main port is Heraklion, the Candia of medieval times. It has retained much of its Venetian and Turkish character. The Venetians fortified it in the early 13th cent. as their chief Mediterranean stronghold and naval base. There are noteworthy Venetian and Byzantine churches, especially the Cathedral of Ayios Minas, which has four ikons attributed to Michael Damaskinos, a Cretan painter reputed to have been the first teacher of that other great Cretan - El Greco. The archaeological museum, which has twenty-three halls, is the largest in Greece and holds an incomparable collection from the early Cretan and Minoan civilizations.
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Heraklion is the base for the main sightseeing trips. The historic
Monastery of Arkadi is a short bus ride. Some 28 miles from Heraklion lies the site of Gortys
or Gortinos, the ancient Roman capital and chief
port during Dorian times. About 6 m. beyond it is the excavated site of
the Minoan city of Phaestus, which its rival Gortyn overran and
destroyed. A smaller Minoan structure, perhaps the villa of a nobleman,
is at nearby Ayia Triada.
