Private tours in Crete

What does a private tour in Crete cost from Heraklion?

Two figures per tour, one per vehicle: a sedan for up to three guests, a minivan for four to seven. Knossos and the Archaeological Museum in four hours is 300 EUR by sedan and 400 EUR by minivan, so four people pay 100 EUR a head; with Archanes in five hours it is 400 EUR and 500 EUR. Eight guests and more travel by minibus or coach at a rate per person. On top come the gate tickets, 20 EUR (checked 14 Oct 2026, hh.gr) at Knossos and 20 EUR (checked 14 Oct 2026, hh.gr) at the museum, whose reduced ticket the Ministry’s portal limits to Greek and EU citizens over 65 between November and March. The whole rate card, by hours and by party, is on the price guide.

Driver or licensed guide at Knossos?

Both Heraklion tours turn on an archaeological site and a museum, so here the question decides the day. Law 5121/2024 reserves guiding inside a site or a museum to state-licensed guides; our driver is not one and is never presented as one. What the driver does is the road, the gates and the clock: the order of the stops agreed with you, the vehicle at each entrance and waiting there, the practical orientation of where to come out and how long you have. A licensed guide for the palace, the museum or both is booked ahead on request and quoted with the day; without one, the Ministry’s signs at Knossos and the labels in the galleries are your guide, at your own pace. The driver-or-guide guide has the law and the two roles side by side.

Four hours or five: the museum, or Archanes as well?

The 4-hour tour is the palace and its finds: 100 minutes at Knossos, 8 min and 6.1 km from the cruise terminal, then 90 minutes in the Archaeological Museum back in town, 18 minutes of driving in all and half an hour in hand. The 5-hour tour puts the village of Archanes between the two, 13 min and 9.8 km into the hills behind the palace, for a walk and a coffee before the museum, and drives 41 minutes in all. Each page shows its route strip, the legs routed on OpenStreetMap without traffic and the minutes planned at every stop, and the day builder rearranges the same Heraklion points in whatever order you like, with the same legs.

Where does the driver meet us?

For a ship: at the exit of its passenger terminal, name sign in hand. Heraklion is a berth, not an anchorage, and the Port Authority’s schedule lists the pier of every call, IV-V or II, so the ship’s name and its times tell the driver which terminal to stand at. For a hotel: at the door, in Heraklion or along the coast beside it, and back to the same door at the end; a hotel further off is possible on request, with the extra road counted in the hours. The cruise port page carries the port’s facts with their sources and dates, the legs from the terminal to Knossos and to the museum, and the length of call each tour needs.

When are Knossos and the museum open?

Both follow the Ministry of Culture’s calendar, shut on 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Easter Sunday and 25 and 26 December, and admit nobody in the last 20 minutes. Knossos opens every day and shortens its afternoon in steps through September and October. The museum has one summer and one winter timetable with a Wednesday exception: it opens at 13:00 in summer and 10:00 in winter that day, which fixes the order of a Wednesday tour. The two tables, as the official pages give them:

• 1 Apr to 31 Aug: 08:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Sep to 15 Sep: 08:00 to 19:30, last entry 19:10
• 16 Sep to 30 Sep: 08:00 to 19:00, last entry 18:40
• 1 Oct to 15 Oct: 08:00 to 18:30, last entry 18:10
• 16 Oct to 31 Oct: 08:00 to 18:00, last entry 17:40
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: 08:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:40

Checked 14 Oct 2026, hh.gr.

• 1 Apr to 31 Oct: Monday, 08:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Apr to 31 Oct: Tuesday, 08:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Apr to 31 Oct: Wednesday, 13:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Apr to 31 Oct: Thursday, 08:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Apr to 31 Oct: Friday, 08:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Apr to 31 Oct: Saturday, 08:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Apr to 31 Oct: Sunday, 08:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:40
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: Monday, 08:30 to 15:30, last entry 15:10
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: Tuesday, 08:30 to 15:30, last entry 15:10
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: Wednesday, 10:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:40
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: Thursday, 08:30 to 15:30, last entry 15:10
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: Friday, 08:30 to 15:30, last entry 15:10
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: Saturday, 08:30 to 15:30, last entry 15:10
• 1 Nov to 31 Mar: Sunday, 08:30 to 15:30, last entry 15:10

Checked 14 Oct 2026, hh.gr.

What changes with the season?

Mostly the afternoons. From November to March the museum shuts at 15:30 six days a week and Knossos at 17:00, so a winter tour reaches the galleries by early afternoon at the latest; in summer both stay open until 20:00 and a late start is fine. The Port Authority publishes its cruise calls for the year, and a guest staying in a hotel can pick a day without a ship from that list. Both sites admit free on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October and the first and third Sundays from November to March, by the Ministry’s portal. Below, month by month: the climate normals of the Heraklion station of the Hellenic National Meteorological Service, the sunset on the 15th and the hours of the two sites.

How does a day with us work?

You write with a date, a party and a starting point; nothing is paid on the site. The office confirms by email, and the driver is paid on the day itself. At the agreed hour the vehicle is at the terminal exit or the hotel door, the order of the stops is settled between you, and while you are inside the palace or the galleries the driver waits with the vehicle at the gate. The party sets the vehicle: a sedan to three, a minivan to seven, a minibus or a coach above that, with a child seat on request at no charge. A booking cancels free of charge up to 72 hours before the start. Greece Private Tours has run private days since 1995; what a private tour is is explained on its own page.

Can we go further than Heraklion?

Inside the hours you book, yes: the Koules fortress at the old harbour in place of the museum, a beach after the palace, the palace last. Say so in the request, or to the driver on the day. Phaistos, Chania, Rethymno and the Lasithi plateau are beyond our two fixed tours for now; the custom tour form takes any list of stops and a number of hours and the office answers with a day and its price from the same rate card, and a cruise guest with more than one of our ports on the itinerary can ask for one plan for every call.