Crete Itinerary-Family Trip to Greece
Nestled in the Aegean Sea, Crete boasts a rich history, beautiful beaches, and stunning natural landscapes that make it a popular destination for travelers from around the world whether it be singles, couples, and definitely for families!
There is something to interest everyone on Crete. Ancient ruins to its bustling cities, and of course it’s stunning beaches. Greek people are warm and welcoming, especially toward children, making it the perfect place for a family trip to Greece. In this Crete Itinerary, I take you through the best ways to spend a week on Crete. It includes our family’s own experiences and additional ideas so you can create your perfect plan.
Crete Itinerary-7 Days
In this Crete Itinerary example, we are going to assume you have one week in Crete starting in Chania and ending closer to Hersonissos/Heraklion. At the end of the post, there are more ideas in case you have more time or want to swap out activities to suit your family’s interests. If you have less time, I would focus on just one home base as it can be time-consuming and tiring to change accommodations every couple of days. If you have more than a week, you could easily fill more time on Crete or add in a neighboring island.
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Day 1-Beach Day (Under the Radar Beaches)
Start out your family trip to Crete with a fun and relaxing day at the beach! If your hotel is beachfront, you might want to spend time there, but there are plenty of gorgeous beaches all around the island and I recommend visiting more than just your hotel’s beach.
Yannis Beach is a sandy beach located just west of Chania. There are plenty of chairs and umbrellas for rent, a playground nearby, and a small beach front restaurant serving up typical Greek fare (it was delicious).
What we liked most about this beach was some of the rock formations to explore. If you head to the far right side of the beach you can hike a short path over to some rock arches that are really cool, and definitely Instagram worthy!
The beach was also very gentle here which made it good for our youngest. He was happy to play on the shore while the bigger kids explored the rocks and snorkeled. Snorkeling in Crete was really a pleasant surprise. We found the snorkeling in Crete to be the best we’ve seen in Europe so far. There were many more colorful fish than we saw in Croatia.
Another small beach we visited was Afrata Beach. We chose this beach because we were looking for a small beach with good snorkeling opportunities that also had a restaurant. It’s nice to have a restaurant so you have food and drinks readily available, as well as bathroom facilities.
This beach was great for snorkeling! We saw so many colorful fish and even eels! We spent the day snorkeling, swimming, and looking for pretty rocks. I suggest getting here early to make sure you are able to grab some chairs. If you love to snorkel, consider taking a boat trip out with a guide who knows the best spots to go!
Falassanara Beach is also a highly recommended beach to visit. It is on the western coast of Crete. It is in between Balos Beach and Elafonisi Beach. It is a long sandy beach that looks to have some rocks/coral on either end of it that would be good for snorkeling.
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Day 2-Balos Beach or Elafonisi Beach
The two most famous beaches on Crete are Balos Beach and Elafonisi Beach (the pink sand beach). You will want to see one or both of these when you take a trip to Crete. Let’s go over the details.
Balos Beach is reachable by boat or by car. We chose to take a boat because driving here requires a hike down to the beach and a hike back up at the end of the day. We didn’t think that sounded ideal with our 3 year old and all the beach stuff. Here is a similar boat tour to what we did.
If your family is used to walking or you have bigger kids, I would suggest driving. When you drive, you’ll get a very impressive view of the Balos Lagoon from above. Also you can plan to get there early before all the big boats descend on the beach.
If you decide to take a boat, you can take a large ferry boat from the port at Kissamos (40 minutes drive from Chania) or hire a private boat in Chania (starting at $500 for half a day, starting around $800 for a full day). We chose the ferry boat that took us first to Balos Beach and then to Gramvousa Island. You can also opt to take a small group boat for a more affordable price.
The boat we took was huge and sold food aboard. That was nice because there weren’t any restaurants available at Balos Beach or Gramvousa. The part of the boat we didn’t enjoy was that we felt like we were absolutely swarming the beach with the masses when the boat docked. Even in mid September the boat was full and it was a lot of people unloading and then loading again.
Balos is definitely beautiful, it looks like Caribbean water and it was fun to snorkel a little bit. We could also see hints of pink sand in places. It is worth seeing, but I want to give you a transparent idea of our experience.
I much preferred the second stop on our boat trip, Gramvousa Island. Gramvousa is a small island close to Balos Beach and it features a Venetian fortress on top of it, a pretty beach, and a shipwreck!
Most people from the boat chose to hike up to the fortress or stopped at the beach right after deboarding. We chose to walk a bit further to the shipwreck and we had it almost completely to ourselves. Honestly, I was very surprised that no one else seemed to be interested in snorkeling in the shipwreck. It was so cool, one of my favorite experiences from the whole trip!
The other big beach is Elafonisi Beach, otherwise known as the pink sand beach. Full disclosure, we planned to go to Elafonisi but after our Balos experience, we were really put off by the idea of being on a crowded beach where tour bus after tour bus descend. We opted to pick a smaller beach to visit instead.
After I came back, many people said they thought Elafonisi was worth it and you could get there early and not have as many crowds. I don’t necessarily feel like we missed out, but I would be open to trying it on a repeat visit. But I would definitely drive and get there as early as possible.
Elafonisi is about an hour and a half drive from Chania for reference.
Day 3-Aptera & Chania Old Town
You can’t talk about Greece without talking about ancient ruins. One option is the ancient city of Aptera. Aptera is an ancient city located in western Crete, Greece. It was one of the most important city-states in ancient Crete, with a rich history that spans thousands of years. The site contains several well-preserved structures, including a large amphitheater, a Roman cistern, and numerous tombs and temples.
This is a good option if you have Greek/Roman mythology loving kids or if you don’t plan to visit the Palace of Knossos. It is good for a half day activity to mix it up from all the beaches. If you plan to visit Knossos, Aptera isn’t a must do.
After spending the morning in Aptera, head back to Chania and explore the old town. The city is known for its picturesque Old Town, which boasts narrow streets, Venetian architecture, and colorful buildings. The Old Town is also home to several landmarks, including the Venetian harbor, the lighthouse, and the Firkas Fortress.
Kids will enjoy walking along the harbor wall to the lighthouse. There’s plenty of interesting shops, restaurants, and vendors along the water as well. You’ll find plenty of boat companies here selling private trips, sunset cruises, etc. If you’re considering hiring a boat for the day or doing a sunset cruise, I would visit the harbor on one of your first days so you can hear all the options and get some price quotes.
Where to Stay Near Chania:
Royal Sun (near Old Town, has a pool)
Day 4-Knossos
Halfway through the week it’s time for a location change and to head a little further East toward Heraklion.
The Ancient Minoan Palace of Knossos is a must visit. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece. The palace was built around 1900 BC and was the center of the Minoan civilization, which flourished on Crete over 3,000 years ago. The palace is famous for its impressive architecture, colorful frescoes, and intricate stonework.
I recommend doing a knossos guided tour here. There are plenty of guides you can hire on site speaking a range of languages. We decided to get a virtual tour, which was essentially an ipad with headphones. It would show you a reconstruction of what different parts of the palace looked like during the Minoan times. This was a great option for the kids because it was kind of like virtual reality. They could see what it would’ve looked like and they could listen to stories and descriptions about it.
It can be very hot here, there is little to no shade. Come here on your coolest day or early in the morning to avoid the midday heat and crowds. There is an on-site restaurant, but I’d recommend bringing your own water and snacks and eating elsewhere before or after your visit.
After you visit Knossos, you can visit Heraklion’s old city where you’ll find more Venetian architecture, the Archaeological museum, or one of the nearby beaches.
Where to Stay near Heraklion/Hersonissos:
Star Beach Village (all-inclusive, waterpark for kids)
Lyttos Beach (big resort on a blue flag beach with waterslides/waterpark for kids)
Creta Maris Resort (highly recommended, on a blue flag beach, indoor and outdoor pool, all-inclusive)
Day 5-Olive Tree Farm & Labyrinth Park
Crete produces somewhere in the neighborhood of 90,000 tons of olive oil each year. One great way to learn more about the process (and sample some Cretan Olive Oil) is to tour an Olive Grove/Olive Oil production farm.
We visited Vassilakis Estate just outside of Heraklion. Our weather was a bit cloudy and chilly this day, so it was the perfect day to take a break from the beach.
There are several Olive Oil Farms around the island, some of them also offer a “Cretan Night” which is like a cultural night full of food and dancing. I wished we would’ve done that.
On our free tour we were guided through the old world process of making olive oil to the modern day ways the olive oil is produced. The tour was quick and interesting and at the end we had the chance to sample and purchase a wide range of olive oil products. This is a great morning or afternoon activity that is educational and doesn’t take the whole day.
For lunch we popped over to Chersonisos and had lunch at Taverna Harakas. There is a cute square here and a few quaint streets for wandering. Don’t miss the ceramic shop.
Following our olive oil experience and lunch, we drove over to the Labyrinth Park. This small and kitschy amusement park has several activities based around Greek mythology-the biggest attraction being the large labyrinth.
In our entrance fee a few other activities were included and there were additional activities we could pay for. The kids were given certificates and stickers for completing the labyrinth and they could earn more stickers for completing other activities.
Throughout the park there was signage in multiple languages explaining the Greek mythology behind the activities and the history of how things related to ancient Greek culture.
Day 6-Agios Nikolaos
Agios Nikolaos is a cute town located further east from Heraklion. It is famous for cliff diving, and we lucked out and happened to visit when there was a cliff diving competition. Agios Nikolaos is on the coast and there is a little lake (which is really an inlet from the ocean which is surrounded by some high cliffs.
We enjoyed wandering the town and around the perimeter of the lake all while watching the cliff divers warm up and then compete. This town is worth a visit whether you’re able to catch a competition or not. Don’t miss the minotaur mural!
Eat lunch at Gioma Meze and enjoy the views.
Hotels in Agios Niklolaos:
Aelia Suites (private pools with the rooms)
Day 7-Elounda & Spinalonga
Elounda is a charming town just a bit further from Agios Nikolaos. This is the perfect town for wandering, shopping, and eating with a seaside view.
Further up the coast you can visit the island Spinalonga. Spinalonga has an interesting history. It was formerly under Venetian and Ottoman rule and from 1903-1957 it was used as a leper colony.
You can tour the fortress and the abandoned colony as well as visit some of the beaches. It’s easily reached by boat from Agios Nikolaos.
We really enjoyed visiting these towns because we found them to be more charming than Hersonissos/Heraklion. If I could do it over, I would stay here instead of Hersonissos.
Hotels Near Elounda:
Other Things to Do on Crete
As usual, we didn’t have enough time to do everything we would’ve liked to. Here is a brief list of other points of interest around the island that sounded fun but weren’t a good fit for our kids ages/timeline:
Falassanara Beach-beautiful beach on the western side of the island. Recommended by several friends.
Seitan Limania Beach-need to hike to this beach or arrive by boat. It is a beautiful, narrow beach in a dramatic inlet. Also known for the goats that live here.
Lotouro-white washed village you’ll need a boat to get to.
Snorkeling Trip from Rethymno, in the snorkeling we did we saw some beautiful fish, the best in Europe so far!
Samaria Gorge-hiking area on the southern side of the island.
CRETAquarium-family friendly aquarium near Heraklion.
Dinosauria Park-amusement park with life size dinosaur models, bones, fossils, and a 3D movie theater.
Cave of Diktaion Andron-an underground cave system with stalagmites & stalactites. Famous for being the birthplace of Zeus.
See some of our favorite items for beach trips here.
Have you been to Crete before? Share your favorites from your visit in the comments to help other traveling families! See some of our favorite items for beach trips & best water shoes for Europe.
Still have questions? Let me know!
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