Palace Day Trips in Greece: 15 to Book

1.Knossos Palace & Heraklion Full-Day Tour from Chania Area

★★★★★★★★★★4.3 · 235 reviews · 9 - 11 hours · from $57Our pick

Visit Knossos, Heraklion, and its archaeological museum on a guided day trip from Chania, with coastal views, free time, and hotel pickup.

“Great trip. We had good experience overall. Guides were great. It will be good if you have extra 1hr at Heraklion. Better have just 10-15mins at rest stops, so more time can be spent in Heraklion. We were back in Chania at 18:30, hence extra hour should be fine. From the description of the activity, you are under the impression that the 2hr free time at Heraklion are done after the archeological museum and that the guide will be with you there. That is not the case. You have to try and fit roaming the city, check the port, center, shops, grab something to eat and check the museum for…”

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2.From Rethymnon: Day Trip to Knossos Palace & Heraklion City

★★★★★★★★★★4.4 · 216 reviews · 8 hours · from $25Best value

Review of the Rethymnon to Knossos and Heraklion day trip, including transport, timing, costs, museum tips, and who should book.

“Amazing!! Very well organised (a mini bus picked us up just outside our hotel and brought us to Rethymnon to catch the coach). The journey was lovely and the driver was great! The guide was very friendly and helpful and gave us lots of facts and info about what we were seeing on the coach, and when we arrived in Knossos, he walked us from the car park directly to the ticket office for the palace. The views were amazing and 2 hours at Knossos was the perfect amount of time to see everything without rushing! The drive into Heraklion was great and again, the guide walked us from the…”

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3.Knossos Palace & Heraklion Full-Day Tour from Rethymno Areas

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 197 reviews · 5 - 10 hours · from $25

Review of the Knossos and Heraklion day tour from Rethymno, with practical details on timing, guides, costs, transport, and what to see.

“A great day. Everything well organised and guide very good.”

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4.Knossos Palace and Heraklion Full-Day Tour

★★★★★★★★★★4.1 · 153 reviews · 12 hours · from $56

Review of the Chania to Knossos and Heraklion tour, with practical advice on timing, costs, guides, museum visits, and Rethymno.

“Overall a good experience to visit the Knossos palace. The guide was at times difficult to understand and the number of people on the tour was a bit much. It was very nice to have a guide when visiting Knossos as there wasn’t much information at the palace. The archeological museum was worth a visit and if you are an EU-citizen under the age of 25, it is free. However, I would advise to do the tour at the museum without the guide in order to be able to see all the exhibits so you can visit at your own pace.”

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5.Lasithi Plateau & Knossos Palace Day Trip

★★★★★★★★★★4.6 · 81 reviews · from $50

Review of Crete’s Lasithi Plateau and Knossos day trip, with village stops, monastery frescoes, olive oil tasting, lunch, and practical tips.

“Highly recommended. The trip is well organised and excellent value for money, packing a lot into the day. The guide Janette was amazing and made it an interesting and informative day. Enjoyed all the activities but highlight was Zeus cave. The taverna that you stop off for lunch served really good, well priced food with quick service.”

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6.Knossos Palace and Lassithi Plateau Day Tour

★★★★★★★★★★3.9 · 70 reviews · 12 hours · from $56

Explore Knossos, Lassithi Plateau villages, Kera monastery, local food, and mountain views on a 12-hour Crete coach tour.

“Prelievo puntualissimo, all'orario concordato. Guida competente. Itinerario ben definito. Prezzo che potrebbe includere almeno il monastero, non menzionato nell'itinerario, il cui costo di ingresso è 2€”

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7.Lasithi Plateau and Knossos Palace Day Tour

★★★★★★★★★★4.8 · 25 reviews · 10 hours · from $64

Review of Crete’s 10-hour Lasithi Plateau and Knossos tour, with cave, monastery, village stops, costs, walking advice, and booking tips.

“Très belle excursion en famille et journée très bien organisée du samedi 13 avril. Nous étions 2 adultes et 2 enfants. Notre guide Irèna a été géniale pour toutes les explications. Elle a pris le temps d'expliquer aux enfants, c'était top. Conduite très rassurante du conducteur janis. Merci pour cette belle journée. Nous conseillons vivement !”

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8.Knossos Palace and Pottery experience. Excursion Safari

★★★★★★★★★★4.7 · 21 reviews · 7 hours · from $115

Explore Knossos, mountain pottery, olive roads, and a local lunch on this small-group Crete tour with hotel pickup.

“Es hat alles soweit gepasst, leider war die Manufaktur für die Tonherstellung geschlossen. Trotzdem vielen Dank an den tollen Guide”

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9.Knossos Palace & Heraklion City –Full-Day Tour from Rethymno

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 12 reviews · 8 - 9 hours · from $25

Visit Knossos Palace and Heraklion from Rethymno, with Minoan treasures, museum time, city exploring, transport, and practical tips.

“I can really recommend this trip! We were in a small group of about 10 people, and our guide taught us a lot about Cretan history and culture whilst driving, and he also guided us through the Knossos Palace. We also beat the crowd in Knossos due to the early departure:) After Knossos, we had 3 hours in Heraklion, and were dropped off right next to the Archaeological Museum. It is worth mentioning that anyone up to (and including) 25 years old have free entrance to both the museum and the palace!”

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10.Full-Day/Half-Day Tour : Lasithi Plateau & Knossos Palace

★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · 10 reviews · 6 to 9 hours (approx.) · from $54

Review of Crete’s Lasithi Plateau and Knossos tour, with monastery, Zeus Cave, pottery, mythology park, costs, timing, and practical tips.

“Generally very happy with the tour. We felt very safe going up the steep roads on the coach as the driver was very skilled. However gave 4* as we felt very rushed by the guide Maria in all the places! Particularly in Knossoss Palace, we did not have time to take in the place or read boards with additional information. Maria also spoke very quietly and was moving from language to language really quick, what was confusing at times.”

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11.Souda Bay: Private Day Trip Tour to Knossos Palace

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 4 reviews · 5 - 7 hours

Explore Knossos, Heraklion, and Minoan Crete on a private Souda Bay day trip with a driver, guide, and Mercedes van.

“Our driver, Dimitris picked us up at Souda Bay port. He was fantastic, as though we had booked an unguided tour, he went above and beyond sharing his love of Crete, from its vegetation, mountains, coastline and climate to its mythology and old buildings. He got us back just under the wire to the relief of both us and the Viking crew.”

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12.Private Shore Excursion: Corfu Town and Achillion Palace Tour

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 4 reviews · 4 hours (approx.) Top rated

Review of Corfu’s private four-hour shore tour, with Achilleion Palace, Mouse Island views, Old Town walks, and port pickup.

“We loved this excursion!! It was our favorite one we did on our entire 14 day trip! corfu was incredibly beautiful but what really made it special was our tour guide Nikos! He was full of information about Corfu! He took us down to the water and arranged a small boat ride for us to be able to see the coast and to enter some caves. It was stunning. We did have to pay $25 more each couple but it was well worth it!!. Nikos joined us on the boat when we invited him and that was very helpful for translating purposes! He then took us into town and had…”

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13.Full-Day Tour:Lasithi Plateau -Mythology Park&Knossos Palace

★★★★★★★★★★3.0 · 3 reviews · from $61

Explore Lasithi Plateau, Greek myths, pottery, wine, olive oil, and Knossos Palace on a practical full-day Crete tour.

“Two hours spent just picking up people for the tour. Host was incredibly hard to hear. It's a 20 min walk up steep hill to see cave of Zeus, which they failed to mention in description. But kudos to the driver as though those were tricky roads to manage.”

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14.Corfu Shore Excursion: Private Island Tour Including Achillion Palace

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 3 reviews · 5 hours (approx.) · from $782

Review a private Corfu shore tour with Achilleion Palace, Paleokastritsa Monastery, Mouse Island, port pickup, and flexible sightseeing.

“Superb time and learned much from Gordana through her gentle way to convey the amazing volume of knowledge she possesses. She really added value to our visit to Corfu.”

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15.Cave of Zeus & Knossos Palace Private Day Tour

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 2 reviews · 10 hours · from $536

Review of a private Crete day tour from Chania to Zeus Cave and Knossos, with Lasithi villages, pottery, Cretan food, and a private guide.

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