☰Day Trips

Hersonissos's real strength is as a base. Knossos and the archaeological museum in Iraklion are 30 minutes west on the highway; the Lasithi plateau and the Dictaean Cave climb up into the mountains an hour south; the Venetian harbour at Agios Nikolaos and the leper-colony island of Spinalonga are an hour east; the Minoan palace at Malia is fifteen minutes along the coast. Almost every hotel can arrange a day-tour bus to any of these, but with a rental car the same loops are cheaper and more flexible. A useful counter-trip is a day inland to the village of Krasi, a short drive south, for its giant 2,000-year-old plane tree and a long lunch under the leaves.