I’ll answer the question in the title right away.
Yes. Unequivocally.
Knossos is the oldest palace in Europe. When you stand in the throne room, where an alabaster throne has stayed in the same spot since around 1700 BC, you experience time differently.
Not like at a medieval castle or Roman ruin (and those are my favourite types of places to visit!) this is much older, more deeply ancient. You’re in a room where someone sat and made decisions 3,700 years ago, and the room is still here.
That is not a normal experience.
The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion is the other half of the story. Knossos shows you the building. The museum shows you everything that was inside it — the jewellery, the frescoes, the tablets, the figurines. One without the other is incomplete.
Together, they offer one of the most important archaeological experiences in Europe. I say that with full confidence.
Here’s everything you need to know about visiting both.
The essentials
- Knossos: 5km south of Heraklion city centre, about 20 minutes by city bus
- Entry Knossos: around €26 adult (verify prices here) — combined ticket with the museum around €40
- Entry Archaeological Museum: around €20 adult (official website here)
- Knossos opening hours: approximately 8am–7pm in high season, shorter in winter
- Museum opening hours: approximately 8am–8pm — verify before going
- Allow: at least 2 hours for Knossos, at least 2 hours for the museum
- You do not need to stay in Heraklion — both are easy day trips
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Is the Palace of Knossos Worth Visiting?
Every now and then you encounter something that reframes your sense of how old human civilisation actually is.
Knossos is that for most people.
The Minoans built the first version of this palace around 1900 BC. They had running water, multi-storey buildings, and a sophisticated drainage and sewage system.
They also had writing — two scripts called Linear A and Linear B, discovered here by archaeologist Arthur Evans in the early 1900s. Linear B has been deciphered, but Linear A, the older script, still hasn’t been fully understood, even after more than a century of effort.
Around 1450 BC, something ended it. Earthquake, volcanic eruption, invasion from the mainland — probably some combination. The palace was abandoned and the civilisation collapsed. And then, roughly 3,000 years later, Evans started digging.
What Evans found and controversially reconstructed is what you see today.
He spent 35 years and £250,000 of his own money on the excavation and restoration. He rebuilt walls, added columns painted red and black, and reconstructed the frescoes. Other archaeologists have debated the accuracy of his reconstructions ever since.
The controversy is part of the story, not a reason not to go.
The honest answer on “is it worth it”:
If you have any interest in history, civilisation, or archaeology — yes, absolutely.
If ancient ruins usually don’t impress you, you’ll probably still find Knossos interesting because of the reconstruction. It doesn’t look like a pile of old stones — it looks like a real building.
If you’re travelling with children who find museums boring — Knossos works much better than most sites because there’s so much to see. Coloured columns, painted frescoes, a grand staircase, the famous bull’s head friezes. Children who “hate history” often surprise themselves here.
And if you’re still debating if Crete is worth visiting, I hope to help you decide in another post.
How to Visit Knossos
How to include it on your itinerary
To know if you should include Knossos on your itinerary or not you have to asnwer two questions :
- are you landing at Heraklion airport?
- of if not, are you staying more than 5 days in Crete ?
If you’re coming to Crete only for a short trip, I would recommend visiting Knossos only if you’re visiting the East of the island. Distances are too and you would spend 2 hours one way, from Chania.
If you’re planning a longer trip to Crete (anything more than 10 days), then I would definetely include Knossos on the list!
If you still haven’t booked your flight tickets and are trying to decide between Chania and Heraklion, I compared them both with pros and cons, make sure to read that.
How to Get to Knossos
Knossos is 5km south of Heraklion city centre, but it’s closer than most people expect.
By city bus: Bus line 2 runs from the main bus terminal (Plateia Eleftherias) straight to Knossos. The trip takes about 20 minutes, buses run often, and the fare is around €1.70 each way. This is how locals travel, and it’s the easiest option if you’re not renting a car.
By car: Easy to drive — follow signs from the city centre. There is paid parking near the site entrance. Make sure to be there really early or really late, as it gets full really fast. There are some dirt roads around the parking lot, people park there too.
By taxi: About €12–15 from the city centre. Fine if you’re in a group.
On a tour: Many guided tours depart from Heraklion city centre or from hotels across the island. A guide makes an enormous difference at Knossos specifically — more on this below.
Knossos & Top Sights
This tour takes you from Heraklion, either from the port or from other locations of your choice, shows you the city and takes you to Knossos. It’s definetly an easy way to make sure everything is taken care of.
How Much Time to Spend at Knossos
Allow a minimum of 2 hours. 2.5 to 3 hours if you’re moving slowly, reading all the information panels, or if you have a guide.
Where most people go wrong is rushing. Knossos is big; the palace complex covers about 22,000 square metres. Many tend to walk quickly from highlight to highlight, take photos, and leave without really taking in what they see. Give yourself time to pause and absorb it.
The site is partly covered and partly open. Bring water and sun protection — the exposed sections get very hot in summer.
When to Visit Knossos
Arrive at opening (8am) or in the last 90 minutes before closing.
Between 10am and 3pm in high season, Knossos receives tour group after tour group. The site is large but the main highlights — the Throne Room, the Grand Staircase, the Central Court — become very crowded. The early morning light is also significantly better for photography.
Best months: May and September. Comfortable temperatures, meaningful crowds but manageable. July and August are the worst for heat and overcrowding — go first thing if you have no choice.
Avoid: going immediately after a cruise ship docks in Heraklion. If you can check the port schedule, do.
Do You Need a Guide for Knossos?
Honest answer: yes, I’d recommend one.
Knossos, without context, is a partially reconstructed palace with some interesting things to look at.
Knossos with context, like the Minotaur myth, the double axe (labrys) that inspired the word “labyrinth,” the controversy around Evans’s reconstructions, which rooms might have been for religious ceremonies versus administration, and what the frescoes really show compared to Evans’s assumptions, becomes a truly gripping experience.
The information panels at the site are decent but fragmented. And reading them in the heat of the sun becomes really hard after 30 minutes. A guide connects the dots AND makes it easier.
Options:
- Local guide hired at the site entrance: guides gather near the entrance and can be hired per group. Make sure to agree on the price before you start. Plan for 1.5 to 2 hours for a guided visit. This is the most flexible choice. If you want to be sure you book someone with good reviews, I recommend booking a guide and buying the tickets separately. That gives you the most complete experience, although it’s a bit more expensive.
- Organised day tour from your hotel or city: many include both Knossos and the museum in the same day (like the one from Heraklion I shared before)
- Audio guide: available on-site, €5–8; a reasonable middle option if you prefer to go at your own pace.
If you do hire a private guide, two things to check first: do they speak your language comfortably enough for two hours of explanation, and do they include the museum in their tour, or is Knossos only?
The Palace of Knossos: What You’re Looking At
A very brief orientation so you’re not lost from the start.
The Central Court is the heart of the palace. It’s a large open courtyard that all the main buildings surround.
This is where the famous bull-leaping would have taken place (whether as ritual, sport, or religious ceremony, scholars still disagree).
The Throne Room is the most important room in the palace.
The alabaster throne is original — the same throne, in the same room, for 3,700 years.
The griffin frescoes on the walls are reconstructed based on fragments found here.
The lustral basin in front of the throne was likely used for ritual purification.
ome archaeologists now think this may have been a priestess’s room rather than a king’s — the griffin imagery was associated with goddess worship in Minoan culture.
When you’re standing in the Throne Room, that’s the moment. Stand still. Look at the chair. Think about who sat in it.
The Grand Staircase is one of the most impressive pieces of Minoan architecture — five flights of stairs still intact (partially thanks to Evans’s restoration), with light wells built in to bring daylight down to the lower floors.
The Minoans understood how to build for the Mediterranean light.
The Hall of the Double Axes — the labrys, the double-bladed axe that was the sacred symbol of the Minoans, appears everywhere throughout the palace. The word “labyrinth” comes from labrys: the house of the double axe.
The Minotaur myth — the bull-headed monster at the centre of the labyrinth — is almost certainly a cultural memory of Minoan bull worship and the dominance of Crete over the Aegean in this period.
The Queen’s Megaron — a residential suite with a bathroom (complete with stone bathtub and what Evans interpreted as a flushing toilet). The blue dolphin fresco on the walls is one of the most reproduced images from the entire Minoan period.
The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion
Knossos shows you the architecture. The museum shows you everything that was in it and everything found at every other Minoan site on the island.
It is, genuinely, world-class. The building is simple but nice to walk in. The objects are genuinely interesting, though!
The museum has 23 galleries arranged chronologically — from the Neolithic period through to the Roman era. Don’t try to see everything. Focus on the Minoan period (roughly galleries 1–14) and allow yourself to slow down in front of the objects that stop you.
These were the most impressive ones:
The Phaistos Disc is in Room 3 and is likely the single most debated object in Greek archaeology.
A clay disc, about 16cm in diameter, impressed on both sides with a spiral sequence of pictographic symbols. Found in 1908 at Phaistos, another Minoan palace. The symbols represent an unknown language.
It has never been deciphered. Nobody knows what it says.
Every few years someone announces a breakthrough and then other scholars disagree.
Stand in front of it for a while. It’s 3,700 years old and we still cannot read it.
The bull-leaping fresco — the famous image of a figure somersaulting over a charging bull.
Whether this was an actual athletic practice, a religious ritual, or a mythological scene is debated. The fresco is exquisite: confident lines, vivid colour, the figure caught mid-leap.
The snake goddess figurines — two faience (glazed ceramic) figurines of a female figure with snakes coiled around her arms. Found in the palace magazines.
Almost certainly religious objects. The bare-breasted figure with upraised arms has become the defining image of Minoan culture.
The gold bee pendant from Malia — two bees facing each other around a honeycomb, in gold, about 4.6cm wide.
It’s perhaps the finest piece of jewellery from the entire Minoan period.
The goldwork is extraordinary — granulation technique that wasn’t rediscovered in Europe for over three thousand years.
I would wear this without hesitation even today! (Oh, and you can, actually!)
The gold ring from Isopata — a signet ring showing four female figures dancing around a central figure descending from above, surrounded by flowers.
Nobody is entirely sure what the scene depicts. It looks like a religious ecstasy ritual. The detail is astonishing for something 3.5cm across.
How Much Time to Spend at the Museum
Minimum 2 hours for the Minoan section.
If you’re thorough, 3 hours for the whole museum.
The museum reopened after a major renovation in 2014 and the presentation is excellent — good lighting, well-translated panels, thoughtful arrangement.
It doesn’t feel like a dusty warehouse of old things. It feels like evidence.
How to Visit Both on the Same Day
You can do both in one day. It’s a long day.
Just know that doing both in a single day is genuinely tiring.
Each site requires real attention. You leave one and walk straight into the other. By the third hour of looking at things carefully, your capacity for absorption is diminished.
But if your time in Heraklion is limited to one day, here’s how to do it well:
Option A: Museum first, then Knossos
- 8:30am: Archaeological Museum opens. Spend 2–2.5 hours here while you’re fresh.
- 11am: Bus or taxi to Knossos (20 min). The tour groups from the morning rush are now partly dispersed.
- 11:30am–2pm: Knossos with a guide or audio guide.
- 2pm: Lunch at a taverna near the site. Rest.
- Late afternoon: back to your base.
The advantage of this order is that you see the objects before the building, so when you visit Knossos, you already know what the frescoes look like and where things were found. It helps everything click into place faster.
Option B: Knossos first, museum after
- 8am: Arrive at Knossos at opening. Spend 2.5 hours here with a guide.
- 10:30am: Bus or taxi back to Heraklion (20 min).
- 11am: Lunch in the city centre before the museum.
- 1pm: Archaeological Museum for 2–2.5 hours.
- 3:30pm: Done.
The advantage of this order is the cooler morning air at the open-air site, the best light for photography, and fewer crowds. Then you visit the museum in the afternoon, where you’re indoors and can cool off.
The honest recommendation: if you can spread it across two half-days instead, do that. Knossos in one morning, museum the next morning. Your brain will thank you.
If it genuinely has to be one day — Option A, and build in a proper lunch break between the two.
Don’t go directly from one to the other without eating and resting for at least an hour.
Do You Need to Stay in Heraklion?
No. You don’t.
This surprises some people because Knossos sounds like something that requires a base in Heraklion. It doesn’t.
From Chania (130km): A long day, but manageable. Leave early, arrive for the 8am opening at Knossos, do the museum in the afternoon, drive back in the evening. Or take the KTEL bus (€15.10, about 2.5 hours, runs frequently) — comfortable, leaves your driving energy for other days.
From Rethymnon (80km): Very easy. One hour by car or KTEL bus. Do one or both sites, comfortable day out, back by evening.
From Bali or hotels between Rethymnon and Heraklion: Knossos is literally on your doorstep. This is actually one of the practical arguments for using Bali or the coastal towns east of Rethymnon as a base — central positioning for both ends of the island.
If you’re basing in Heraklion: the city has its charms — a good market, a Venetian fortress worth seeing, a lively evening port. It’s not as beautiful as Chania or Rethymnon but it works as a base for 1–2 nights.
Should You Do a Guided Tour?
For Knossos specifically: yes, a guide significantly improves the experience.
Several operators run combined Knossos + Archaeological Museum tours (pay attention as not all include the tickets, like this one that I recommend). Some tours do both sites in a single day; others focus on Knossos only and leave the museum for your own exploration.
If you book a combined tour:
Choose a tour that gives enough time at each site: at least 2 hours at Knossos and 1.5 to 2 hours at the museum. Avoid tours that only allow 45 minutes at each. You can’t properly see either site in less than an hour and a half.
Questions to ask before booking:
- How much time at each site?
- Is the guide an archaeologist or specialist in Minoan culture, or a general guide?
- Is the museum visit guided or independent?
- What’s the group size?
- are the entry tickets included in the price?
The smaller the group, the better the experience. A private guide costs more but allows the tour to move at your pace, answer your specific questions, and linger where you want to linger.
Practical Information
Getting there without a car:
- City bus line 2 from Heraklion city centre (Plateia Eleftherias) to Knossos: about 20 minutes, runs frequently, around €1.70
- Museum is in central Heraklion, walkable from the bus station and city centre
Combined ticket: Knossos + Archaeological Museum combo ticket approximately €40 (check current pricing — occasionally updated)
What to bring to Knossos:
- Water (the site is partly exposed and hot in summer)
- Sunhat and sunscreen
- Comfortable walking shoes — the site is uneven
- Camera (photography permitted throughout)
What to wear at the museum: indoor, air-conditioned, no dress requirements.
Accessibility: Knossos has uneven terrain and some areas involve steps — limited accessibility in parts of the site. The museum has lift access and is generally accessible.
If it’s raining: this is actually a good day for Knossos — the crowds are thinner and the partially covered site means you can still see the main highlights. The museum is entirely indoor and works equally in any weather.
The Bottom Line
Knossos is the oldest palace in Europe. The throne room is the oldest throne room in Europe. When you stand in it, you feel something shift.
The museum is where you understand what the Minoans actually made — how beautiful it was, how technically sophisticated, how alive.
Do both. Give each site enough time to breathe. Use a guide at Knossos if you can. And don’t try to combine this with anything else that day — let it be a Minoan day, beginning to end.
You’ll think about it for years.
Entry prices and opening hours are approximate and subject to change. Verify at the official Knossos website and the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion before visiting.
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