About Crete

The beautiful island of Crete is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the largest of the Greek islands with a population of around half a million people. Despite its thousand miles of coastline, Crete is not just about sun, sea and sand. This distinct island is full of vitality, rich in culture and with warm, hospitable people. Though well known for its seas and beaches, Crete has a very contrasting landscape. The island goes from fertile coastal plains to rugged mountains and from busy metropolitan cities to very peaceful hillside homes. As a hugely popular holiday destination, Crete features numerous types of holiday accommodation ranging from luxury hotels to apartments and camp sites. Getting a ferry to Crete is quick and easy with numerous ports of departure and crossings run by many different ferry companies from the mainland as well as from the islands of the Dodecanese and the Cyclades. Ferries run from the mainland port of Piraeus (Athens) to the 3 ports at the north side of the island all year round. The shortest and most regular ferry crossing is to the port of Heraklion in the central part of Crete’s north coast. If you are travelling to Crete from the Cyclades region, north of Crete, you can travel from up to 6 islands including Mykonos and Santorini. From the Dodecanese group, north east of Crete, there are weekly ferry connections from up to 5 islands, including Rhodes.

About Sporades Islands

The Sporades Islands are a Greek archipelago jutting off the east coast, in the Aegean Sea, to the north of Euboea Island. Of these sporadically placed, quiet islands, Skiathos is the most developed and cosmopolitan, owning some of the finest beaches in the Med as well. The remaining permanently inhabited members: Skopelos, Alonissos and Skyros, have charmingly rugged landscapes, authentically slow-paced villages and picture-postcard, azure waters. They also offer long networks of peaceful, pine-clad walking trails, taking you past beautiful monasteries and glistening lakes, ideal for exploring the hidden gems of the Sporades Islands. The easiest and most popular way of jaunting off to the Sporades Islands is by ferry, with leading operators providing dozens of frequent routes from the mainland and surrounding islands to numerous ports in the Sporades archipelago.