Covering beaches, choosing a base, day trips, eating, getting around, planning, practical, things to do, villages, where to stay. Newest first, each one carrying the date of its last check.
Two Minoan palaces about 30 km apart on the north coast: Knossos, big, famous and partly rebuilt in concrete by Arthur Evans, and Malia, a third of the size, unreconstructed and quiet. Tickets, winter hours, crowds, shade, time needed and getting there from the resorts, compared.
Two hillside resorts wrapped around sheltered bays, half an hour apart on the same highway. One sits close to Heraklion and its airport; the other trades distance for shallower, more varied coves.
Four sheltered coves against a stone village with a harbour — swimming, evenings, steps and day-trip position on the Heraklion–Rethymno coast, honestly compared.
A serious marine research aquarium in a former US airbase, twenty minutes from the resort strip.
Sea temperatures, meltemi wind, crowds, prices and what's actually open — the north coast of Crete from April to October.
Three ready-made shapes for a short stay based Hersonissos–Stalis–Malia: the classic, the family version, and the culture-and-villages loop.
One of Crete's largest sacred caves — four levels of Minoan-to-modern worship, free and raw, fifteen minutes from Gouves.
Resort-strip dining half deserves its reputation — and the good tables are two hundred metres from where you're being funnelled.
The low-key resort villages between Heraklion and Hersonissos — closer to the airport, calmer at night, kinder on the budget.
Dia island, pirate-ship cruises, glass-bottom boats and sunset sails — the four products every booking board sells between Hersonissos and Malia.
Every stretch of usable sand on the resort coast, ranked with reasons — where families win, where the wind bites, what each section costs.
Two amphitheatre coves twenty minutes west of Heraklion — deep-blue sheltered water, taverna-backed sand, package-holiday bones.
If you're on this coast with kids, the water park day is coming. The three big options within reach of Hersonissos, Stalis and Malia.
A double village — old stone above, small seafront below — with a fish-taverna row locals drive to and a cave whose history is heavier than its stones.
A small stone-built harbour village east of Rethymno that kept its scale — two beaches, lanes that feel lived-in, tavernas above the water.
Four coves stacked along a hillside halfway between Heraklion and Rethymno — sheltered swimming, easy resort comfort, and a name that overpromises.
Taxi, pre-booked transfer, bus or hire car from Heraklion airport (HER) to the Hersonissos–Stalis–Malia coast.
Three neighbouring resorts on the same 8 km of Cretan coast, three completely different holidays.