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Crete's best-connected airport arrival for a town that is not the airport's own · About 65–73 km, a direct €8.80 bus in 1 hr 30, five or six times a day
Rethymno is the one town in Crete you can reach directly from an airport without going into a city first, and hardly anybody knows it. KTEL runs a named airport service through Souda to Rethymno for €8.80, taking an hour and a half, and it leaves from the same stop as the Chania bus. The catch is not the route, it is the frequency. There are five or six departures a day, the times shift depending on which day of the week you land, and the gaps between them are long. Catch one and this is the easiest arrival on the island. Miss one and you have a decision to make, which is what most of this page is about.
Read off the day you are actually arriving. These times are from KTEL Chania-Rethymno's own dated airport timetable, and we checked the following block as well: the two are identical for this route.
Planning Arkadi, Preveli, Plakias or the Amari valley
The coast is served well enough. Everything inland is not
Worth knowing before you book
The timetable changes by day of the week
This is the single thing to take away. There is no single daily timetable for this route. Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday each have a different pattern from Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, in both directions. The early 05:50 does not run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Sundays. Friday shifts the middle of the day entirely. Do not plan from a generic timetable or from what a bus did on your outbound journey. Use the board below, and check the day you are actually arriving.
Going via Chania costs more, not less
The instinct when you miss a direct bus is to get to the city and work it out from there, on the assumption that the two-leg route is the budget one. On this route it is not. Airport to Chania is €2.70 and Chania to Rethymno is €7.80, so the workaround costs €10.50 against €8.80 for the direct bus, and it takes about forty-five minutes longer. It is still often the right call, because it runs most hours of the day. Just choose it for the frequency, knowing it costs more.
There is a bus at 23:50 every night
Genuinely good news, and unusual for a Greek regional airport. The last direct departure to Rethymno is 23:50, seven nights a week, which covers most late charter arrivals. The return direction is much thinner: the last bus back to the airport is 17:10 on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, and 21:40 on the other days. Plan the journey home more carefully than the journey out.
All four options, in detail
Direct airport bus
€8.80, no change, 1 hr 30 — if the timing works
CheapestDirectOur pick
Price
€8.80 per person, direct
Duration
About 1 hr 30
Availability
5 or 6 departures daily, first 05:50 or 09:15, last 23:50
How it works
This is a proper named service on the operator's network, listed as Airport to Rethymno, and it runs via Souda rather than through Chania town. You board at the same stop as the Chania bus, across from Departures on the east side of the terminal, a short walk from arrivals. The ride is about an hour and a half, the operator's own published duration, because it calls at Souda and a few points along the coast rather than running the motorway straight through. It sets down at Rethymno's intercity bus station on the edge of the centre, about fifteen minutes on foot from the Venetian harbour.
Fares and times
Every bus fare and duration below is triple-sourced: the operator's dated airport tariff, the following dated block, and its live ticket-price system. All three agree.
Direct bus to Rethymno
€8.80 full fare · 1 hr 30 · 5 or 6 departures a day, varying by weekday
Reduced fares, direct bus
€6.60 on a 25 percent student card · €4.40 for large families and disabled passengers · no 50 percent student fare on this route
Via Chania town
€2.70 airport to Chania, then €7.80 Chania to Rethymno — €10.50 total, about 2 hr 15
Souda
€2.20, on the same airport tariff and the same bus
Georgioupolis
€5.60, on the way to Rethymno
Kavros
€6.10, on the way to Rethymno
Taxi or private transfer
About €90 per car, published by Rethymno's own taxi cooperative · about 1 hr 10 · roughly 65–73 km
We are not linking a booking platform on this page. The honest answer for most people here is an €8.80 bus ticket bought from the driver, and nobody pays a commission on those. Where a platform genuinely matches local pricing on a route, we will say so and link it.
Flying into Heraklion instead? Rethymno is reachable from there too, but it takes two buses and a station change, and we have written that up separately: Heraklion Airport to Rethymno.
Every departure time and bus fare on this page comes from KTEL Chania-Rethymno's own material, read directly, and cross-checked across two dated timetable blocks and the operator's live price system. Last checked on 6 August 2026. The taxi figure is a published fixed price from Rethymno's own taxi cooperative. The distance is approximate: published figures for this route range from about 65 to 73 km.
KTEL Chania-Rethymno publishes its airport timetable in blocks of a few weeks rather than for a whole season. The times on this page come from the block valid 1 to 21 August 2026, and we checked them against the following block for 22 to 31 August, which is identical for this route. That is reassuring but not a guarantee. Check the current sheet before you travel: it is one page, it is free, and it is linked below.
No 50 percent student fare on this route
A small thing that catches students out. The Heraklion to Rethymno corridor sells a 50 percent student fare; this airport route does not. The categories available here are the full fare at €8.80, a 25 percent student fare at €6.60, and €4.40 for large families and disabled passengers. Carry the card either way, but do not expect the half-price student ticket to exist on this particular bus.
Compared with arriving at Heraklion
If you are still choosing flights, this is the better airport for Rethymno by a wide margin. From here it is one bus, €8.80 and an hour and a half. From Heraklion Airport there is no direct bus at all: a city bus into Heraklion, a change at Station A and a coach, about two and a half hours and slightly more money. Rethymno sits almost midway between the two, so the two arrivals look similar on a map and are not similar at all in practice.
Booking
Nothing to book. Tickets are bought from the driver, or in advance in the operator's online system at exactly the same price, so unlike the Heraklion urban buses there is no advance-purchase discount to miss. What does need planning is the timing: check the departure board below against your actual arrival day, not a generic timetable, because the times are not the same every day.
Best for · not great for
Anyone whose arrival lands within an hour or so of a departure
Late arrivals — there is a 23:50 departure every single night
Solo travellers and couples, where a taxi is ten times the price
Anyone staying in Rethymno old town, walkable from the bus station
Anyone landing in one of the long gaps, especially Thursday afternoons
Families with several cases and small children on a 90-minute ride
Good to know
•The 23:50 departure runs seven nights a week, which is unusually generous and makes this a realistic option on a late charter. Check the return direction separately though: the last bus back to the airport is 17:10 on some days and 21:40 on others.
•Reduced fares are sold at €6.60 on a 25 percent student card and €4.40 for large families and disabled passengers. Note there is no 50 percent student fare on this particular route, unlike the Heraklion corridor, so do not expect one.
•The same bus serves Souda, Georgioupolis and Kavros on the way, at €2.20, €5.60 and €6.10. If you are staying anywhere along that stretch rather than in Rethymno itself, this is still your bus.
€10.50 and two buses, but departures almost every hour
Most departures
Price
€2.70 to Chania, then €7.80 to Rethymno
Duration
About 2 hr 15
Availability
Airport bus about 05:50 to midnight · Rethymno coaches roughly hourly
How it works
Take the ordinary airport bus into Chania for €2.70, which runs roughly every half hour for most of the day, from before six in the morning until around midnight, then change at the Chania bus station onto a Rethymno service for €7.80. Nearly every departure on the second leg is the through coach toward Heraklion, roughly hourly from about 04:30 until 22:30, plus a late 23:30 service that ends at Rethymno; allow an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half for the leg. That hourly rhythm gives you a departure most hours of the day, which is the entire reason to consider this route.
Booking
Both tickets are bought as you go, the first from the driver and the second at the Chania station counter. Allow at least twenty minutes for the change, more with luggage, and remember the two legs are not timed to connect with each other.
Best for · not great for
Anyone who has just missed a direct bus and does not want to wait
Arrivals inside the long midday and afternoon gaps
Travellers happy to spend an hour in Chania old town on the way
Anyone assuming this is the budget option — it is not, it costs more
Heavy luggage, since you change stations in the middle
Good to know
•This is the one detail worth taking away: going via Chania costs €10.50 against €8.80 direct. The workaround is more expensive, not less. You are buying frequency, not saving money.
•On the operator's timetable a few Chania to Rethymno departures are marked via Vrisses. Those take the inland road and run a little slower, so when you have the choice at the counter, prefer a coastal departure at the same fare.
•If the wait for a direct bus is under about ninety minutes, waiting usually beats this. Two buses, a station change and a ticket queue rarely feel shorter than they look on paper.
Taxi or private transfer
Around €90, door to door, just over an hour
Door to door
Price
About €90 per car, one way
Duration
About 1 hr 10
Availability
24 hours
How it works
The official rank sits outside the arrivals building, and pre-booked drivers meet you inside with a name board. This is an intercity run of about 65 kilometres rather than a short city hop, so the price is a fixed intercity fare rather than a meter reading. Rethymno's own taxi cooperative publishes the airport run at €90, which is the most reliable figure available for this route because it comes from the operators at the Rethymno end rather than from a booking platform.
Booking
For a pre-booked transfer, confirm the total in euros including luggage and any child seats before you travel, and give your flight number so the driver tracks the arrival. At the rank, agree the figure before the bags go in, using the €90 published fare as your reference.
Best for · not great for
Families and groups of four, where the per-head cost falls fast
Anyone landing in one of the long gaps in the bus timetable
Stays outside Rethymno town, at Adelianos Kampos, Platanes or Panormo
Solo travellers and couples, for whom it is roughly ten times the bus
Good to know
•Four people in one car works out at about €23 each against €8.80 on the bus. The gap is real, but so is arriving ninety minutes earlier without a station change.
•Ask your hotel first. The coast east of Rethymno is thick with all-inclusive resorts and packaged stays frequently include the airport transfer already.
•Under the published tariff, luggage over 10 kg is chargeable at €0.40 a piece and a higher night rate applies between midnight and five in the morning. Neither is a driver inventing charges, and you should always be given a receipt.
Rental car
Frees you from a five-a-day timetable entirely
Most departures
Price
From about €35 a day in high season
Duration
About 1 hr 10
Availability
Desk hours, typically 07:00 or 08:00 to 22:00
How it works
Desks are in the arrivals hall and most cars are collected from the car park across the road. The drive is simple: head out of the Akrotiri peninsula, pick up the north coast highway eastbound past Souda, and stay on it. It is about 65 kilometres and a little over an hour, on a good road for most of the way. Rethymno signposts its centre clearly, and the old town exit is the one you want.
Booking
Book before you fly in July and August, when the island genuinely runs out of cars. Read the fuel and excess terms rather than the headline rate, and photograph the car from every angle at pickup and again at return.
Best for · not great for
Stays of four days or more
Anyone planning Arkadi, Preveli, Plakias, Margarites or the Amari valley
Travellers who want Balos or Elafonissi as well, back towards the west
Anyone staying only in Rethymno old town, where parking is the problem
Short stays of two or three nights
Good to know
•Rethymno old town is largely pedestrian and Venetian-narrow. If you are staying inside it, confirm with your accommodation where you are actually allowed to park before booking a car for the whole stay.
•The strongest case for a car here is the hinterland, not the coast road. Arkadi monastery, the Museum of Ancient Eleftherna, the potters at Margarites and the south-coast beaches at Plakias and Preveli are all within an hour and thinly served by bus.
