Piraeus Port → Heraklion (Crete) by Ferry

The main sea link between Athens and Crete's largest city · Four sailings to choose from, from 7 hours 50 minutes on the fastest catamaran to 9 hours 50 minutes on the slowest overnight ship

If your Crete plans centre on Heraklion, Knossos, or the drive east to Agios Nikolaos, you do not need a second flight. You take the ferry from Piraeus, and there are four ways to do it: two overnight cruiseferries you sleep through, a summer-only day sailing on the same line, and a high-speed catamaran that takes the scenic route through the Cyclades. Minoan Lines, Blue Star Ferries and SeaJets all run it, and which one to book depends less on price than on whether you would rather lose an evening or lose a day.

At a glance

Minoan Lines — overnight ferry

Board after dinner, wake up in Crete: the standard year-round crossing

€35+9h 30m

CheapestOvernight

Minoan Lines — day ferry

The same line by daylight, but only on select dates in summer

€35+9h 15m

Day sailing

Blue Star Ferries / ANEK — overnight ferry

The Attica Group's overnight ship, with the widest range of cabins on the route

€41+9h 50m

OvernightCabins available

SeaJets — day high-speed

A catamaran that treats Heraklion as one stop on a Cyclades run, not a dedicated Crete service

€89.70+7h 50m

Niche option

Prefer one search for every company, date and cabin? Compare the whole route on Ferryscanner. Affiliate link, the price you pay does not change.

First leg: getting to Piraeus

If you are flying into Athens first, Piraeus is a separate trip from the airport, not a taxi ride from central Athens. The suburban railway and metro Line 3 both run direct from inside the airport to Piraeus in about an hour, for €9. We field-verified every step of that route, including which platform to stand on and where the ticket office is, in our Athens Airport to Piraeus guide.

Which boat should I take?

Match your situation, get a pick. There are no wrong answers, these are simply the most common patterns.

Budget matters most and you can sleep on a boat
From €35 on the deck, sails every night of the year, and saves you a hotel night in Athens
Minoan Lines
You would rather travel by day than sleep through the crossing
Same operator, same from-€35 deck fare, but check first, since it only runs on select dates from June to September
Minoan Lines
Booking inside two weeks of a summer sailing
Minoan's from-€35 deck fare showed available on every date we checked in early August, when Blue Star's cabins were already gone
Minoan Lines
You want a private cabin and are booking well in advance
The widest range of cabins on the route, from shared inside berths to a Deluxe suite, if you book before they sell out
Blue Star Ferries / ANEK
Travelling with a car or motorcycle

Heads up, read before you book

Cabins sell out fast in high season, we watched it happen

When we checked the Blue Star booking engine on 30 July for a sailing twelve days out, on 11 August, every single cabin class was already sold out. Only deck and airplane-type seats remained. If you want a cabin on either overnight ship in July or August, book weeks ahead rather than days.

Strikes and weather do change this route

Greek seamen's union strikes grounded this exact route for a full day on 6 February, 28 February, 5 March and 1 May 2026, per Blue Star's own strike notices. A weather modification notice as recent as 24 July 2026 altered the route too, cancelling that sailing's Serifos call. The big ships almost always sail, but check the operator's announcements page the day before you travel rather than assuming.

Check the full itinerary, not just the destination

Several Piraeus sailings touch Heraklion without being the dedicated overnight ship. Blue Star Chios, for example, departs Gate E1 on a long multi-stop run through Santorini and Anafi to Heraklion, then continues on to Sitia, Kasos, Karpathos, Chalki and Rhodes. If your search turns up a much longer or unfamiliar-sounding sailing, check the full stop list before you book.

All four sailings, in detail

Minoan Lines — overnight ferry

Board after dinner, wake up in Crete: the standard year-round crossing

CheapestOvernight

Price

From €35 deck · from €54 seat · cabin berth from €67

Duration

9h 30m

Schedule

Daily, 21:00 → 06:30, year-round (Minoan's official timetable)

How it works

Minoan runs this as a single line branded 'Piraeus – Milos – Heraklion,' calling at Milos on the way, shown as one stop in the booking engine. Minoan's own timetable page states the standard, year-round pattern is 21:00 to 06:30 daily in both directions, with arrival times given to the pilot station. On the sailing we checked in the booking engine, the ship was Knossos Palace, departing Piraeus at 21:00 and reaching Heraklion at 06:30 the next morning, 9 hours 30 minutes including the Milos call.

Compare all sailings in one place

Every sailing on this page can be booked directly with the operator through the links above, at the operator's own price. If you would rather compare all three companies, dates and cabin availability in a single search, Ferryscanner shows the whole route together and sells at the operators' own fares. We checked: on the sailings above, its prices matched the operators' booking engines to the cent.

Compare sailings on Ferryscanner

Affiliate link: if you book through this link, The Greek Local may earn a commission from Ferryscanner. The price you pay does not change.

Booking and boarding rules

The rules that actually matter once you have picked a sailing, taken from the operators' own conditions.

Web check-in: Opens 48 hours before departure and closes 2 hours before sailing, per Blue Star's general conditions. If you skip it, collect your paper ticket from the port agents at least 2 hours before instead.
At the embarkation area: Be there at least one hour before departure. Boarding for a 21:00 overnight sailing effectively means being at the gate by 20:00.
Luggage allowance: Blue Star allows up to 50 kg or 1 cubic metre free. Minoan's published conditions give 56 × 45 × 25 cm of free unchecked baggage per seated or cabin passenger, plus a small bag, with no surcharge for luggage inside an accompanying vehicle.
Travelling with pets: Declare the pet at booking and buy a pet ticket. Dedicated pet cabins take a maximum of two pets and are limited, so book ahead, or use a kennel. Pets over 10 kg must travel in a kennel or pet cabin, and a muzzle and leash are required on open decks, along with health documents, per Blue Star's official conditions.
Strikes and weather: Both are real on this route: strikes have grounded it for full days in 2026, and a July 2026 weather notice altered a sailing's stops. Check the operator's own announcements page the day before you travel.

Where your boat leaves from at Piraeus

Piraeus is a long horseshoe of a port with numbered gates from E1 to E12, and the big Crete ferries use gates at the far end, away from the metro. Blue Star publishes the exact gate for its own service on its port map: 'ASTERION II – NISSOS RODOS operates from Port Gate E3 for Serifos and Heraklion, Crete.'

Minoan does not publish a gate for this route on its own site, so treat whatever is printed on your ticket as the answer, and check it again on the printed sheets at the port entrance, since assignments can shift. For the walk from the metro or train to every numbered gate at Piraeus, see our Athens Airport to Piraeus gate guide.

Arriving in Heraklion

Heraklion's ferries dock right at the edge of the old town. It is a short, mostly flat walk along the waterfront into the centre, and no taxi is needed unless you are heavily loaded.

Onward by bus

The KTEL Heraklio–Lasithi bus station, Station A, sits directly across from the commercial port, according to the operator's own FAQ, so onward buses to Agios Nikolaos, Ierapetra and Sitia leave from right opposite where you get off the boat. For Rethymno and Chania, buses run the same corridor west; the pattern we saw when we checked was departures at 07:30, 11:30, 14:30, 17:30 and 20:30 on weekdays, with a later 21:30 service at weekends. That is the published pattern at the time we checked rather than a guarantee, so confirm your exact departure on the KTEL Heraklio–Lasithi and KTEL Chania–Rethymno websites before you plan around it. We are not quoting a fare here, since none is verified: check the same sites for the current price.

Continue your trip

Once you are off the boat, here is where to find things to do.

Operators and sources

Every price, sailing time and rule on this page comes from the operators' own booking engines, timetables and general conditions, last checked on 30 July 2026. Two things are our own observation rather than a published operator figure, and are labelled as such in the text: the Blue Star cabin sell-out we saw twelve days ahead of an August sailing, and the KTEL bus departure pattern from the Heraklion port station.

Blue Star Ferries / ANEK — overnight ferry

The Attica Group's overnight ship, with the widest range of cabins on the route

OvernightCabins available

Price

From €41 economy deck · airplane-type seats from €45.50 · cabins from €59.50

Duration

9h 50m

Schedule

Daily, 21:00 → 06:50 (fare card checked for an 11 August 2026 sailing)

How it works

Run jointly by Blue Star Ferries and ANEK as part of the Attica Group, this is the other big overnight cruiseferry on the route, and the one with the fullest published fare card. On the sailing we checked in the booking engine, Nissos Rodos left Piraeus at 21:00 and reached Heraklion at 06:50 the next morning, 9 hours 50 minutes, with one intermediate call at Serifos.

Booking

Book through Blue Star Ferries' booking engine. Blue Star's own port map names the gate for this exact service: 'ASTERION II – NISSOS RODOS operates from Port Gate E3 for Serifos and Heraklion, Crete.'

Best for · not great for

Wanting the widest choice of cabins, from shared inside berths up to a Deluxe suite

Travelling with a car or motorcycle, since Blue Star publishes fixed vehicle fares

Travelling with a pet, since Blue Star publishes clear rules for pet cabins and kennels

Booking a cabin at the last minute in high season: on our own check, every cabin class was already sold out twelve days ahead of an August sailing

Good to know

•When we checked on 30 July for a sailing twelve days out, every cabin class on this ship, from the smallest shared inside cabin to the top Deluxe suite, was already sold out. Only deck and airplane-type seats were left. Book a cabin weeks ahead if you want one in high season.
•Blue Star's own 'Super Economy' offer drops the fare to €25 for this exact route, economy class only. It is a limited-ticket promotion, non-refundable and non-changeable, and it is sold only through port agents rather than online.
•Full published fare card for the sailing we checked: Special Economy €33 (sold out that date), Economy deck €41, airplane-type seats €45.50, cabins from €59.50 to €184 depending on size and class, car €122.50, motorcycle €28.50.
•Not every Piraeus boat that calls at Heraklion is this overnight ship. Blue Star Chios, for instance, departs from Gate E1 on a long multi-stop run via Santorini and Anafi to Heraklion and onward to Sitia, Kasos, Karpathos, Chalki and Rhodes. Check the full itinerary, not just the destination port, before you book.

Check fares on Ferryscanner Blue Star Ferries booking engine

Affiliate link. Same price as booking with the operator.