Children in Heraklion

With children the easiest trip out of Heraklion is the Cretaquarium at Gournes: fifteen kilometres along the coastal road, and inside morays, octopus, rays and small sharks in open tanks. It is the only display of this scale on the island, and in the heat it earns its keep — it is cool indoors and there is somewhere to sit.

The seagoing half of the day is Dia, the island facing the city. An hour under sail, water clear to the bottom, and the boats anchor in coves for swimming. The land option is the Lassithi plateau: a climb to 800 metres, a Greek mythology park of models and scenes that explains the gods without labels, and the cave where, by the myth, Zeus was born. Knossos works for children too, not as an excavation but as the labyrinth of the Minotaur — the myth holds attention where the stones do not.

Practical notes: a city bus runs to the aquarium, and tours usually include a hotel transfer. The road up to Lassithi winds in hairpins and makes people carsick — seat them in front and do not feed them heavily beforehand. The plateau is several degrees cooler than the coast, so a jumper is needed even in summer. At Knossos there is no shade at all: a sun hat and water are essential, and a pushchair is useless among the stones and steps.