Heraklion Tickets and Tours | GetExperience.com

A research institute with a public wing

The Cretaquarium stands at Gournes, fifteen kilometres east of Heraklion, on the site of a former American air base. It opened in December 2005 and is the largest aquarium in Greece. It belongs to the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research.

That ownership is the difference. The place is a working marine laboratory with a display wing attached, so the labelling is scientific rather than theatrical. Around sixty tanks hold some 1.8 million litres of seawater.

The collection runs to about fifteen hundred animals of some 130 species. Most of them are Mediterranean. A separate section covers lessepsian migrants, the species that arrived through the Suez Canal and stayed.

• Sharks — sandbar sharks in the big tank, which holds 600,000 litres on its own.
• Turtles — loggerheads, the species that nests on Cretan beaches.
• Small tanks — seahorses, jellyfish, octopus and the rock-pool species children stop at longest.

How long it takes

Ninety minutes to two hours covers it properly. The audio guide comes with the ticket and is worth carrying. It is one of the few indoor attractions on the island, so it absorbs wind and heat.

Feeding times are posted at the entrance. Knossos is half an hour west, and the two together make a full morning.

Practical

• Hours. Opening times shift with the season, and the winter close is earlier than summer visitors expect.
• Crowds. Coach groups land between eleven and two. The first and last hours are the calm ones.
• Getting there. Coastal buses from Heraklion stop at the gate and a taxi takes about twenty minutes. Parking is free.
• Tickets. Buying online costs less than paying at the door, and there are family rates.
• Photography. The tanks are dimly lit and flash is banned, which would not have helped anyway.
• Weather. It is the standard answer to a meltemi day, when the boat trips are cancelled.