Knossos Palace & Archanes Winery Shore Excursion from Heraklion

This full-day tour combines Crete's most important ancient site with its modern wine country, and the two turn out to be more connected than they first appear.

Your guide meets you at the port of Heraklion and drives the roughly 3 miles (5km) to Knossos, the Bronze Age palace complex that was the political and religious center of Minoan Crete, in use from around 1900 to 1350 BC before earthquake, and later fire, brought the civilization to an end. Archaeologist Arthur Evans excavated and partially reconstructed the site starting in 1900, and among the finds his team uncovered were huge storage jars and wine vessels, evidence that the Minoans were already sophisticated winemakers nearly 4,000 years ago, among the first people in Europe to domesticate grapevines and trade wine commercially around the Mediterranean. Your guide walks you through the palace's state rooms, storage magazines, and frescoed corridors with that history in mind.

From Knossos you drive into the hills to the Peza Valley, the wine region that carries that Minoan winemaking tradition forward today and now produces around 70 percent of all wine made on Crete. At a local winery you tour the cellar and taste a few of the region's native grapes, likely including Vilana, a floral white, and Liatiko, a red used for both dry and sweet styles. From there you continue to Archanes, a village so carefully restored it placed second in a European Union competition for best-restored village in Europe in 2000. Archanes sits close to Vathypetro, a Minoan-era villa where archaeologists uncovered one of the oldest wine presses ever found, made from the same wild grape species still used in Cretan wine today, a direct link back to the storage jars you saw at Knossos that morning. You have free time to relax over lunch, included, in a traditional taverna before your guide takes you back to the port.

• Mobility: Due to uneven surfaces, steps, and walking distances, this itinerary is not suitable for guests using wheelchairs. Please contact us for alternative sightseeing options, including private driving tours that may better accommodate your needs.
• Prices shown are not valid on Sundays or local national holidays. If your only day in this city is Sunday, please contact us for pricing and availability.