Breathtaking Spinalonga: Crete's Unforgettable Island History

You still have to pay 20 E when you get to the site. Also we couldn’t hear the speaker on the boat. My friends were disappointed.

Great trip, fantastic views , the island was very interesting with an interesting but sad history. The boat trip was very good with swimming if you wish , the crew were great and the food was fantastic, only down side that dropped a star had to eat on your lap with trays but would recommend it if you don’t mind this.

Definitely worth the price, a 4 hr cruise, beautiful scenery, comfortable, with a cafe/restaurant on board with reasonably priced food & drinks. A memorable experience. Exceeded my expectations. A tour guide accompanied us onto Spinalonga island, which definitely added to the experience. Highly recommended!!

The description of the activity correctly states its purpose. It’s a straight ferry ride to the Lepur Colony island no frills. Once on the island you can pay an additional 20 euros to walk around the fort. Meh at best.

Fabulous trip and the best guide ever; so passionate and informative, we really enjoyed hearing her knowledge about the island. Might be worth saying it can be windy on the boat so take a jumper!

This is great value. Not much in the way of frills but it delivers on what’s promised. Facilities on board are basic but adequate.

Very good trip; highly interesting especially guided visit on island. Good staff on board. Great boat!

We would really recommend this trip. We were based in Agios Nikolaos and wanted a "no frills" trip to Spinalonga. Booking was simple via Tripadvisor. I received a confirmation text with a link to the e-ticket. There was no need to visit the booking kiosk in town or pay cash - simply showed the e-ticket to the boat crew on the quay. They handed us two laminated "boarding passes". You need to keep these to get on board for the return journey. I'd advise boarding as early as you can if you want to get a shady seat. We arrived at midday and struggled to find somewhere to sit. Yes, the multi-lingual commentary was difficult to make out, but I wasn't bothered. A couple of times I attempted to listen to it in French, then German, then English and got the gist of things, but I was quite content to enjoy the stunning view in ignorance. We did take advantage of the chance to swim when we stopped mid-journey. You can access the water from the stern at 3 points - from a platform at the very rear, or from ladders on either side. You can climb down cautiously or jump in, as you wish. I spent 5 minutes in there before climbing back out and filming the husband doing his "Man from Antlantis"/"Wally the Walrus" thing which he gratefully shared on his socials afterwards. I made a point of not finding out how deep it was while I was in there. Husband was wearing a mask and tried to dive to the bottom but it was too far without fins. He reckons it was 10-12 metres. In any case, it felt really safe and the crew kept an eagle eye on us all. As made very clear in the details, you need to pay the entry fee for the island directly on site to the National Museum of Greece and it's 20 Euros. They take cash or card. The toilets/café are on the shore outside the walls and you can actually use these without paying to enter the site. Or you can stay on the ship and enjoy a beer for the 90 minute stop. We walked around the island. The passengers from the boat are split into different tour groups by language. Our guide was excellent and had encyclopaedic knowledge of both the island and Cretan history in general, but after a while we broke off from the group and followed the very clear path around the walls. To be honest, we were nervous about missing the voyage back, but you can very easily complete the circuit in the time available. If you want to have a more extensive visit, this may not be the trip for you. We made it back on board with half an hour to spare, grabbed a reasonably-priced beer from the bar, along with seats in the shade, next to what turned out to be "smokers' corner" 🙄. We got back to port at about 4:30, winding along to shore. All in all a great afternoon out.

Enjoyed boat ride to the island to view the scenic coastline. We didn’t understand from description that we would be jumping off the boat to swim - we thought we were going to a beach. We should have worn our suits so we were ready to go. Tour in English of the history of leper colony was well done . Too windy to walk safely all over the island . Very informative displays . Unfortunately, the church and gift shop all closed too early to visit (these were not posted)

Not totally happy with the trip and visit to Spinalonga. 1 Tour guide was difficult to understand sometimes and clear at other times. 2 Not sure what we were supposed to do as some instructions were unclear and once inside we did not seem to have any clear direction 3 Did not participate in the swimming. 4 Timing was poor. Left 5 minutes late BUT arrived back 30 minutes early. 5 We booked through Tripadvisor/Viator and planned to use voucher. FAILED and then payment by AMEX was reversed so we paid CASH. Not happy 6 Overall was GOOD not Excellent