Our Heraklion Airport Experience

This Our Heraklion Experience Page is from the Our Life in Crete Section of the Completely Crete website. If you want to learn about flights to Crete, click here to visit our Flights Page.

HERAKLION AIRPORT CAN BE BUSY IN JUNE

We have just returned from a two week trip to the UK.

The weather was amazing. Almost every day featuring at least some torrential rainfall, except Sunday, the day we flew back to Crete.

We had a great flight back. Not too much turbulence, on time (early in fact), and we just picked up our car from the airport car park and drove home on sunny, virtually traffic-free roads.

Flying to the UK was a different story…

We flew from Heraklion Airport despite living 15 minutes from Chania, only because we found cheaper and more frequent flights from this airport.

We intended leaving the car at the airport for two weeks. This process was simple. We just told the man in the car park kiosk we wanted to leave the car for two weeks and he told us to pay when we drove the car out. €40 for 2 weeks(the same for 4 weeks).

We usually like to get to the airport early to get ahead of the coaches bringing back the holidaymakers. The airport is small and there are a lot of people flying at this time of the year (June), and sometimes crowds have to queue outside under canopies!

Unfortunately, the coaches arrived early and we found ourselves in a long queue. There were two desks open and, yes, we chose the wrong one. Someone ahead in our queue must have had a problem because the check-in person left her post with their paperwork for what appeared to be ages.

The other queue raced ahead of us.

When you check-in at Heraklion, you need to queue again to pass your cases through a separate x-ray scanner – and this means joining another line of passengers. When we joined this next queue we ended up behind a long line again.

We finally got rid of our bags, and then decided to go through passport control straight away as time was getting on – there was little more than a hour before our flight.

We couldn't believe the queue for passport control! It was huge and slow moving and we were really worried about getting through in time.

There were two lines again, both inching along at a very slow pace. There was obviously a problem, and apparently it was non-EU passengers being processed, which inevitably takes longer than EU holidaymakers.

Luckily, a plucky holiday rep took control and called all the EU passport holders to one line, and non-EU's in the other.

When this was sorted we all raced through and we were able to catch the flight in time – but it was a close run thing.

It was nice to see family and friend again after 18 months. Still nice to get back to Crete for some nice weather!

NEWS FROM CRETE AND GREECE

This news report appeared in the Kathimerini newspaper on 17th June 2008:

The Economic Crises Reaches Greece

" The economic crisis that has broken out across the world looks like the beginning of a difficult time for many countries. Even Europe, with its relatively well-off population and sophisticated safety net for the poorest citizens, looks like it will suffer greatly in the storm. And Greece is no exception. Just six months ago, the government and bankers were proclaiming that Greece would be immune to the credit crunch caused by the subprime mortgage fiasco in the United States. But that crisis kept deepening, making money more expensive after a long period of low rates, at the same time that fuel and food prices, as well as other commodities, began to reach unprecedented highs. "

In Greece, retail "Sales" are more strickly regulated. Here's some useful advice for all consumers during sales time in Greece.

This from the National News Website in Greece (ERT).

Premiere for Sales

" Sales start on Tuesday 15 and will last until August 31. However, consumers are advised to be careful and make the right choices, based on their true needs demanding receipts or product guarantees. In his statements, General Secretary of Consumers, Giannis Oikonomou stresses: "What is clear is that especially for the sales period, each consumer has to know his rights but has also to be careful so as to choose based on his/her needs. Sales in prices do not mean quality and mostly safety. For more information you can contact 1520 (General Secretary of Consumers). For complaints you can contact 210-3803116 "