Combo: Knossos Palace & Heraklion Archaeological Museum Tickets with Audio Guide

I would like to make a difference in my experience at the Palace of Knossos, the place deserves a very good rating, but the attention, a 0, a HUGE zero. In contrast, my experience at the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, both the place and the attention of its staff, deserves the highest rating, outstanding. In the Palace of Knossos, the staff was very rude and not at all helpful, something that surprised me a lot because of the difference in treatment that there is in my country, Peru, a country known for the kindness of its people, where the attention to tourists is first class. At Knossos, from the entrance, although I had the information on my cell phone, the person at the window was very dismissive and did not try to help me to identify the document I needed to show him. I then went to the second checkpoint, the entrance itself and it was the same, I asked a question and not only did they not answer me, they chose to say that my question was not their job and that was it. I did the tour on my own, and the audio guide didn't help at all, it's just a summary of the history, not an audio guide, explaining what you see. I have visited places like the Killing Fields in Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge murdered people and the audio guide is REALLY an audio guide, it explains every place you see, the audio guide at Knossos is NO AUDIO GUIDE. After two hours and some queues -there were hundreds of tourists traveling in groups- at my exit, after examining the places visited I asked one of the employees that were nearby about the fresco of the dolphins, which I had not seen I had understood that it was no longer in the Palace and that individual was very rude, I preferred to skip it and ask another person who confirmed my doubt. My visit to the Archaeological Museum, on the other hand, was very positive. As I finished my visit to the Palace of Knossos, I went to the Museum two hours earlier than I had registered and at the entrance it was explained to me that I had to return at the scheduled time or one hour earlier or later than scheduled, which I understood. As there were too many people, I was concerned about going around the Museum and seeing the most important works and at certain times I had to ask for help from the staff who always attended me kindly, besides being very well informed. At the end of the visit, I noticed that I had not visited a part of the Museum, so I went back, but I did not find it, I asked one of the Museum staff and she explained that this sector was temporarily closed, responding kindly.

The Minoan palace of Knossos is a must-see when in Crete and we got a feel for the place that you could only get in person when we visited both Knossos and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in October. Ticketing through Headout worked well: I downloaded tickets for two of us to my phone and they were scanned at entry. For both venues there is a scheduled entry time and it would have been helpful to have times closer together. As it was, our entry time at Knossos was in the morning (a good idea to avoid crowds) but our museum entry not until 5 pm so we had to fill the time with other activities. The downloadable guides to both venues were helpful. We followed along with earbuds at Knossos and didn't feel like we missed having a live tour guide. In fact it gave us flexibility to move at our own pace and pause when we wanted to. Glad we did both venues as Knossos is just ruins with some reconstructed sections, while the museum fills in gaps with art, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, tools, etc., that actually came from the palace site. It was a great learning experience.

The audio guide ok, well done and interesting. I bought the combo ticket on line: I am a journalist over 65 and theoretically I wouldn't have to pay! But there was no senior option and free admission could only be obtained on the spot. The worst thing, however, was the fact that having chosen the site visit at 10 a.m. we were scheduled to visit the museum at 5 p.m.! Since our hotel was over 2 hours away, we bought the tickets again.

Comprehensive audio guide, good content, clear directions with useful photos. We were assigned a visiting time for the Heraklion museum (h.5-6 p.m.) that was incompatible with the need to leave for our location almost 3 hours away and too far from the time of our chosen Knossos excavations visit (h.10 a.m.): we had to buy back the museum ticket in order to get in at 3 p.m. Also, we could not benefit online from the over-65 discount.

Easy to book. But the service provider should have indicated the visiting times for the 2 sites to be visited. The one for the archaeological museum was missing and for good reason it was much later... we waited 1 hour on site.

Easy to book. Downloaded App and was able to to download tickets to it so easy to open when out without wifi. Bought combo ticket for Knossos and archeological museum. Chose 8am entry got Knossos but was automatically given a 1pm entry got museum - we arrived 10.30am do had to go away and come back 12pm as they wouldn't let us in more than 1hr before ticket time. Both palace & museum fab. X

+ Hôtel magnifique , très propre , nourriture variée et très bonne, personnel très aimable, plusieurs piscines et restaurants, - pas de lit King size, pas de sport football pour adultes, pas d'activité le dimanche et peu d'animation le soir pour les adultes, piscine froide pour l Aqua Park

Very nice museum indeed, very well explained and with very usable spaces

Unclear tour instructions Loss of bearings during the tour

We have taken a private guide from the entrance of the palace and this was amazing.

Il bellissimo Museo Archeologico di Heraklion, veramente eccezionale per i suoi reperti