International Airport Nikos Kazantzakis Reviews

Horrible airport. Too small for the amount of people taking flights. Not enough seats in the departure gate. You have to do a first queue to check in your luggage then another queue to put it in the x ray by yourself ! Never seen that in any other airport ! The people working there were sometimes unfriendly. The food is horribly overpriced like in all airportd but in worst. There is constantly a guy yelling that people are about to miss their flight... just gives u a huge headach. But hey it was funny seeing the chaos that was going on and imaging hox it could be worst

Dirty and overpriced. Coffee for 5 euros and no seating

Very professional, handling of the public despite the Covid-19 precautions went extremely well. We were off the plane and out of there, with our baggage, inside of 30 minutes.

In times of Corona everything is somehow different. All Germans fly to Greece or Italy. Accordingly, the airport goes to its knees if several planes arrive at the same time. Compared to other airports, this one is quite down. So, bring your time ... The Corona QR Code is important. As announced, this was sent to the cell phone around midnight before departure.

Also one of the worst airports - could not go through security because flight was delayed and no real information on how to proceed

I was expecting some chaos from the comments but in the end it was rather. Lobby and recording too small indeed. Go ahead. Some dirty toilets. Not enough seats in front of the gates. I think the airport should be much bigger for the mass of tourists that come every year. By cons 1h late for the flight. The staff I found quite smiling and in a good mood. It's far from being a bad airport. They do as they can with the means they are given. And Crete deserves to go.

Really worn out airport. Gets extremely busy during summer. Expect delays, long queues, no guidance and all of that in a really miserable environment.

Trash, I've been waiting for a suitcase for an hour and the tape is still the same.
Edit. I'm just coming back and finding that the previous waiting for luggage was just the tip of the iceberg, summarizing the WORLD'S WORLD AIRPORT

I was waiting my baggage about 1 hour. It's normal?

Amazing airport with heroic employees who really work hard under adverse conditions !! Thanks

Small airport, lots of people, check-in took about 1 hour.

This airport is a fu***** joke. Planned out very badly...noone tells you that you can't smoke.....very rude people work there.

I liked it. A general renovation of the building is required.

PLEASE READ !!
Please try to take your own food into the airport or eat just before or outside.
Once through security/ passport control you will find only 4 places to buy food or drink.
On visiting these eateries a bottle of Coca Cola is 4.50 & a 25 cent bottle of water 2.75.
We were looking at the prices at the only Burger eatery and for 4 meals ( 1x burger. 1x fries. 1 x med drink) would have cost a whooping 76.00 !!!!!
If holiday makers are unaware of these super high prices and are delayed they will have no option but to purchase so please be aware.

Definitely the worst airport I have been to, chaotic, way too small for the amount of people handled, poor food, unfriendly staff (its just tourists, why be friendly to them)....and the saddest part is that there are millions of tourists going through this airport and they could make a lot of well needed money to supporting the greek economy if they would just built a decent airport with shops like in many other holiday airports

Poor ; dirty bathrooms, itsowful to stay in the airport , you willnot find a place to charge your phone ...

The airport staff is completely overwhelmed, the counters overcrowded and passengers are sent to the wrong queues. Priority boarding guests are led past the line, which may result in waiting 30 minutes even though it is actually your turn to be next. After the security check you come into a waiting hall which could cause problems for people with "claustrophobia"!

All in all a really bad airport, where the gates are often changed 5 minutes before boarding.

I'm sorry but this was chaos. In departures nobody was keeping distance, and there was no space to keep distance. Lots of people were not wearing masks, or were wearing them only to cover the mouth not the nose. One good thing about this airport was the great pizza in the downstairs pizza restaurant. Expencive but the best pizza I have tasted for a long time. We were stuck at the airport for several hours because bags could not be checked in much in advance.

Arrival s toilets big disgrace! Especially for a period like this! 2 toilets you can find once you land. Both in unacceptable condition hygiene and no water!!

The airport is old, dirty, in the departure hall, except for one buffet, there is no place to refresh yourself and they will not sit at all. The toilets are at the level of Egypt

Worst airport ever. Even in Bolivia they heve better airports

Dirty and outdated toilets of places women at the baggage claim belts. Furthermore, there are no gates and boarding times at the boardings. Direct flight to Verona, the gate change announcement was given only in English.

It really is not that bad. Bissel too small, but otherwise i. O., also the toilets, which we used, were ok. The departure area makes a slightly better impression than the arrival hall. We also had two smaller children with us and have easily survived.

We have been coming to Crete for 10 years, but what we experienced at the departure on 21.10.2016 at this completely overstrained airport was the coronation. Everywhere only endless people queues, whether at the counters, in the suitcase transillumination or at the security check. It was called on many machines for boarding, although the passengers were still pending in endless lines before the security check. Many people I've talked to told me the island of Crete is nice, but with such a mess here at the airport they would not come back. I hope the operators of the airport finally understand that this must happen, otherwise the tourists stay out.

Disaster ... Menachenmengen at 08: 30h are not traded ... no rescue. Toilets are clogged, the blame is constantly being shoved on others unfriendly hectic people.
Unfortunately, very disappointed ...

bed behavior/all around airport worker like a animal. nice duty free in small airport but all item are very expansive.
I strongly recommend to all traveler if you want to buy any thing expect, tobacco, alcohol, cosmetic or perfume , buy from town is lot of deal and cheap.
i relay on duty free shop and came home with nothing as all expansive

Practical, already worn inside. But fantastically located on the Mediterranean (Aegean Sea). The approach is an absolute dream. The departure makes you sad.

Mediocre 2 flights at the same time and at the same door ... Anything big !!!!

Heraklion International Airport
"Nikos Kazantsakis", is the main airport of Crete, and the second largest airport in Greece.
It is located about 5 miles east of downtown Heraklion.
It was recently renovated and the duty free moved to the first floor.
Cute little fruit duty free and the prices are very high.
It is better to buy duty free in the country.
Although very nice and inviting.
Note that any perfume or liquid over 50 ml is thrown in the trash !!!

Needs restoration work. Becoming small for peak movement in summer

Was there at the end of September, you might say late season, but this airport could hardly handle the crowds.
This airport is much too small for such a popular island.

Utter dump no toilet seats or hand drying facilities ie hand towels dryer,disgraceful over price food drinks extortion at its best,really disorganised queues at boarding gates, and security seemed slack as anything my 9 year old daughter got on the plane with a bottle of water that had been through security scanners! Great job guys! Crete is a lovely island but this place makes it very unlikely I d want to return because of this dump sort it out if you want tourists to return I dread to think what it s like in the middle of summer

Definitely not enough space for people to sit... Too much small....

Its not an airport by any kind of meanings .. no gates, no air-conditioning, crowded and even there's no lines ... The only good thing that you can walk near the planes

Arrivals and departures in Heraklion have just fallen out of time. Everything is old and run down. The toilets are just terrible. There is no soap, towels are not. Floors and sinks are just dirty and disgusting. There are two new small shops. On the ground floor snacks and coffee and one for souvenirs. And on the first floor a coffee. The prices are almost outrageous.

Unmanageable queues at the end of September .. I can't imagine how they do in August. Grumpy staff is an understatement. The bathrooms are dirty and do not drain, no paper and no soap.

This airport is disgusting, dirty and absolutely undersized.
It's pure chaos to check in the bags. It's dirty and sticky. Even the security check was chaotic and in my opinion not very good and safe.

The escalator is really to avoid if it jams up you will be catapulted into the baggage claim like herring from the net. But I have never come out of an airport faster. On departure, it is a bit disorderly our plane was delayed and it accumulated more and more travelers in the small departure hall for my opinion a bit chaotic. The sanitary facilities are really not recommended and if you look at the grille of the air conditioning in the departure hall you hoped she is out. The staff is very friendly though I mean this airport is not for such a number of tourists.

Catastrophe. You cannot drop off your luggage at check-in, but have to queue up at one of the two X-Ray scanners. Two scanners for 4 machines. The queues go through half the airport

It is a shame that a place so dependent on tourism cannot upgrade its main airport. Terribly overcrowded, with limited facilities, not airconditioned, full of flies swarming around. Flight information hard to find, it is on a tiny screen tucked in a remote corner. Catering limited to two small Everest kiosks with overpriced snacks e.g. 4.60 euro for a basic hotdog or nearly 5 euro for espresso fredo. The only good thing about it that a small bottle of water is just 50 cents.

Disgusting airport. Bad, unhappy and unexperienced staff. No working sinks or soaps in the toilet, no paper towel to dry. No smoking room. Bad experience

Airport disorganized, kilometers, at the time of check in weigh the suitcase apply the sticker of membership and do not know why you have to make another row in another area to get it on board. After the checks 30 minutes after takeoff we are stopped by a group of young police officers who had already targeted my boyfriend asking absurd questions, request for a ticket, driving license, passport, identity card wanted to know if we had rented a car, because we were there, how many days, read the place of birth (Naples) have also made a half-grin ... in short, a situation to say the least ridiculous. For the rest, Crete is wonderful and we will definitely return!

30.9Back to Germany if everything works out in May again

Tragedy. "Airport", if you can call it that, can't handle the number of arrivals and departures. The airport staff has everything somewhere and they stoically say "it's a busy day" without doing anything to embrace this mess. After more than two hours of waiting in queues, a man did not move even a step forward and if not for the kindness of other foreigners - the plane would simply escape us. If anyone is going on vacation that involves arriving at Heraklion - I recommend taking two boxes of sedatives, portable air conditioning, a water can and a pack of deodorants (also for service). I highly recommend it!

The shepherds in the mountains respect their lives more than this airport tourists. Dirty and air-conditioned in the summer. Inaccessible

A star because it has the merit of existing. Otherwise no organization possible. We where sent in 4 different queues to successfully check in baggage. The staff are as rude as possible and I don't even prefer to speak of the thrifty rental agency.

An absolute disgrace of an airport, a disgrace for Greece and the HCAA, not even seen in undeveloped countries. Zero keeping of COVID distancing. Overcrowded, unorganised, huge queues, one coffee shop for all departures, air conditioning failed, starting boarding with the plane not ready (waiting on the tarmac under the sun), and so on. Go prepared! To the government: give it to Fraport and fire them all!

Three times too small, both in terms of size and personnel. Be prepared to queue to check-in, queue for an hour to pass security while no staff manages the queue and people skip it all the time cheating in front of you, then cross a forest of people to get to the gate. Double check which gate you're queueing for because they announce multiple flights on the same gate at the same time.

Catastrophe! Arrival and departure hall is a disaster, toilet hygiene is miserable! Arrival hall is old, dirty and unkempt. One of the worst flighafen I have ever seen!

Airport in very poor condition. Sound and display very poor. . We took off 1 hour late ...

A very small terminal and busy. Its not automatic and very old fashion and old behave.
On the other hand you don't have a better one in crete so u must enjoy!

It is a shame when you arrive at Heraklon airport to discover this old delapidated hangar with no ventilation, nowhere to sit while waiting for your luggage and toilets which are the filthiest we've ever seen in Europe . This is a lack of respect for tourists and also for Cretan people !

I went there last September and got stuck there for 5 hours. Very bad experience.

Fast check in. I do not know which airport some previous speakers were. We were here in September 2018. The arrivals hall was really very old. However, the check in, the security controls, the duty free area and the waiting area, as well as the boarding, all quite normal and contemporary. We found it almost too cool there so bad was air conditioned.

First of all, the staff are very friendly. The airport however is dirty, especially the toilets. The gas stations on the island have much cleaner facilities. There are other bits to improve, but cleanliness would be a great start. The intent is not to hate on the airport, but for the mgmt to be able to use the rating, to get funding and to make some very basic changes. Especially since the condition of the airport is in no way reflective of the lovely times I have had and will continue to have on the beautiful Crete.

It literally looks like, you landed in soviet era Airport, it's so small it seems it was made for private small planes powered by blades, it was clearly a very local airport that suddenly was repurposed to receive tourists, but ohhh boy it's so small the airport can't even handle the influx

In the past, the airport was old but well maintained and the toilets clean told me traveling companions. Now FRAPORT apparently leases chic stores in which the travelers can buy fragrances, the toilets are disgusting and stink. Maybe that's how the noble scents can be better brought to the woman or the man. Of course, this is not only the operator but the many interesting guests. Personally, I would be interested to know if these people behave that way at home.
Positive is the very friendly and competent staff at check-in and security checks.

First of all, I would not even give a star!

The airport is a joke. Toilet plant totally outdated and dirty. There is not a single ATM. The gates are much too small for the mass of tourists there are no vacant seats.

Very small and dirty airport with little shopping, no payment by credit card in the snack bar after the security check possible, no ATM after the security check, staff rude, catastrophic hygiene conditions in the toilets

Easy to get through airport. Had to show q code. Late at night but ok

Really call airport. No possibility for self-checkin, no eating places, rustic iron chairs and no aircon at checkin. Small info screens. Clearly, Greece's economy sails if this is what they offer one of their primary income: tourists.

Info displays with incorrect (or no) information. Announcements at a catastrophic English level (one in five words could only be understood halfway). The worst airport in Europe.

Kindergarten. As if there were any interns running an airport.

It's not a good airport. No shops, everything was closed and the toilets weren't great

Disastrous service, nobody knows anything, the screens keep falling off and nobody can or wants to help you. But unfortunately you don't have much choice if you want to fly to Crete, otherwise I would never land here again in my life!

I have experienced the airport mercilessly crowded. At check-in, the baggage had to be returned separately.
The gates for departure have changed 3 times. Announcements hardly understandable.
Food monopoly of an unattractive provider. Duty free very expensive.
Handling for this volume is surprisingly quick and easy.
Not great there, but efficient anyway.
Well - the airport is from the 1930s ....

Much too small and very poorly organized! Toilets dirty, escape routes not visible, much too crowded. Half of all flights would have to be canceled to ensure security or the airport would be significantly enlarged! Are there no European standards and guidelines for airports?

1 hour waiting in line to drop off the luggage. Slow security. Door change not reported.

Despite the crowding, everything worked just as it should. However, it is good to have at least two hours pre-flight at the airport.

Steal 35 from you for half a kg ... never seen that

A very small airport that gets overcrowded really easily.

Been here 2 times after the holiday and the whole holiday feeling is gone.
If you arrive from Germany and only pick up your bags, it's okay. But if you want to go home from here it was pure chaos every time.
The waiting hall is small, low and stuffy. The displays did not work on the return flight, so that some of the passengers did not know which gate the plane should be reached through.
After someone was found by the staff, the only answer was: "I don't have time, I have to work ..."
Thanks a lot!
For me, this airport is a reason to avoid Crete.

The most terrible airport I ve ever been to. No air conditioner when outside is +37 and the airport is full of people, not enough places to sit down, dirty toilets, unfriendly and rude staff not providing enough relevant information for passengers, technical issues with luggage belt, which result in passengers late to their flights because of uneffective airport service.