Nisida Spinalonga — Attraction in Municipality of Agios Nikolaos

Interesting trip. I parked at Plaka and got the 10 mins or less, small boat - €12 return. It's a interesting visit, but not a lot to see, and a VERY expensive snack bar also took the shine off a little. Worth a visit for an hour. Better to read up before you go and or take a guide book to make the most of the trip. You have no idea which buildings are from which occupation from 1500s to date, nor what many of them were or are. The most common sign is "danger", usual next to some unrestricted stairs or path 😂 Long history, first fortified in mid 15th century, then by various empires until becoming a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. After a damning report around that time by a medical expert, the island leper colony was closed, and people treated and or moved to Athens hospital. Apparently the government proceeded to destroy much of the evidence of the leper colony until the 1980s when it became a tourist trap and restoration of SOME of the mostly derelict buildings is under way. There are some information boards, but they didn't have any English guide books / maps. Sad that in the 80s people desecrated the graves for sick souvenirs, so the remains...

Spinalonga is definitely worth a visit. Alongside the book 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop, the real stories of the lepers make you think. The place is not particularly well signposted once you've gone through the entrance tunnel and I'd recommend Beryl Darby's booklet 'Spinalonga, The Leper's Home' for a more in depth history and guide (you get one from 'The Bookshop' in Elounda for €8). You need to time your visit: we went on the first ferry (10am in mid September) which landed at the same time as all the tours which meant we had a 15min wait to get entrance tickets plus large groups clogging up the sites. As you're only supposed to stay on the island for 70mins that left not a lot of time as it takes about 1hour to walk around it. Would suggest either getting a boat mid morning (landing about 11am) when most of the tours are finishing and leaving (there was no queue at the entrance booth at 11:15!) or risking missing the return boat and getting the next one (they don't seem to check!). It is worth walking to the top of the island;...

The fort is based on an island which is only accessible via boat. There is a water taxi which goes frequently however the exact times are subject to flex. So take it as roughly 45 mins, but it comes when it comes. It's €12 round trip per person for the boat then an additional €8 pp on the island for access to anything. So €20 per person all in. The boat ride itself takes around 10 mins.

There are lots of information posts on the island which help educate. For the life of us, my partner and I couldn't find the 'official' route up to the top of the island. We got there, but it involved a few small rock scrabbles. Not challenging, but far from disabled friendly.

We spend around 2 hours on the island, lots of points of interest to see and some beautiful views. There are also some souvenir shops towards the end (assuming you go counterclockwise).

There are toilets on the island next to the...