Ancient Theater of Aptera — Attraction in Municipality of Chania

This place is amazing! In my opinion it is much much better than Knossos. I've visited about 6 times now and I never get bored. Each time I visit more has been excavated and more work has been done to put in information boards and seating--they have just introduced tour guides too. There's a spacious car park and only costs €2 per person for entry! (However there's lots you can see before you get to the car park, including the city walls and tombs on the road up to the car park which are worth a look). It's a large complex but the highlights are the water sisterns and the theatre. To properly see everything you could easily spend a couple of hours! However, I suggest bringing a hat, suncream and water as it's very exposed. Toilet facilities are good, but besides the central building there's no shade. After visiting Aptera, not far from the site you should drive past a few tavernas, I wholly recommend stopping at the 'ta aptera' for a bite to eat- it's run by a lovely lady who does fantastic food and has a wonderful view of the mountains. Whilst your in the area, there's also a place called Koymos that's well worth a look around. It's a very strange arty place full of lots of interesting artifacts (it's kinda hard to explain what it is exactly but it's a fantastic place). Entry is free but it's polite to order a...

We visited this ancient limestone amphitheatre today (Thu 3rd July 25) and it is amazing! Walking through the olive grove, you can't even see it; then when the olive trees clear, laid out before you is the terraced seating, looking out towards the orchestra and stage. Imagining the architecture of the theatre when it was built and how it was changed over different phases by the Romans is mind-blowing. The floor of the orchestra is compacted dirt, no masonry except one round stone. As we were leaving, we stopped by the ticket booth, to speak to the lady there. She asked if we had tried the echo in the theatre, we said not, so she recommended we go back and try it. We headed back to have a go.... hubby stood on the stone and i sat at the back of the theatre, and I could hear him clearly! The acoustics clearly amplified his voice, but if he stepped back or forward, less clear and he could hear the difference too. If you visit, you really do need to try it; it's unbelievable 😀. To enter here you need to purchase a ticket for the archeological site. There is free parking here and a public toilet. You could visit the amphitheatre with a wheelchair/pushchair but it would be a very bumpy ride. The toilets would be a struggle for a wheelchair user, but they do have a disabled...

Absolutely amazing preservation of what was clearly was a very large and significant site when it was an active settlement. The preservation and restoration on this site is amazing and with it being a very recent site for archaeological work methodologies have been cutting edge and leave the visitor with a true sense for what the site must have been like.

The site houses the most well preserved bath houses I saw in all of Greece.

While smaller in scale than the Theater of Epidaros (my favorite) the Theater of Aptera was an amazing structure with a massive building behind the stage that is quite well preserved.

Aptera has a lot more significant areas yet to be excavated. Between the theater and monastary there is the remains of a substantial old wall that cut right across the path. You can see in areas used as orchards and used for sheep grazing that there are old foundations in many areas. In all of Greece this site would be the one I want to see again...