Minoan Palace of Phaistos — Attraction in Municipality of Festos

You can't buy tickets online, and if you're one day over 25 and from the EU, they will force you to buy a paid ticket even though the rules include 25yo from the EU. Knossos does the same, but at least you can buy online, and they won't bother you then.

Now, onto the actual review of the palace. I quite enjoyed it because it was so big and much less busy than Knossos with its endless crowds. The explanations on the signs require a certain level of knowledge to imagine, but I used the help of AI to better understand the terminology. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. I consider myself fluent in English and had a hard time understanding what things they were referring to on the signs.

The other big problem is that 1/4 of the palace is blocked off because they are supposedly working on it even though it has been opened before because you can clearly see the signs and other reviews from years ago will tell it has been open before and no one was actually working on anything. I asked staff just for general information on what the blocked area purpose was in the palace, and they didn't know...

I drove 2h15 to come here, and I am happy that I did. Had the temperature had been any higher, I would have struggled. I recommend coming as early as possible because I can not imagine walking here with temperatures over 20C. They have a...

This was a genuine highlight of the day! This was by far my second favourite of four Minoan Palaces I have had the pleasure of viewing.

Not only is the Palace in a better state of preservation than that of Malia and Zakros, it offers in situ archaeology that really get the brain creating all sorts of vistas, facades and corridors. You can really imagine what the Palace may have once looked like and with mantle, doorway and all Sorts of architectural details still visible it really makes the mind boggle as to the sheer brilliance and skill the Minoans had in their ability to create these structures.

Moreover, the site is located atop a hill that offers an almost 360° view of the olive Groved valleys that it towers over and then also the Cretian mountains in the distance. What a beautiful beautiful place!

Unfortunately due to Corona and current conservation projects I was not able to see all of the site as per normal times, but what I could see well and truly made up for it. It left me wanting, and I will definitely be making a return trip on my next visit to Crete.

I would highly recommend this if you're a curious history lover or a cultural perveyor.

Tip: go in the evening as the sun starts to make its way close to the horizon so that the light and shadows play across the grounds. It makes for Some beautiful...

The bad experience started at the beginning, in front of us a couple from uk trying to get the tickets, they asked twice how much it was and the funny person in charge of the tickets said as a joke, three thousand! They told him that they were students but they didn’t have any card to prove it with them, he asked where they came from, they said England and he just gave them 2 tickets for free! After them was our turn, we are also student in England, but without the proof he made us pay 8 euro each ! This is not fair, they should treat people all in the same way ! The place is very small with just few thing to watch, it is nice but definitely not worth 8 euro ! Even worst when once inside we found a man following us like if we were about to steal some stone, he asked to check our tickets and I did ask him to see his id, for make sure he was working there, he looked like a homeless with long hair and a strange attitude, in a very rude way he said that he doesn’t have it as he left it at home, I asked his name and he said Antonio, after that he told us that for 20 Euro he will give us a guide tour, we refuse and we run away from that place and mostly from him. Very scary and...