Heraklion airport to Chania is a drive of about two hours west along the north coast, done either in a hire car you collect at the airport or in a pre-booked transfer. Take the car if you were going to want one at all; take the transfer if you land late or are not driving on this trip.
The better answer, if you are staying in Chania, is usually to change the flight rather than optimise the transfer. Crete has two international airports, and the cheapest fare is not always the right one: the wrong one costs that two-hour cross-island drive on day one, and again on the way home. Heraklion “Nikos Kazantzakis” (HER) sits about 5 km east of Heraklion in the centre of the island and serves the centre and the east; Chania “Ioannis Daskalogiannis” (CHQ) sits on the Akrotiri peninsula near the port of Souda, about 14 km from Chania town, and serves the west. West base, fly Chania.
Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
The rule in one line
West base, fly Chania. Central or eastern base, fly Heraklion.
- Heraklion “Nikos Kazantzakis” (HER) sits about 5 km east of Heraklion, in the centre of the island, and is the busiest airport in Crete. It is the one for Heraklion, Rethymno, Agios Nikolaos, Elounda and anywhere in the east.
- Chania “Ioannis Daskalogiannis” (CHQ) is out on the Akrotiri peninsula near the port of Souda, about 14 km from Chania town, and it serves the west.
Rethymno sits between them and works from either.
If you are already committed to Heraklion
It is a straightforward drive west along the north coast, and the practical choice is between a hire car you were going to want anyway and a pre-booked transfer.
Take the car if you are going to need one at all. Crete is a country-sized island and the west is where the gorge and the lagoons are; picking the car up at the airport turns the transfer into the first leg of the trip rather than a cost on top of it. Renting a car in Greece covers what the desk will and will not tell you.
Take a pre-booked transfer if you land late, if you are not driving on this trip, or if you want the first evening in Chania’s old town rather than at a rental counter. On an island, the taxi rank is small and it does not grow in August - airport transfers in Greece makes that argument properly.
The move most guides miss
For a full-island trip, fly open-jaw: into one airport, drive the island once, and out of the other. You never double back, and the 250 km spine becomes a route instead of a return leg.
That single decision is worth more than any transfer optimisation on this page, and it is why the Crete itinerary is built around regions rather than a single base.
One forward note
A replacement Heraklion airport is under construction inland at Kastelli. When it opens, the geography on this page changes - the drive from the new airport is not the drive from the current one. Check which airport your flight actually lands at rather than assuming it is the one you used last time.
Our Crete guide has the wider picture, and where to stay in Crete covers the base decision this page depends on.