Cretaquarium tickets open the doors of CretAquarium, the public aquarium of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research at Gournes on the north coast of Crete, east of Heraklion, where the tanks hold fish and other sea life of the Mediterranean. Tours across the rest of the country are listed on Greece Tours.
The sections below cover the ticket types, where to buy them, time slots and reduced entry, the tours that include a ticket, the guided tours and extras, group visits, getting there, the best time and access, with links into the CretAquarium pages. The tours shown are checked on GetYourGuide and Viator.
What are Cretaquarium tickets?
Cretaquarium tickets are the entry passes for CretAquarium, also called Thalassocosmos, the public aquarium of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research at the former American base in Gournes, east of Heraklion. Each ticket buys one visit along the aquarium route of Mediterranean and tropical tanks.
A Greek governmental research body, the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research runs the aquarium, and its Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture works from the same premises. Cretaquarium tickets therefore open a public display that shares its site with marine science, where cameras record the life cycle and behaviour of animals in the tanks for study.
Cretaquarium tickets cover the Gournes aquarium only, although the official website also presents the Rhodes Aquarium, the public aquarium of the centre’s Hydrobiological Station of Rhodes. CretAquarium began as a plan by the team at what was then the Institute of Marine Biology of Crete for the first large aquarium in Greece, set in a marine park that joins research and teaching with culture and leisure, and it opened in December 2005.
Which Cretaquarium tickets can you buy?
Cretaquarium tickets come as a general entry for adults, a reduced ticket for children aged 5 to 17, the same reduced rate for seniors over 65 and free entry for children aged 0 to 4. Returning families can take the yearly KartAquarium member card.
GetYourGuide sells Cretaquarium tickets in five categories that mirror the official list: adult for ages 18 to 64, child for ages 5 to 17, infant for ages 4 and younger, senior for ages 65 to 99, and student with ID for ages 17 to 99.
The KartAquarium member card stands in for single Cretaquarium tickets for regular visitors. It gives free entry for a whole calendar year, costs about as much as two visits, and charges one rate for the first family member and a lower one for each additional member, with news sent by email and discounts in the Aquashop souvenir store. The aquarium adds that the card reinforces its work and continued operation.
Where do you buy Cretaquarium tickets?
Cretaquarium tickets come from the aquarium itself, which sets the official fees and issues member cards at its reception in Gournes, and from GetYourGuide, which sells a stand-alone admission ticket online. Viator carries the aquarium only inside Heraklion city tours.
On GetYourGuide, Cretaquarium tickets sell as the Heraklion Area: CRETAquarium Admission Ticket, an entry-ticket product filed under Heraklion. Its summary puts the creatures of the Mediterranean first and the tropical species of the closing part of the route last.
The member card that replaces Cretaquarium tickets has its own channels: apply in person at customer service in Gournes, email the application form, which comes in separate versions for adults and for children, or call the aquarium, then collect the card from the reception. The official site also suggests the card as a gift for loved ones.
The aquarium’s English pages list the fees behind Cretaquarium tickets for every visitor group but offer no online checkout. GetYourGuide covers adults, children, infants, seniors and students only, so holders of the European Youth Card, visitors with a disability, aquarium members and tourist guides find their reduced or free entry on the official list alone.
Do Cretaquarium tickets need a time slot?
No. Neither the official fee list nor the GetYourGuide listing ties Cretaquarium tickets to an entry time: the aquarium charges per visit, and the GetYourGuide admission ticket is booked for a date and stays valid for one day, so buyers pick a day.
The date of the visit still shapes Cretaquarium tickets, because the general rate follows the summer and winter seasons of the official calendar and drops in winter. The child and senior tickets carry one shared reduced rate below both general levels, and holders of the KartAquarium card pay nothing on any date of their membership year.
Online Cretaquarium tickets carry one deadline: GetYourGuide requires booking at least an hour and a half in advance, so a same-day purchase still works once that margin is met. The listing also offers free cancellation, which lets a buyer release a date that no longer fits the trip.
Who gets reduced or free Cretaquarium tickets?
Free Cretaquarium tickets go to children aged 0 to 4, visitors with a disability, aquarium members and tourist guides. Reduced rates cover children aged 5 to 17, seniors over 65, students, the Hellenic Security Forces and European Youth Card holders on the official list.
The European Youth Card brings two reduced Cretaquarium tickets: one rate for holders aged 13 to 17 and a slightly higher one for ages 18 to 30, both below the general fee. The Greek version of the fee page adds two groups at the reduced rate that the English page leaves out: large and three-child families, and unemployed visitors.
Families who plan Crete with kids meet one extra rule online: GetYourGuide admits children aged 4 and younger free on Cretaquarium tickets, but each child still has to be added to the booking. Its student category, open from age 17, asks for a student ID.
Which tours include Cretaquarium tickets?
Four GetYourGuide day tours include Cretaquarium tickets with entry that skips the line, plus pickup and free cancellation, and pair the aquarium with central Heraklion and its open market. A private GetYourGuide day adds Dinosauria Park, and Viator lists two matching city tours.
On all four, Cretaquarium tickets share the day with the port city and its market. Commentary runs in English, French and German, and the booking calendars list Saturday departures, with Thursdays on one tour. For longer among the stalls, add a Heraklion food tour on another day.
- Heraklion Market & CretAquarium: a guided tour of six to eight hours, adding the shopping street and the harbour, from April to October.
- The city centre, local market and aquarium tour: a six-hour day trip through the history of the city and its market.
- Day Tour to Heraklion City, Market & CRETAquarium: a seven-hour day trip with the farmers market, also running on winter Saturdays.
- The city, market and aquarium day trip: a seven-hour day trip adding the port and the largest open-air market on Crete.
The private day joins the aquarium and Dinosauria Park in six hours from Heraklion, for up to 21 passengers, in English or Greek, with pickup and wheelchair access. It names no skip-the-line entry, so confirm whether Cretaquarium tickets sit in the price. Viator sells Heraklion City Tour-Market-Creta Aquarium and Heraklion City Tour – Aquarium, and a Heraklion walking tour covers the old town on foot.
Can you add a guided tour to Cretaquarium tickets?
Yes. CretAquarium adds a personal guided tour to Cretaquarium tickets as an extra, led by trained staff in Greek or English for about one hour at scheduled times, for groups of ten or more. Solo visitors can hire an audio guide in nine languages.
Standard Cretaquarium tickets come with the touch screens and displays along the route; the guide goes further, into the animals in the tanks, the way the aquarium runs and the ecology of the sea. Scheduled tours keep to the times set in the aquarium programme.
The audio guide is a small device with headphones, loaded with recorded explanations and in-depth notes, so each listener learns at their own pace. It speaks Greek, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian and Czech, and its fee comes on top of Cretaquarium tickets as well.
A behind-the-scenes tour is listed too but not available at the moment. When it runs, staff show the feeding preparation, the tank safety checks and the quarantine areas where new animals settle in, sick animals recover and certain organisms breed. Accompanied children join it on their Cretaquarium tickets alone.
What extras sit beside Cretaquarium tickets?
Two extras sit beside Cretaquarium tickets: a virtual reality experience in a newly designed hall of the aquarium, and Dinosauria Park on the same former American base at Gournes, where more than 50 dinosaur species line a route that starts in a fossil museum.
The virtual reality hall casts each visitor as a diver. A whale 24 metres long meets the viewer’s gaze at arm’s length, manta rays lead glowing jellyfish through a coral reef, and a special light reveals the strange creatures of the Luminous Abyss. The hall belongs to the aquarium, so the dive fits the same visit as Cretaquarium tickets.
Dinosauria Park spreads over 16,000 square metres, with statues and robotic models set mainly outdoors. Its route passes a time machine, a dinosaur hospital where free guided tours every 30 minutes show an egg hatching, and a dig site with tools for fossil hunting. A 10-minute 5D film costs extra on the park ticket, itself separate from Cretaquarium tickets.
The park closes for the whole winter and reopens in spring, so check its season before pairing it with Cretaquarium tickets. A free app guides visitors in Greek, English, German and Russian, and the site has free parking, free Wi-Fi, a playground and a restaurant. Dinosauria belongs to Discover Parks, with Planet Crete and the Age of Hercules park on the same base.
How do group and school visits work with Cretaquarium tickets?
Group and school visits with Cretaquarium tickets run on bookings made by telephone. Groups of twenty or more pick their own day and time for a custom guided tour, and schools choose an educational programme held Monday to Friday, lasting one or two hours.
The custom tour carries the same extra charge on top of Cretaquarium tickets as the scheduled one. School programmes cover preschool to secondary level: certain ones follow the curriculum, such as Comparative Evolution for first-year junior high biology, and others match the age of the class. Preschool and kindergarten groups take Little Explorers, a playful one-hour tour of the seabed.
The two-hour programmes take a class beyond the route that Cretaquarium tickets open, into the educational room. In The Wanderers of the Seas, pupils study live plankton under stereoscopes and microscopes; The Knight of the Depths uses theatre games with kindergarten and early primary classes; and Exploring a Marine Threat draws on research by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research.
Schools too far away to visit can book an e-Tour instead of Cretaquarium tickets, on request only. This live webcam tour answers questions as they come, as a tour on site does, and serves schools, institutions, retirement homes and expatriate societies in remote parts of Greece or abroad.
How do you reach the aquarium with Cretaquarium tickets?
Holders of Cretaquarium tickets reach the aquarium by car, by KTEL bus or by taxi. It stands on the former American base at Gournes, 14 km from Heraklion city, and the national road links it with the resorts and towns along that coast.
Drivers with Cretaquarium tickets follow the special brown road signs that mark the way to the aquarium across the road network of Crete. The complex occupies the north-western part of the old base, and a spacious car park in the aquarium area is free to use. Visitors who need a vehicle for the day can compare hire options on our Crete car rental page.
Buses come from KTEL Heraklion-Lasithi, and the aquarium describes a dense network of routes that links it with Heraklion and with the wider Malia-Hersonissos area. Riders with Cretaquarium tickets leave the bus at Bus Stop No 9 Cretaquarium-Dinosauria, the stop numbered straight after Bus Stop No 8 Gournes on the KTEL list.
Gournes is the seat of the Hersonissos local government unit, and the aquarium’s postal address reads Gournes-Chersonissos. The resort of Hersonissos lies about 25 km east of Heraklion, further east than the aquarium, so guests based in Hersonissos with Cretaquarium tickets ride the bus west towards Heraklion and get off at Gournes.
When is the best time to use Cretaquarium tickets?
Cretaquarium tickets work on any day, since the aquarium opens 365 days a year, festive periods and holidays included, and the summer timetable from 1 April to 31 October gives the longest visiting day. The winter timetable covers 1 November to 31 March.
A winter visit with Cretaquarium tickets needs an earlier start, since the doors close in the afternoon between November and March but stay open into the evening in summer. Buses follow the seasons too: the aquarium states that its KTEL links with Heraklion run every 20 minutes in summer and every 30 minutes in winter.
KTEL Heraklion-Lasithi runs daily routes all year and issues new departure tables as the seasons change, so check the current table before planning a day around Cretaquarium tickets. In the summer season, a swim fits after the tanks, since the beaches of the Hersonissos area include Gournes itself, along with Gouves and Kokkini Hani.
On the day, the KTEL website shows departures in real time, and the company also runs a mobile app and a 24/7 automated phone line for route information. Wi-Fi on board is free, and these tools let holders of Cretaquarium tickets plan the walk to the stop around the next departure.
Is the aquarium accessible for visitors with Cretaquarium tickets?
Yes, wheelchair users can visit with Cretaquarium tickets, since the admission ticket listed on GetYourGuide carries a wheelchair accessible label. For the journey, the bus company KTEL Heraklion-Lasithi states that it offers accessible and comfortable transport solutions for passengers with special needs.
Inside, the route opens with the section called Playing with Light, where tanks of cave and deep-water life sit in low light, so visitors with low vision can take that stretch slowly. Further along, the section called The Aquarium beyond the glass shows animals up close in shallow open tanks, where holders of Cretaquarium tickets also learn how the tanks are built and run.
Taxis give a door-to-door option for holders of Cretaquarium tickets who prefer to skip the bus, and the aquarium’s access page names Radio Taxi, Taxi Gouves and Club Taxi among the companies working in the area. Bus riders can read the Services for People with Disabilities page on the KTEL website before the trip.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you enter the gift shop without a ticket?
Yes. The Octopus gift shop has two entrances: one in the ground-floor foyer that needs no ticket, and a second where the route through the aquarium finishes, reserved for holders of Cretaquarium tickets. The shop opens daily during the aquarium’s operating hours and sells souvenirs and toys, with local producers behind much of the range.
Is there a café at the aquarium?
Yes. A café-restaurant sits in the outdoor area of the aquarium, in landscaped and cool surroundings with sea views, and serves coffee, soft drinks, snacks and lunch. It gives holders of Cretaquarium tickets a place to pause before or after the tanks without leaving the site.
Can you book the KTEL bus to the aquarium online?
Yes. The KTEL Heraklion-Lasithi website lets riders choose a starting point, such as Heraklion Central Bus Station or Hersonissos, pick CretAquarium from the destination list and secure a seat. Once a bus ticket is bought, its time and date cannot change, so book the bus after fixing the day for Cretaquarium tickets.
How far is the aquarium from Heraklion airport?
The aquarium lies 14 km from Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport, the same distance as from Heraklion city. KTEL lists the airport both as a starting point and as a destination in its ticket search, which helps travellers fit Cretaquarium tickets into an arrival or departure day on Crete.