Gortyna tickets give entry to the archaeological site of Gortyna, also spelled Gortyn, in the Messara plain of south-central Crete, home of the Gortyn Law Code inscribed in stone. Tours across the rest of the country are listed on Greece Tours.
The sections below cover what the ticket covers, where to buy it, e-tickets, reduced and free entry, the tours that include entry, the day trips that pair Gortyna with Phaistos and Matala, guides, the Phaistos and Agia Triada tickets, the time the site needs, getting there, the site rules and access, with links into the Gortyn pages. The tours shown are checked on GetYourGuide and Viator.
What are Gortyna tickets?
Gortyna tickets give entry to the state archaeological site of Gortyna, also written Gortyn or Gortys, in Crete’s Messara plain. The Greek Ministry of Culture runs the site, and its official online store, Hellenic Heritage, sells the tickets for a set day and time.
Hellenic Heritage names the Ministry’s Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion as a contact for the site, whose address is Ampelouzos, Agioi Deka. The store lists the venue as Gortyna Tickets, while the Hellenic Heritage visitor page calls the site Gortys, so search for either spelling. The history and ruins of ancient Gortyn have their own page.
Both the Ministry’s page and the Hellenic Heritage page list two rates, full and reduced. In the store, the venue holds one product, Visit Gortyna, plus an eligibility list that sets out who qualifies for reduced or free Gortyna tickets. No other product appears there.
What do Gortyna tickets cover?
Gortyna tickets open the fenced core of the site, which holds the Saint Titus basilica, the Roman Odeon and the sheltered Law Code. Remains across the road, among them the Praetorium and the Pythian Apollo temple, lie outside the fence.
Beyond those two, the far side of the road holds the shrine of the Egyptian gods, a five-aisled basilica, theatres and fountains. That zone is not set up for a proper visit, so Gortyna tickets add no walking access to it; you view it through the fence.
Inside the fence, the Law Code stones sit in a small modern building set into the north curve of the Odeon wall, as the Ministry’s description of Gortyna records. Gortyna tickets therefore give access to the inscription itself, along with the basilica and the Odeon.
The Archaeological Museum of Messara stands at the west edge of the designated Gortyna zone, on the Heraklion to Moires and Tympaki road at Ampelouzos. Its website lists its own ticket, and its plan marks a separate ticket desk, so treat the museum as a second stop.
Where can you buy Gortyna tickets?
Buy Gortyna tickets online from the Ministry of Culture’s official Hellenic Heritage store at tickets.hh.gr, or at the site’s own ticket counter. On free-admission days the counter is the only outlet, because the store issues no tickets online for those dates.
The Gortys page on Hellenic Heritage carries a Buy Tickets button that opens the store’s venue, titled Gortyna Tickets and placed at Ampelouzos. The venue page carries the label Official ticket store, and ODAP, the Greek organisation for cultural resources development, operates the store together with the Ministry.
Problems with an online order go to Hellenic Heritage support. Its help page lists a phone line that takes calls from Greece and abroad every day, plus an email request form, so buyers of Gortyna tickets on the store can reach the operator directly.
How do Gortyna tickets work as e-tickets?
Gortyna tickets sold online are timed e-tickets: each one carries a chosen date and entry time and covers a single entry. You present it on screen or printed at the gate, and anyone on a reduced or free ticket brings ID as well.
- Online tickets cannot be refunded once bought.
- Each ticket also gives you use of Digital Guide, the Hellenic Heritage app.
- Edits close 2 hours before the booked entry time.
To move Gortyna tickets to another slot or fix the visitor details, open the Manage Tickets page on tickets.hh.gr or sign in to your store account. Each ticket allows two changes in total, so pick the new slot with care.
When you book reduced or free Gortyna tickets online, the store shows an eligibility list with the papers each group needs, such as an ID card or passport for age-based entry. Staff check those papers at entry along with the e-ticket, so keep them with you.
Who gets reduced or free Gortyna tickets?
Free Gortyna tickets go to all children up to 18, to young people from EU countries up to 25, and to visitors whose disability is rated 67% or more, with one escort. Reduced Gortyna tickets cover EU seniors over 65 and certain school-visit escorts.
For free Gortyna tickets, children and young people prove their age and country with an ID card or passport. Visitors with a disability of 67% or more bring an ID card or passport plus a disability certificate from KEPA or an equivalent foreign body. Journalists, professional tourist guides in Greece and refugees also enter free with their papers.
Reduced Gortyna tickets go to seniors over 65 from Greece or another EU country, who show an ID card or passport, in every month except June to September. Parents escorting EU primary-school groups and teachers leading school trips from non-EU countries also get the reduced ticket, while EU teachers and students on educational visits enter free.
Gortyna tickets are free for every visitor, of any age or nationality, on the dates below. The Ministry applies them to all the state sites it manages, and Hellenic Heritage lists the same days for Gortys, with the winter Sundays included:
- 6 March, the day that honours Melina Mercouri
- 18 April, marked as International Monuments Day
- the yearly International Museums Day
- the final weekend of September, when Europe marks its Heritage Days
- 28 October, a Greek national holiday
- two Sundays each month, the first and the third, from November through March
Which tours include Gortyna tickets?
Seven tours on GetYourGuide and Viator stop at Gortyna, so any of them can carry Gortyna tickets. Their listings name the stops but say nothing about admission, so check the inclusions on each booking page to see whether the entry fee is already paid.
Two GetYourGuide options lead with the sea. Day trip to Matala Hippie Beach offers pickup, runs in English, French or German, and its listing address names the Gortyn archaeological site. Matala, Ancient Phaistos and Gortyn, South Crete runs for a private or small group, with pickup and an optional audio guide. Neither summary says whether Gortyna tickets are part of the price.
Viator lists a trip with a near-identical title, Matala Beach, Ancient Phaistos-Faistos and Gortyn, South Crete, and its card shows free cancellation. All five GetYourGuide listings offer free cancellation too, and each one closes bookings 10 hours before the start. Before paying, check with the operator who buys the Gortyna tickets: the tour team, or you at the counter.
Which day trips from Heraklion pair Gortyna tickets with Phaistos and Matala?
Four day trips from Heraklion pair Gortyna tickets with Phaistos and Matala: three on GetYourGuide, lasting 8 or 8.5 hours, and Explore the Treasures of Crete on Viator. Two of the GetYourGuide routes add Zaros village, and one runs as a private tour.
Archaeological and Natural Beauties of South Central Crete is the longest of the three at 8.5 hours. It builds the day around Phaistos, stops at Gortyna and at Matala, the old hippie village, and adds Zaros for its Byzantine monasteries, with English, Spanish, French and Italian on offer. Gortyna tickets cover one of four stops on this route.
Two more trips from Heraklion both last 8 hours: a small-group run to Gortyna, Phaistos, Matala and Zaros, and a private tour to Gortyna, Phaistos and Matala. The private one adds pickup and takes a party of up to eight. Both titles name Gortyna first, and neither summary mentions Gortyna tickets or any other entry.
Viator’s Explore the Treasures of Crete links the same three places from the Heraklion area, with free cancellation on its card. For the palace half of these days, our Phaistos tour page sets out the options, while each listing’s inclusions confirm whether Gortyna tickets are covered.
Do Gortyna tickets come with a guide or an audio guide?
Gortyna tickets bring no live guide on site, but the official online ticket comes with Hellenic Heritage’s Digital Guide app. A live guide comes with the tours, and the eight-language Matala, Phaistos and Gortyn trip adds an optional audio guide.
Live commentary comes from the guided tours. The small-group trip from Heraklion is sold as a guided tour in English, French, Italian or Spanish, and the private tour runs in English. The eight-language trip covers English, French, German, Greek, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Italian, and its optional audio guide is a tour extra, separate from Gortyna tickets.
Travellers on their own can also book a private guide in Heraklion. Tourist Guides of Crete, a guiding agency in the city, lists guides in languages from Greek and English to Finnish, Czech and Slovak. Ask any guide whether the quote for the day includes Gortyna tickets or leaves them to you.
Can you use Gortyna tickets at Phaistos or Agia Triada?
No: Gortyna tickets do not open Phaistos or Agia Triada. The official Hellenic Heritage pages give each of the three sites its own full and reduced ticket, and nothing on the Gortyna listing mentions a combined pass with either neighbouring site.
The rates differ as well. Phaistos carries the highest full and reduced rates of the three and Agia Triada the lowest, which puts Gortyna tickets in the middle. Phaistos tickets can be bought online from its Hellenic Heritage page, while the Agia Triada page lists its rates with no online purchase link. One body, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion, oversees all three sites.
The free admission days match at all three, so on those dates a Messara day needs no paid entry at any of them. For the palace itself, read our Palace of Phaistos page before adding its ticket to a day built around Gortyna tickets.
How much time do Gortyna tickets need?
Gortyna tickets sit inside a full day on the tours: routes pairing the site with Phaistos and Matala last 8 or 8.5 hours, and the Matala beach day with Gortyn runs 9 hours. In each case Gortyna is one stop of the day.
Four of the five GetYourGuide trips list 8 or 8.5 hours, while the 9-hour beach day centres on Matala’s sand and the hippie caves beside it. Across all five, a visit on Gortyna tickets takes a share of the day, not the whole of it, so the site works as one part of a southern Crete circuit.
A self-drive day follows the same pattern. The official pages put Phaistos and Agia Triada each 1 hour by car from Heraklion, and Phaistos 1 hour and 40 minutes by intercity bus, so the palace sites fit the same day as Gortyna tickets when the day starts early.
How do you reach Gortyna to use your Gortyna tickets?
You reach Gortyna by car or by KTEL intercity bus from Heraklion, 45 kilometres away on the road towards Moires, and show your Gortyna tickets at the site beside Agioi Deka. Hellenic Heritage puts the drive at 50 minutes and the bus ride at 1 hour.
Drivers with Gortyna tickets take the main road that runs south from Heraklion towards Moires and Tympaki and passes the western end of the declared archaeological zone. The ruins lie between the villages of Agioi Deka and Mitropoli, south of the Psiloritis range, near the centre of the Messara, Crete’s biggest plain, which runs about 50 kilometres from west to east.
Messara buses leave from the KTEL station at Heraklion port, and the company’s timetable shows departures from Heraklion to a stop named Gortys on every day of the week, with more on weekdays than at weekends. Seats are booked on the KTEL website or mobile app, and the website’s news section, worth checking before a day out with Gortyna tickets, flags modified or extra routes.
Which rules come with Gortyna tickets?
Gortyna tickets stop working the moment you leave the site, so plan one continuous visit. Keep the ticket on you until the exit, show it whenever staff ask, follow the security team’s instructions and accept a check of your bags at the entrance.
Gortyna tickets are valid only when bought through an official ODAP sales channel, and swapping or reselling them is banned. Treat the code like a key: the checkpoint admits whoever shows it first and turns back any duplicate print, so never forward the e-mail or share a photo of your Gortyna tickets.
Staff can refuse entry, ticket or not, to anyone who is drunk or on drugs, or who carries sharp, flammable or dangerous items or anything usable as a weapon. A ticket that is lost, stolen or destroyed earns no refund, but when events beyond anyone’s control close the site on your visit day, ODAP can extend the validity of Gortyna tickets or refund them.
Are Gortyna tickets suitable for children and visitors with limited mobility?
Gortyna tickets suit families and visitors with limited mobility. Hellenic Heritage includes accessibility in its list of site amenities, alongside toilets and a café that help families with young children, and a Heraklion guiding agency reports facilities for disabled visitors at the site.
Children need their own Gortyna tickets, because each ticket covers one visitor, and the online store accepts orders only from users aged 18 or over, so a parent or another adult books for the whole party. A shop and Wi-Fi complete the official amenity list.
The bus leg asks more of travellers with limited mobility than the visit on Gortyna tickets does. KTEL states that its intercity coaches are not always built for easy boarding and alighting, so a passenger with serious mobility problems can need an escort.
Passengers with special needs get priority for seat bookings, boarding and alighting, and KTEL says its drivers, ticket collectors, inspectors and ticket sellers stand ready to help them. Visually impaired riders can bring small service animals on board for the trip to use their Gortyna tickets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do drivers park when they arrive with Gortyna tickets?
Parking appears on the official amenity list for the site, and a Crete tour-guide agency reports room there for all types of vehicles. For satellite navigation, Hellenic Heritage’s Gortys page has a Get Directions link that opens an online map, which takes drivers holding Gortyna tickets to the site.
Can you take a bus back to Heraklion after using Gortyna tickets?
On weekdays, yes, but the choice is thin. KTEL’s published table from the Gortys stop to Heraklion lists one weekday departure and none on Saturdays or Sundays, against daily runs in the opposite direction. Buses from Moires to Heraklion run every day, so ask KTEL which of them call at Gortys before setting out with Gortyna tickets.
Which KTEL rules apply on the way to use Gortyna tickets?
Smoking is banned on every KTEL bus, and seat belts are compulsory for every passenger, a rule the company calls essential. The bus ticket is a separate purchase from Gortyna tickets, and once it is paid KTEL makes no change to its date or departure time, so fix the visit day before booking the seat.
Which KTEL stop name matches Gortyna tickets?
Pick GORTYS, the stop that carries the site’s name in KTEL’s booking list. The same list holds AG.DEKA for the village of Agioi Deka, seat of the Gortyna municipality, and PLATANOS GORTYS, named after Platanos, a separate village in that municipality, so check the name before paying for a seat to use Gortyna tickets.