HERAKLION! (Heraklion International Airport "Nikos Kazantzakis" (HER))

Member Name: moog27

Product:	Heraklion International Airport "Nikos Kazantzakis" (HER)
Date:	27/04/09 (267 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: better than we expected, clean arrival facilities, wasnt too crowded on arrival, nice location, usef

Disadvantages: departure lounge, toilets in departures, lack of seating during busy times

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Arrival
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After reading nothing but extremely negative reviews about Heraklion airport we were becoming increasingly anxious as our plane started to decend onto the Greek island of Crete!

We had read about long delays, lack of or broken air-conditioning, cramped, dirty and overcrowded baggage claim areas and many other complaints.
The airport is situated right by the sea and in the capital of Crete (Heraklion). As we landed I was surprised that the airport was actually of a reasonable size, there was nothing fancy about the outside of the building but at least it didn't look dilapidated!!

As we got off the plane via a set of steps we were immediately guided into a bus, which fortunately wasn't too crowded as there were other passengers waiting for the next one. After just a minute on the bus we were walking into the airport, which was to our relief, nicely air-conditioned! There were toilets just before passport control, which seemed pretty clean and not at all crowded. We walked straight through passport control, as there were no queues at all (Although I suppose there would be if more than one flight arrived at the same time).

In the 1st part of the baggage claim area there was a disabled toilet and two conveyor belts. There were a few seats around the room but as there were only passengers from our flight there, there was no fight for seats!
We waited about 15 minutes for our luggage details to be displayed on one of the screens but due to the air-conditioning and seating it was a comfortable wait. The screen told us that our luggage was on belt 4 which was in the next room, similar to the first, where there were a further two conveyor belts. The luggage came out very fast but we managed to grab ours as soon as it came out (other people kept missing it as it flew past them which did provide some entertainment but was probably not so funny for them!!)

A few peoples cases were a bit dirty when they came out but other than that there were no complaints. There were toilets in this area and they were very clean and again there were no queues.

We put our luggage on a trolley and made our way out of the airport where we were greeted by a rep who pointed us in the direction of the coach to take us to our hotel. All in all our arrival had been very pleasant.


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Departure
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After an hour and a half in a coach to get to the airport we were really hoping there wouldn't be any delays (although apparently Heraklion airport is known for its long delays!). When we arrived at the airport we were told that the entrance we were using was very small and so they could only let us in a few at a time! So we had to queue up under a canopy outside while they filtered us in! Fortunately we were quite near to the beginning of the extremely long queue so it only took about 10 minutes before we were let into the airport. Once inside it wasn't too hectic thanks to the queuing method and so we put our suitcases through the X-ray machine and then went to check them in which didn't take too long. In this area there were toilets and a couple of shops. We were then pointed in the direction of passport control where again we didn't have to queue too long! Following this was the conveyor belt for scanning hand luggage and we were in the departures lounge. When we first got in there, there weren't many people and there seemed to be plenty of seating (although the blue metal chairs weren't the most comfortable things in the world!). Downstairs there was a snack bar selling all sorts of drinks and snacks and then some toilets. Fortunately we decided to go to the toilet at this point as later on there were queues of about 20 people! The toilets weren't much to be desired, there were 3 cubicles but one was out of order which left only two and due to the hundreds of people in the departures lounge trying to use them, they weren't in a very nice condition! In fact they were pretty foul! The backs of the doors were also covered in graffiti where people had written how long they had been delayed for which wasn't such a great thing to be reading when you want to get out of the airport as soon as possible and are reading that people have been delayed for 6 plus hours!!!
The departures lounge was beginning to fill up quite quickly so we decided to have a look up stairs where there was a few chairs, a "restaurant" and a duty free shop. The restaurant was hardly a restaurant, there were very few tables and the food and drink was very expensive but being there earlier meant that we managed to get a table and a coffee. The duty free shop was pretty basic, but it did give us something to look at while we were waiting to board. Upstairs was also a long glass window where you could see the planes landing and taking off which meant that we could see when our plane arrived and there was also a nice view of the sea so it did provide some entertainment for about 15 minutes! When we went back downstairs we saw that the departures lounge was now pretty full and people were getting a bit ratty. There were a few screens scattered around and thankfully our flight was still leaving on time but I noticed that some other flights had delays up to 8 hours!! We finally heard an announcement that we could start boarding so we went through to our boarding gate where we were directed down a ramp and into a bus which was pretty full!!! At least it only took about40 seconds to drive us to our plane!


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Overall
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All in all our arrival was more pleasant than our departure but that was because we were fortunate enough to be the only flight coming in at that time. Our departure wasn't as bad as we expected but I could understand that the people standing at the back of the long queue just to get into the airport may not have been too impressed. The toilets in the departures lounge were the kind that you really want to avoid if possible but there had been good facilities on our arrival. The departures lounge was no where near as comfortable as those at Gatwick but considering Heraklion is a small airport it wasn't horrendous. There was sufficient air-conditioning both when we arrived and departed which did make it quite comfortable. The staff were friendly enough and there were plenty of staff and reps that spoke good English. To be honest, although it wasn't the most fantastic airport, both our arrival and departure were pretty good and the only real complaint is the toilets in the departures lounge, other than that the airport was better than we expected! I assume it depends on how many other flights are arriving/departing at the same time as yours but fortunately we had a fantastic holiday and no real problems with the airport. All European flights go in to Heraklion airport so the only way of avoiding the airport would be to fly to Athens and then get a boat to Crete but that is a much longer journey. Crete is such a lovely place that it is worth putting up with the airport, so although I don't "recommend the airport" as such, I do recommend that you use it and go to Crete!

Summary: an adequate airport