Step 1 - Get to Greece
On the assumption you are starting from outside Greece, then most likely you will need to fly to Athens. However it's worth pointing out that both Chania and Heraklion have airports with international flights to some select places, so you might be able to go there directly. Whether this suits your wider travel plans is another matter.
On arrival in Athens the metro line 3 (€9) is an easy way to get to the city. It is also the cheapest. You can probably get out at Syntagma and walk to where you are staying.
On arrival in Athens the metro line 3 (€9) is an easy way to get to the city. It is also the cheapest. You can probably get out at Syntagma and walk to where you are staying.
It should go without saying that Athens is a fabulous destination in its own right. But I'll say it anyway.
Step 2 - Get to Crete
The choice is ferry or flight. I went out by ferry and returned by plane.
The ferry somehow seemed the right way to get to an island, but it was more expensive (I took a cabin in the hope of getting a good night's sleep) and far slower.
For reasons that I haven't yet understood, at the time I was looking there were no day ferries anywhere and none at all to Kissamos (the town seems to be called Kastelli, while Kissamos apparently refers to the region). So I got a night ferry from Pireas to Chania.
Metro line 1 will take you directly from Omonia station to Pireas.
The night ferry arrives in Chania at 5:30! However as slight compensation for the early start there is a bus waiting to take you to the centre of town (€1.20 from the kiosk) where a connecting bus to Kastelli leaves a short while later (about €5 - ticket on the bus). By this time there were cafes open so I could have a decent breakfast and enough coffee to enable me to function - more or less.
Step 3 - Walk to Kato Zakros
In my Top Tips I detail how this was broken up. The fact that Crete is small and relatively well served by bus transport, makes it easy to get off trail and back again. What is not so easy is fathoming the timetable information, and this seems to be something that affects locals and visitors equally.
Step 4 - Return to Athens
A bus goes regularly throughout the day from Chania bus station to the airport. It takes about 15 minutes. The flight itself is around an hour (compare with 9 hours or more for the ferry). The price was about €50 which is roughly the same as a reserved aircraft-style seat on the ferry. Metro 3 to the city. It takes almost as long for the metro to arrive as it did to fly from Crete back to the mainland.
Step 5 - Fly home (or somewhere else)
You're done.
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