A private transfer from Heraklion Port to Fragkokastello covers 131.0 km (81.4 mi) in about 2 hr 23 min and costs a fixed fare from €155 per vehicle, not per person.
One booking covers the journey in either direction: arrival from Heraklion Port, or the departure run back from Fragkokastello at the same fixed fare.
Fares are per vehicle, not per person, and cover the whole car, so a family of four pays once. The price you see is the price confirmed on your voucher; it does not change with traffic, time of day, or a delayed flight.
| Vehicle | Typical models | Passengers | Bags | Fare | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Standard | Skoda Octavia, VW ID.3 | up to 3 | 3 | €155 |
|
SUV | Skoda Karoq | up to 4 | 4 | €179 |
|
Premium | Mercedes E Class, Skoda Kodiaq, Jeep Compass | up to 4 | 4 | €185 |
|
Minivan | Peugeot Traveller, Mercedes Vito | up to 8 | 8 | €185 |
|
Minibus | Mercedes Sprinter | up to 18 | 18 | €384 |
|
Bus | Coach Bus | up to 52 | 30 | €795 |
The same fare applies in both directions: Fragkokastello back to Heraklion Port costs the same as the arrival leg. Child and booster seats are added at booking, at no extra charge.
The line is the road a driver actually takes from Heraklion Port to Fragkokastello: 131.0 km (81.4 mi), about 2 hr 23 min door to door. Pickup and drop-off are marked at the coordinates the booking engine quotes against, not at the centre of the nearest town.
Your driver meets you in front of the Passenger Terminal at Heraklion Port, holding a banner with your name and the company name on it. Ferry arrivals cluster, so the terminal forecourt fills quickly; the banner is what makes your car findable in it.
Heraklion Port sits inside the city, a few minutes from the centre and about 4 kilometres from the airport. Heraklion Port is the island's main ferry gateway, taking the overnight sailings from Piraeus as well as the routes from Santorini, Mykonos, Paros and Naxos.
Overnight ferries from Piraeus dock early in the morning, which is the port's busiest window and the one where on-demand taxis are hardest to find. A pre-booked car is already waiting when the ramp goes down.
Cruise calls berth at the same port area and follow the same procedure.
In front of the Passenger Terminal, where your driver waits with a banner showing your name and ours.
Stay at the terminal rather than walking out to the road. The port approach is one-way and busy at docking time, and the vehicle cannot stop on it.
Give us your ferry or cruise line and arrival time at booking. We track sailing arrivals as well as flights, so a late docking moves the pickup rather than costing you the transfer.
Tell us as early as you can if your sailing is cancelled or diverted to another port, so the driver can be reassigned.
Fragkokastello is a settlement on the south coast of Crete, named after the Venetian castle that stands alone on the shore beside it. Fragkokastello's castle was built in the fourteenth century and survives as a near-complete rectangle of walls and corner towers directly above the sand, with nothing built against it.
The name is also written Frangokastello and Frangocastello.
The beach in front of the castle is wide, shallow and sandy, and the plain behind it is open farmland rather than resort development, which keeps the whole place quiet even in season.
We drop you at the door of your hotel, apartment or villa, near the castle or out along the plain behind the beach.
Accommodation here is spread thinly across open country and few of the tracks are named. Give the property name and any directions the owner has sent you when you book.
The car leaves the port gate for the national road and covers 131.0 kilometres in about 2 hr 23 min to the Venetian castle on the south coast.
The approach from the east is not the one most descriptions of Fragkokastello assume. Visitors coming from Chania cross the White Mountains and come down the Imbros gorge; from Heraklion the road turns south above Rethymno instead, climbs through Armeni over the spine of the island, and reaches the Libyan Sea near Plakias. The last section runs west above the water through Rodakino.
Before that, the north coast covers the first seventy-five minutes: Ammoudara, Agia Pelagia and Lygaria, then Fodele, Bali and Panormos, then Rethymno at 77.8 kilometres from the quay.
The arithmetic on this route is worth reading before booking. Fragkokastello is 131.0 kilometres out and takes about 2 hr 23 min, an average of well under 60 kilometres an hour, and the reason is the last forty kilometres of coast road rather than anything on the national road.
The castle is what you come for and it is unmistakable: a near-complete rectangle of fourteenth-century walls and corner towers standing alone on the shore, with nothing built against it and a wide shallow sand beach directly in front.
There is no village behind it in the usual sense. The plain is open farmland and the accommodation is scattered thinly across it on tracks that mostly carry no name, so the property name and the owner's directions matter more here than an address does.
Dolphin Apartments, Monachus Monachus Apartments, Milos Apartments, Castello Apartments and Kallicrates Village are spread across that plain rather than gathered in one place.
No practical public route reaches Fragkokastello from Heraklion Port.
The coach network approaches this coast from Chania, calling at Chora Sfakion a couple of times a day, and the stretch east to Fragkokastello has almost no scheduled service outside high summer. Crossing the island by coach first makes it a two-day proposition rather than a long one.
Your driver takes you to the door of your accommodation in Fragkokastello. There is no central drop-off point and no walk with your luggage at the end. These are properties in the resort we transfer guests to regularly; if yours is not listed, it is still covered, so enter the name when you book.
Villas, apartments and private addresses in Fragkokastello are served the same way. Add the address at booking and the fare stays as quoted.
The return leg is the same journey in reverse: 131.0 km (81.4 mi), about 2 hr 23 min, and the same fixed fare from €155 per vehicle. Your driver collects you from your accommodation in Fragkokastello at the agreed time and takes you straight to Heraklion Port.
Fragkokastello back to Heraklion Port covers the same 131.0 kilometres at the same fixed price.
The coast road east to Plakias and the climb back over to Rethymno fill the first hour and set the pace for the whole return. Evening sailings to Piraeus mean most departures here are booked for late morning.
Book both directions together and the return is held at the same fare. Switch the form at the top of this page to Departure, or select a return when you book.
Allow about 2 hr 23 min of driving, the boarding time your ferry or cruise line asks for, and a real margin for the south coast road and the mountain crossing.
Send the operator and sailing at booking. On a route this slow the pickup is calculated rather than estimated, and the time goes on your voucher.
The fare covers the whole vehicle rather than each seat, so 4 people pay the same as 1. The price on your voucher is the price you pay, with no booking fee and no card surcharge.
Your driver waits in the arrivals hall holding a sign with your name on it. You walk out of baggage reclaim straight to the car, without joining a taxi rank or agreeing a fare on the spot.
Child seats cost nothing extra. Reserve the seat in the booking form and state the child's age, so the correct seat is fitted before the driver sets off.
Cancel at least 24 hours before your pickup time and you pay nothing. Plans change; the booking does not lock you in.
The vehicle carries your party and nobody else. It runs from the pickup point to your exact address, with no intermediate stops and no waiting for other passengers.
Your pickup is set against your flight number, not a clock time. Transfers run at any hour, which covers night landings and pre-dawn departures.
Every booking is confirmed by a person and carries a voucher showing your route, vehicle, pickup time and fare.
These are the questions guests ask most often about the Heraklion Port to Fragkokastello transfer, answered with this route's own distance, duration and fares.
Anything not covered here is answered when we confirm the booking.
A private transfer from Heraklion Port to Fragkokastello costs a fixed €155 for a Standard car carrying up to 3 passengers. A Minivan for up to 8 people is €185.
The last forty kilometres are south coast road, not national road. Everything as far as Rethymno moves quickly; the crossing to Plakias and the run west through Rodakino do not.
By 12.0 kilometres, and by only one minute. Chora Sfakion is 143.0 kilometres from the port at about 2 hr 24 min and costs €170 against €155 here.
Fragkokastello, Frangokastello and Frangocastello all refer to the same place and the same castle.
The apartments and houses across the plain behind the beach, among them Dolphin Apartments, Monachus Monachus Apartments, Milos Apartements, Castello-Apartements and Kallicrates Village.
Wide, shallow sand directly in front of the castle walls, with open farmland behind rather than any development. It is the calmest water on this stretch of the south coast.
Per vehicle. The fare covers the car and everyone in it, up to that vehicle's passenger and luggage limit. Two people and four people pay the same €155 for a Standard car to Fragkokastello.
Yes, at no extra charge. Reserve the seat in the booking form and state the child's age so the correct infant, child or booster seat is fitted before the driver sets off.
Give us your ferry operator and sailing time when you book. We track arrivals, so a late docking moves the pickup rather than costing you the transfer.
In front of the passenger terminal, where the driver waits with a banner showing your name and ours. Ferry passengers all reach the quay at once, which is what the banner is for.
Yes. Cancel at least 24 hours before your pickup time and there is no charge.
Pay by card online when you book, or in euros in cash to the driver. There is no card surcharge and no booking fee either way.
You receive a confirmation email with your route, vehicle, pickup time and fare on it. Check the details and tell us if anything is wrong. An automated receipt on its own is not the confirmation. The emailed voucher is.
Yes. Heraklion Port to Fragkokastello and Fragkokastello to Heraklion Port are the same journey at the same fixed €155, and both directions are booked from this page. Select a return when you book and the price is held for both legs.
Those routes are priced the same way as this one: a fixed fare per vehicle, confirmed before you travel. The same applies to every Crete taxi we run, from the airports and ports to the resorts and villages along both coasts.