Heraklion is Crete's capital and its main gateway, and the coastline either side of the city — the villages of Kokkini Hani, Gouves, Analipsi and the shore that runs towards Hersonissos — is the island's all-inclusive heartland. This is where some of Crete's biggest and best beach resorts sit on long stretches of sand, minutes from the runway, with the Palace of Knossos and a superb archaeological museum right on the doorstep. Heraklion Airport (HER) is barely 15 minutes from most of these resorts, so you can be checked in and by the pool before the afternoon is out. If you want serious all-inclusive value with a slug of history within easy reach, this is the base that delivers it.
Every Heraklion package we sell carries full ATOL financial protection under licence #11211, and your ATOL Certificate arrives the moment you book — you can read exactly how your ATOL financial protection works before you part with a penny. Every hotel on this page has been hand-picked and inspected in person against our 22-point criteria, not lifted from a brochure, so you are booking a resort someone from our team has genuinely walked through.
"People fly into Heraklion and drive straight past it, and I understand why — it's a working city, not a postcard," says Eleni Trachalakis, our Greece Operations Manager, who grew up on Crete and worked here for years as a Thomas Cook resort representative before joining GoToBeach. "But the coast on either side is where the big all-inclusive resorts do their best work, and the short transfer is a gift when you've got small children melting after a flight. I re-check these hotels in person every season, because the ones near the airport have to prove they're worth staying put for — and the best of them genuinely are." Eleni will happily tell you which resorts sit on real sand rather than imported shingle, and which are close enough to Knossos to make a morning of it.
