The beautiful Greek island home to Europe’s ‘worst airport’

As any seasoned traveller can attest to, a bad airport can heavily impact a person’s overall trip.

Granted, the destination is always the most important.

But a bad airport experience can increase the already palpitating feelings of anxiety when travelling.

A booking portal for holiday homes, Holidu, analysed data from Google Maps and came up with the best and worst airports in Europe for 2024.

This data included ratings and comments and found the destination that despite being a beautiful holiday hotspot, needed major improvements when it came to its overall travelling experience.

According to the data, Heraklion International Airport in Crete, has been named the worst airport in Europe.

Heraklion is the primary airport on the island of Crete in Greece and is the country’s second busiest airport after Athens International Airport.

It had an average of 2.6 stars and included 21,202 reviews with the analysis of comments proving it to be the least favourite. 

The poor ratings and less-than-positive reviews clearly indicated that travellers faced a number of issues and problems when using this airport.

Some reasons for the airport’s poor score included it being dirty, overcrowded, having poor air conditioning and toilets, unfriendly staff, poor seating and a severe lack of food options and information.

One TripAdvisor review stated how it was a  ‘shocking experience at the end of a lovely holiday’.

The review continued: “This airport is appalling to the level comparable of a third world country. It hardly looks as though it belongs in Europe.

“The seating areas are inadequate and I had to sit on the floor for half an hour until someone vacated a seat.

“Avoid if at all possible.”

Another added: “The Heraklion airport has not been updated since the 1950’s. The departure gate area was standing room only for hours. People were almost in fights trying to get a seat.

“The washrooms were beyond disgusting . Toilets without toilet seats , soap ( I think) was a pink liquid in a coke bottle ( not making this up). Both men and women were in the same state.”

“Worst airport I have ever been in, overcrowded and dirty,” added another disgruntled traveller.

Despite Crete being one of the most beautiful places in Europe, a strong need for its airport to be modernised and overhauled is clear.