Boat Trips from Sisi, Crete: What €320 Buys on the Water

Sisi is a fishing village on the north coast of Lasithi with a harbour the size of a village square, and two boats you can book from it. Both are private charters: €320 for two hours and €520 for four, and in each case that figure is the whole boat rather than a price per head. Up to eight people can come for the same money.

That makes Sisi the cheapest place in eastern Crete to have a boat to yourself, and it is the reason the village is worth a look even if you are staying somewhere else. It also comes with a limit that the listings never spell out: from a harbour this small, the sea within reach is a stretch of quiet coast, not the famous things further east. Below is what the two boats cover, what they leave unsaid, and when you should drive instead of sail.

Quick Summary

Two boats leave Sisi and both are private hires. Two hours costs €320 and four hours costs €520, in each case for the whole boat, with a captain, fuel, drinks and snorkelling equipment included and a minimum of two guests to book. The cap is eight people.

We do not sell a shared per-person seat from Sisi. Nothing on our list leaves that harbour on a timetable, so if you want to pay by the head rather than by the hull, the nearest boats are at Agios Nikolaos, about thirty kilometres east.

Where Sisi Is and How Long the Drive Takes

Sisi sits on the coast road east of Malia, in the Vrachasi area of Lasithi, and it is closer to Heraklion airport than most people expect. The road distance is around thirty-eight to forty kilometres, which is thirty-five to forty-five minutes of driving depending on how the Malia stretch is behaving.

Malia itself is about seven kilometres away, roughly ten minutes. Agios Nikolaos is about thirty kilometres, around half an hour. Elounda is a similar distance but the sensible route runs along the national road to the Neapoli exit rather than through Agios Nikolaos, and the last section is winding, so allow forty minutes rather than thirty.

Those numbers matter because they decide what kind of trip Sisi is. If you are staying between Malia and Agios Nikolaos, this is a harbour you can reach in half an hour. If you are staying in Rethymno or Chania, it is not.

The Harbour and What Leaves From It

The harbour is a natural inlet rather than a built marina — a narrow, almost enclosed creek that holds the local fishing boats and is ringed by fish tavernas. It is genuinely small, and it is the reason the village stayed calm while Malia went the other way.

Historically it was the port of Vrachasi, used to move almonds and other produce off this stretch of coast, and it sheltered fighters during the 1821 revolution. There is a Minoan site on the hill just west of the village.

What leaves the harbour today, on our list, is two private boats. The meeting point is the Port of Sisi itself, and both listings ask you to arrive fifteen minutes before departure. Both also require booking at least twenty-four hours ahead, so this is not a harbour you can turn up at and expect to be on the water within the hour.

What the Two Charters Include

The two boats are sold with identical terms and, as far as the listings go, identical everything else. Included in both prices: a captain, fuel, drinks and snorkelling equipment. You are asked to bring suncream and a towel. Both run in Greek and English, and both carry free cancellation up to twenty-four hours before departure, with booking fees non-refundable.

Fuel being included is worth pausing on, because small-boat hire in Crete is often quoted as an hourly rate with fuel charged separately by the mile on top. Here the €320 and the €520 are the figures, and the per-head cost simply falls as your party grows: eight people on the two-hour boat is €40 each.

Drinks are listed without any detail of what or how many. If that matters to you, ask at the booking stage rather than assuming a bar.

Departure Times and the Evening Slot

The two-hour boat publishes four departures a day — 09:00, 11:30, 15:30 and 19:00 — and the four-hour boat publishes three, at 09:00, 13:00 and 15:30. Both are bookable through the end of September.

The 19:00 departure is the interesting one. It is a genuine evening slot rather than a late afternoon one, and in high season it puts you on the water for the last of the light. We are careful about the word sunset because the boats that were actually named for it were withdrawn last year; what exists here is a real evening departure from a real harbour, which is the more useful thing anyway.

One oddity to know about: the stated duration and the booked block do not always match. The 15:30 departure on the two-hour boat is held until 18:30, and the 13:00 departure on the four-hour boat is held until 15:00. Confirm the finishing time when you book rather than working it out from the title.

What the Listings Do Not Publish

This is the honest part, and it is unusual enough to say plainly: neither listing names a single destination.

There is no itinerary, no named bay, no named beach, no cave and no village anywhere in the operator's own copy — only general language about coves and clear water. Neither listing names the boat either: no model, no length, no engine, no hull type. And while a transfer is available on request, the price for it is not published, so do not read it as free.

That is not a reason to avoid the trip. It is a reason to ask two questions before you pay: which way we are heading, and how big the boat is. On a hire this short those are the only two variables that matter, and the answers are a phone call away rather than on the page.

For what it is worth, the rest of the small-boat market on this coast is no more forthcoming — most of it does not publish a price at all. Our two listings at least tell you the number.

Within Reach of a Two-Hour Boat

Two hours, with a swim in the middle, is a coastal trip. The obvious direction is east towards Milatos, which is about four kilometres from Sisi by sea — a little over two nautical miles, so ten or fifteen minutes of running in a small boat. There is a small harbour and a coastal hamlet at Milatos beach, and the shoreline between the two villages is the sort of low, rocky, indented coast that hides swimming spots you cannot reach on foot.

Closer still are Sisi's own coves, which run east from the harbour in quick succession — Boufos in the bay at the mouth of the stream, then Avlaki at the head of a narrow inlet, then Kalimera and Spiliada. All are within a kilometre or so of the village and all are approximate as distances go, but the point stands: a boat gets you round the headlands that separate them.

A four-hour hire opens the same coast with the time to stop properly rather than the time to look. It does not open a different coast.

Why Spinalonga Is Not a Sisi Trip

Look at a map of Crete and Spinalonga seems close to Sisi. On the water it is not, and this is the single most useful thing on this page.

The straight line crosses land. A boat leaving Sisi has to run east past Milatos, round the north-east corner of the island and then turn south into the Gulf of Mirabello — roughly sixteen nautical miles each way, which is four hours or more of pure running before anybody swims. No boat in this harbour is sold as a Spinalonga trip, and none should be.

If Spinalonga is what you want, there are two sensible ways to get it. Drive: Plaka is about thirty kilometres and forty minutes from Sisi, and the crossing from there is roughly ten minutes. Or book a boat that leaves from the right end of the bay — our shared catamaran out of Agios Nikolaos puts guests ashore on the island for sixty to ninety minutes, and the entrance ticket to the archaeological site is €20 for adults, charged separately from the boat.

The same logic applies to Elounda and Agios Nikolaos themselves. Both are well over fifteen nautical miles from Sisi by sea, because they sit deep inside a bay that starts around a corner. This coast is a place to potter, not a place to make passages.

Boats you can book out east

From €320

Sisi, Crete · 2 hours

2hours Private Boat trip in Sisi, Lasithi

Check availability

From €520

Sisi, Crete · 4 hours

4hours Private Boat trip in Sisi, Lasithi

Check availability

From €720

Heraklion, Crete · 3 hours

Private Hidden Caves Motor Yacht Trip in Heraklion Crete

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From €800

Heraklion, Crete · 3 hours

Private Motor Yacht Trip to Dia from Heraklion

Check availability

Prices, Minimums and the Per-Head Arithmetic

Both Sisi boats carry a two-guest minimum, which does not change the price — two people pay the same €320 as eight. That inverts the usual arithmetic. A couple pays €160 each for two hours; a party of six pays about €53 each; eight pays €40.

Set that against a seat. The nearest shared boats charge from €140 per person, so a couple wanting a day on the water is looking at €280 for two seats against €320 for a whole boat for two hours or €520 for four. The seat buys a longer day and a landing; the charter buys the deck. Neither is better in the abstract, and our guide to how many guests a private boat covers sets out the ceilings and minimums across the whole catalogue if you are comparing more than these two.

One number never to use: the small figures that appear as sorting keys on listing pages are the price divided by the capacity, not an entry price. The only prices these two boats have are €320 and €520.

What to Bring and When to Go

The season on this coast runs April to October, and both boats are bookable through the end of September at the time of writing.

Bring suncream and a towel, which is what the listings themselves ask for, plus something to cover your shoulders on the water even in August. There is no shade guaranteed on a small boat, and the north coast has more breeze than the sheltered bays further east.

Morning departures are the calmer ones through July and August, when the north wind tends to build through the afternoon. The 19:00 slot on the two-hour boat sidesteps that entirely, which is part of its appeal.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Reading a map instead of a chart. Spinalonga looks near and is sixteen nautical miles away by sea. So does Elounda. Distances on this coast bend around a corner.

Expecting to walk to the Milatos cave from the water. It is not a sea cave. The entrance sits about a hundred and fifty metres above sea level and more than a kilometre inland, and you reach it by driving to a parking area and then walking ten to fifteen minutes up a stone path. It is a good half-morning from Sisi — around nine kilometres by road — and the site of a siege in 1823 whose story is still told very differently depending on who is telling it. It is simply not part of a boat trip.

Assuming a shared seat exists. It does not, from this harbour. If your budget is per-person, drive east.

Booking on the day. Both listings need twenty-four hours' notice.

Treating the transfer as included. It is available on request and its price is not published.

Where to Stay

Sisi itself is a small village with rooms and apartments rather than resorts, and that is the point of it. Staying here or at Milatos puts you between the coast road and the Lasithi Plateau, with Malia's archaeological site ten minutes west and Agios Nikolaos half an hour east.

We run our own villa company, My Creta Villa, and this corner of Crete is one of the few where our own houses actually are — half of them sit in Lasithi, including one at Milatos, on the coast towards Sisi. That means the harbour, the plateau road and the eastern beaches are all reachable from the door, which is not something we can say about the west of the island.

Villas in Lasithi and eastern Crete

My Creta Villa is our own villa company — same family as this guide.

From €570

Milatos, Lasithi

Villa Avia

12 guests · 5 bedrooms

View villa

From €450

Lasithi

Iris Stone Built Villa

9 guests · 3 bedrooms

View villa

From €560

Lasithi

Blue Horizon Villa

10 guests · 4 bedrooms

View villa

From €400

Heraklion

Luxury Villa Kopsas

8 guests · 4 bedrooms

View villa

From €650

Heraklion

Palazzo Reale Superior Villa

13 guests · 7 bedrooms

View villa

From €430

Heraklion

Stone and Wood Villa

10 guests · 4 bedrooms

View villa

Boat trips from Sisi: frequently asked questions

How much is a boat trip from Sisi?

€320 for two hours and €520 for four hours. Both figures are for the whole boat, up to eight guests, not per person.

Is there a shared boat trip from Sisi?

Not on our list. Both Sisi boats are private charters with a two-guest minimum. The nearest per-person seats are the catamarans from Agios Nikolaos, from €140.

What time do the boats leave?

The two-hour boat runs at 09:00, 11:30, 15:30 and 19:00. The four-hour boat runs at 09:00, 13:00 and 15:30. Confirm the finishing time at booking, because a couple of the blocks are longer or shorter than the title suggests.

Can I get to Spinalonga by boat from Sisi?

Not realistically. The sea route runs around the north-east corner of the island and is roughly sixteen nautical miles each way. Drive to Plaka, about forty minutes, and take the ten-minute crossing instead.

Is fuel included in the price?

Yes. Captain, fuel, drinks and snorkelling equipment are all included in both charters. A transfer is available on request but its price is not published.

How far in advance do I need to book?

At least twenty-four hours. Both listings also offer free cancellation up to twenty-four hours before departure, though booking fees are not refunded.

Final Thoughts

Sisi is a good answer to a specific question: how do two, four or eight people get a boat to themselves without paying charter prices. €320 for two hours with a captain and fuel included is the cheapest way to do that anywhere in eastern Crete, and the harbour it leaves from is a genuinely pleasant place to stand around before and after.

It is a poor answer to a different question. If you came to Crete to walk the fortress at Spinalonga, or to spend a full day on a big catamaran with a meal on board, the boats are half an hour east and this is not the harbour. Knowing which question you are asking is most of the decision — and once you know, neither trip disappoints.

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