Scuba Diving Near Heraklion: First Dives from €65 and Boat Dives

None of the dives we list start in Heraklion itself. The city's waterfront is a working port, and the scuba diving people mean when they say Heraklion happens on the coast either side of it: in the bay of Agia Pelagia, about 20 km to the west, and on the resort beaches of Hersonissos, about 25 km to the east. We list three dives there, and between them they cover everyone from a ten-year-old who has never used a mask to a diver with a logbook.

The prices are €65 for a two-hour try dive from the beach at Agia Pelagia, €85 for a beginner morning at Hersonissos that starts in a swimming pool, and €90 for two boat dives if you already hold a certification card. The differences between them are not only the price — they are the transfer, the day of the week and what you have to bring — so this guide goes through each base in turn and then the practical rules that apply to all three.

Quick Summary

The scuba diving we list near Heraklion runs from two places. Agia Pelagia, west of the city, has a dive centre on the beach that runs the €65 try dive and the €90 certified boat dives. Hersonissos, east of the city, has a dive centre inside a beach resort that runs the €85 beginner experience.

You do not need a certification for the two beginner dives, but you do need to be at least 10 and in good health on the day. You do need a card for the boat dives. All three are priced per person, all three offer free cancellation up to 24 hours before, and the sea is at its warmest, around 26°C, from August into September.

Where the Diving Actually Happens

The two bases face the same sea but sell different days, and the one nearest your hotel usually decides it.

Agia Pelagia is a small resort in a sheltered bay below the national road, west of Heraklion. The dive centre sits directly on the beach, so a first dive starts by walking into the water, and the certified divers leave by boat from the same place. The coves either side, at Lygaria and Mononaftis, are part of the same stretch of rocky coast.

Hersonissos sits on the resort strip that runs east from Heraklion towards Malia. Its beginner session runs from a dive centre inside a beach resort, with a pool for the practice and the shore for the dive.

Heraklion city sits between the two, which is why both show up in searches for diving in Heraklion — and why the €65 listing carries the city's name even though you dive 20 km away. For everything else the Heraklion area offers, our Heraklion region guide covers the city and its surroundings.

Agia Pelagia: The €65 Try Dive From the Beach

This is the cheapest of the dives we list near Heraklion, and it is built for complete beginners. After a briefing and a fitting, you spend about thirty minutes in the bay with an instructor, in confined water no deeper than 5 metres, with no more than four students per instructor. Full equipment, DAN diving insurance and refreshments after you come out of the water are included.

There are two sessions a day, 09:30–11:00 and 12:45–14:45, and the calendar runs every day to the end of October.

The listing also includes a free transfer, and it covers most places a visitor to this coast would stay: Heraklion itself; Karteros, Kokkini Hani, Gouves, Analipsi, Anissaras, Hersonissos, Koutouloufari, Piskopiano, Stalis and Malia in the east; and Ammoudara, Lygaria, Agia Pelagia, Mononaftis, Made and Fodele in the west. The catch is the timing. Pick-ups run between 08:00 and 09:30 and return transfers begin at 16:00, so if you take the transfer a two-hour dive fills most of the day. If you have a car, or you are staying in Agia Pelagia, it is genuinely two hours.

Hersonissos: A Pool First, Then the Sea

The €85 session takes a morning and adds a step the beach dive leaves out. You meet at 09:30 at the dive centre inside the resort, register on the SSI app, watch a short theory video, get fitted with a mask, fins, wetsuit and scuba set, and practise the basics in the pool. At about 11:20 you walk down to the sea for your first dive from the shore, and you are finished at around midday.

SSI Try Scuba registration, the equipment, the instructor and insurance are included. What is not included is a transfer: you make your own way to Hersonissos and tell the resort's security that you are there for the diving centre.

It runs Monday to Saturday, never on a Sunday, and the calendar currently runs to Friday 30 October. The pool rehearsal is the reason to choose it over the €65 — a nervous first-timer gets to find out what breathing through a regulator feels like in clear, still water before the sea.

Boat Dives for Certified Divers

If you hold a certification, the €90 trip is the day to book. It runs from 09:30 to 15:30 at the Agia Pelagia centre, with two dives at two different sites and a guide who knows the coast. Divers certified with SSI, PADI, CMAS, FFESM and similar bodies are welcome; the card is checked on the day. The booking calendar takes up to six divers a day.

The listing names the sites it visits most: reef dives at Mononaftis and Lygaria, the formations known as Dia's Rock and Daedalos, a wreck called the Big Anchor, and a Blue Cave. Which two you get is decided each morning, by the weather and by the certification level of the group, and advanced divers can be offered cave, deep and wreck dives that an Open Water diver will not.

The price covers tank and weights, the guide, a mask and fins, and water, coffee and tea on board. It does not cover the rest of the kit: full equipment rental is €30 at the centre, so a diver who arrives with nothing pays €120. The calendar runs daily until mid-October.

After the First Dive

A try dive is a taste, not a qualification. It does not certify you — the SSI Try Scuba registration on the Hersonissos session is a recognition, not a diver's certification — and it does not let you rent equipment or dive without an instructor afterwards.

If it hooks you, the Agia Pelagia centre points try-dive graduates towards its own next programme, which adds a dive from the boat. We do not list that programme or any full certification course, so for any training beyond a try dive you would book with the centre directly. Two tips if you are tempted: do any theory online before you travel, so the holiday goes on the water rather than in a classroom, and never schedule training for the last days of your trip, for the flight reason further down this page.

Who Can Take Part

Both beginner dives we list take children from 10 — the minimum both listings set, although some try-dive programmes start younger. The booking form on all three listings offers a "Children (0–12)" ticket at the full price; ignore it for anyone under 10, because they will not be allowed in the water.

Health is the other gate. The €65 try dive is not suitable for people with respiratory conditions including asthma, heart problems, epilepsy, recent surgery, a cold or flu on the day, mobility issues, certain prescribed medications, or pregnancy. The €85 session has you complete a medical form, and a condition such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, heart or lung disease, a recent operation or a neurological issue, or prescribed medication can mean a doctor's note: on the standard diver medical form, a yes to questions like these needs a doctor's sign-off before you dive. If that applies to you, arrange the note before you travel rather than at the desk.

Two more rules from the listings: no alcohol before diving, and no heavy meal in the two hours before. None of this is bureaucracy for its own sake — a shallow, supervised dive is a safe first step precisely because the people who should not be in the water that day are screened out before they get there.

If someone in your party cannot dive, the easiest shared day is a boat to Dia with snorkelling gear on board: the semi-private cruise above includes snorkelling, fishing and paddleboard equipment with lunch and drinks, from Heraklion's old harbour. Our guide to what a boat trip in Crete includes sets out what comes with the fare on the boats we sell, and what does not.

The dives we list near Heraklion

From €85

Crete · 3 hours

Beginner Scuba Diving Experience in Hersonissos, Crete

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From €65

Heraklion, Crete · 2 hours

Try Scuba Diving in Heraklion: Beginner Tour in Crete

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From €90

Heraklion, Crete · 6 hours

2 Boat Dives for Certified Divers in Agia Pelagia, Heraklion, Crete

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Weather and the Best Time

The sea off Heraklion is around 17°C in April, reaches the low twenties in June, peaks near 26°C in August and September and still holds the low twenties in October. September is the sweet spot: the water is still near its August peak, and there are fewer people on the beaches.

The summer wind is the thing to plan around. The meltemi blows from the north through July and August and tends to strengthen during the day, so morning sessions are usually the calmer ones — which suits both beginner dives, since both offer a 09:30 start.

Getting There and What to Bring

From Heraklion, Agia Pelagia is about 20 km west and Hersonissos about 25 km east. The €65 try dive's transfer covers the city and the coast from Fodele to Malia; the €85 session has no transfer, and the €90 boat dives ask anyone travelling independently to arrive fifteen minutes before the meeting time.

For the beginner dives, bring a swimsuit, a towel and sunscreen — the Hersonissos session also asks for a smartphone, because you register on the SSI app. For the boat dives, bring your certification card and any of your own equipment you prefer to use.

How to Choose

If you are certified, book the boat dives and bring your own kit if you have it.

If you are not, choose by where you are staying and how you feel about the water. West of the city or in Heraklion without a car, the €65 try dive with its free transfer is the simplest answer. East of the city, the €85 Hersonissos morning is closer, and its pool practice makes it the better first dive for anyone anxious. If your only free day is a Sunday, it has to be Agia Pelagia.

Language can settle it too. The Agia Pelagia listings run in English, Greek, German and French; the Hersonissos session in English and Greek.

For the wider picture of how a morning in the water fits into a stay here, our guide to half-day tours from Heraklion sorts the other short activities by the clock.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Treating the €65 as a two-hour outing when you take the transfer. Collection starts at 08:00 and the return transfers do not begin until 16:00.

Diving the day before you fly. The Hersonissos programme asks for 24 hours between diving and flying; other dive centres in Crete quote 12 or 18 hours. Divers Alert Network puts the minimum at twelve hours after a single dive and eighteen after more than one dive in a day or several days of diving, which covers the two boat dives. Either way, keep the last day free.

Arriving at the boat dives without a full kit. Tank, weights, mask and fins are included; the rest is €30.

Booking a younger child. The child ticket goes down to 0; the dives do not go below 10.

Planning a Sunday at Hersonissos. It does not run.

Where to Stay

For diving, Agia Pelagia is the most convenient base: you can walk to the dive centre, and the bay is sheltered enough to swim on the days you are not diving. Heraklion and the main resorts east to Malia are on the try dive's free-transfer list, and Hersonissos puts you close to the beginner session.

We run our own villa company, My Creta Villa, with houses in the Heraklion area and east into Lasithi, so we can say plainly what the trade-off is: a villa with a pool a little inland is a calmer base than a beach hotel, but it puts you outside walking distance of the dive centres, so plan on a car, or check that your village is on the try dive's free-transfer list; outside it, a transfer costs extra and has to be arranged.

Villas within reach of the dive centres

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

From €400

Heraklion

Luxury Villa Kopsas

8 guests · 4 bedrooms

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From €650

Heraklion

Palazzo Reale Superior Villa

13 guests · 7 bedrooms

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From €430

Heraklion

Stone and Wood Villa

10 guests · 4 bedrooms

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From €570

Milatos, Lasithi

Villa Avia

12 guests · 5 bedrooms

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From €450

Lasithi

Iris Stone Built Villa

9 guests · 3 bedrooms

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From €560

Lasithi

Blue Horizon Villa

10 guests · 4 bedrooms

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Scuba diving near Heraklion: frequently asked questions

Where can you scuba dive near Heraklion?

At Agia Pelagia, about 20 km west of the city, and at Hersonissos, about 25 km east. The dives we list run from a beach dive centre at Agia Pelagia and a resort dive centre at Hersonissos, not from the city itself.

How much is a try dive near Heraklion?

The try dive we list at Agia Pelagia is 65 euros with equipment, insurance and a free transfer from Heraklion and the resorts between Fodele and Malia. The beginner experience with pool practice we list at Hersonissos is 85 euros, without a transfer.

Do I need a certification to dive near Heraklion?

Not for a try dive. Both beginner dives we list take complete beginners from age 10. The 90 euro boat dives from Agia Pelagia are for certified divers only, and the card is checked on the day.

How deep does a first dive go?

The 65 euro try dive we list at Agia Pelagia stays no deeper than 5 metres, for about thirty minutes, with at most four students per instructor. The 85 euro Hersonissos session we list is registered as SSI Try Scuba, a programme SSI caps at 5 metres.

Is equipment included in the boat dives?

Partly. The 90 euro boat dives we list include tank, weights, mask and fins. Full equipment rental is 30 euros extra at the dive centre.

Can I dive the day before my flight?

On the Hersonissos session we list, only if 24 hours separate the end of the dive from your flight, which rules out a morning flight the next day. Divers Alert Network recommends at least 12 hours after one dive and 18 after more than one dive in a day or several days of diving, which covers the two boat dives we list.

Final Thoughts

The coast around Heraklion is a good place for a first dive because it removes most of the obstacles: the water is clear and warm for months, the entry is a beach rather than a boat, and the three dives we list cover beginners, the nervous and the certified at prices between €65 and €90.

The choice comes down to logistics rather than quality. Take the €65 beach dive if you want the free transfer and do not mind a long day, the €85 Hersonissos morning if you want a pool rehearsal and can get yourself there, and the boat dives if you carry a card. Then keep the last day of your trip dry.

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