If you’re stuck trying to pick between Sicily and Crete, we’ll try to help you settle the case today. We’ll go over which one has better weather, prices, tourist attractions and beaches.
For starters, though, both Crete and Sicily are the respective largest islands of their country. Crete belongs to Greece and its capital is Heraklion. Italian Sicily is almost three times the size of Crete, though both fit within the top 5 biggest islands of the Mediterranean Sea. Which one will be better for your holidays? Let’s try to determine that today.
Sicily vs Crete: weather
Which one’s warmer?
If all you care about is just one big hot island, both will be equally suitable. Frankly, Sicily and Crete are too similar to really draw out many differences: nights are a tad bit colder in Sicily, there’s a bit more rain throughout most of the year. Still, both islands reach 30°C+ on average during the summer and about 15°C in winter. Autumns and winters are rainy while summers are relatively dry, though Crete is certainly the extreme in regards to the lack of rain during the summer. As such, especially when compared to our weather, you won’t be disappointed with either.
Sicily vs Crete: prices
Which island is cheaper?
Generally speaking, we’d say that Crete is a tad cheaper, though it’s not as big a differential as it may seem. You can still find low-cost airlines and cheap accommodation in Sicily and there are pricier options for Crete too. In fact, low-cost flights to Sicily tend to be cheaper than to Crete. Generally, we wouldn’t really worry about one being significantly cheaper than the other, they’re both comparable.
Sicily vs Crete: things to do
Which one has more to do?
Both islands have a lot to offer here. On one hand, you have Crete with its ancient palaces, like the Knossos Palace, and beautiful hiking trails, like the Samaria Gorge, in Crete. In Sicily, you’ll find Mount Etna, Erice, Palermo, Syracuse and Taormina. Sicily certainly has more to see overall, which comes as a given with its size. Which one has better attractions? This is possibly the most subjective question ever, but we tend to prefer Sicily. The best thing you can do is look up the most popular attractions for both, look at the pictures, and see if one place speaks to you more than the other.
For this, you can check out our overview for both Crete and Sicily!
Crete vs Sicily: beaches
Which one has better beaches?
Despite how large Sicily is, Crete also has many beautiful beaches per mile, much more crammed together than Sicily. Elafonisi and the Balos Lagoon are classics known all across Europe. Of course, you may recognise some beautiful beaches from Sicily too, like the San Vito lo Capo or Scala dei Turchi. Which one would we choose? Though you can likely find more beaches in Sicily overall, we’d say that Crete has too good of a selection to ignore. One third of Crete’s beaches are under the Blue Flag and you’ll find plenty of lovely hidden beaches all across the coastline there. If beaches are your priority, Crete is your winner. Goes well with the drier weather, too.
Crets vs Sicily: which one should you choose?
Our verdict
As you can see, a lot of unsatisfying answers of ‘both will do’. But that’s, frankly, the case. Both islands have a very comparable set of strengths and, as such, both will be great options either way. We can draw out that if you value having a very large list of places to explore, Sicily simply has more to offer. Meanwhile, Crete has an incredible offer of beaches. As such, if we could recommend anything, we’d say visit both!
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