I visited Knossos and Malia during my weekend on Crete. Just like any site covered by Solivagant, the info about OUV and history is already covered, so I focus on the visitor experience in 2025 during what seems to be already main season (May).

Knossos
Knossos is just a few minutes outside Heraklion. I arrived there at 07:50, 10 minutes before the palace opened.

Be aware that this seems to be the main attraction on Crete. Tours are offered from every beach location and from every cruise ship.
3 tour buses arrived at the exact same time and when I reached the entrance, 1 entire tour bus was already waiting in line. Luckily these tours don’t have to buy individual tickets (outrageous 20 Euros), so I could walk passed them to the counter. There are ticket vending machines outside, but none of them worked.
I managed to pass by the group again as they stared at the bust of Arthur Evans and had the whole palace almost to myself. But when I left at 08:45, the place was packed. There was an infinite line to get into the throne room and the main square looked like a festival ground. I counted no less than 19 buses on the parking lot at not even 9am. According to their website, Knossos crossed the 1 Mio visitors per year mark. So at least during main season I suggest you be there at opening time or your visiting experience will be tainted.

Malia
The palace is about 30mins from HER airport on route to the formidable Spinalonga fortress island. It’s located much closer to the sea than Knossos and feels much more authentic, as not a lot of reconstruction was done on site.
The parking lot was filled with rental cars and only one tour bus. This site doesn’t seem to be part of many group tour schedules. Still a lot of people were visiting, compared to similar sites in other countries, but not a disturbing amount.

There is a small museum on premise with info boards and models of how the palace once looked like. Entry fee was 10 Euros and we needed around 45mins to visit.