Ierapetra is very far away, excursion programs are only in English, German, and upon your persistent messages in Viber, will give a phone number by which you can agree on an individual excursion at a cost of +/- 400 euros per car. Well, that's all, of course, if you don't rent a car, or you're afraid to drive on mountain roads yourself.
About the hotel: small, cozy, calm, 16+. We arrived at 4 p. m. that's why we checked in right away, the Russian-speaking girl who worked there helped me, she was very attentive, explained everything and showed me to the room. The room with a view of the pool is small, but it was fine for us. There is a balcony with a table and chairs, a good dryer for clothes, a refrigerator, a hairdryer, a safe and a kettle for free. When you check in, you will find 2 bottles of water, detergents in the bathroom, no one will refill it in the future. Unfortunately, we had to go to the restaurant with the bottles every morning and ask them to be refilled, but the waiters were good, they didn't refuse.
The shower in the bathroom is very convenient, but the room itself is small and there was a constant smell of sewage, especially when the balcony was closed. By the way, the air conditioner only blows, but does not cool. Cleaning in the room every day, towels changed twice in a week.
All the staff are very friendly people, they will always help, even if you don't know the language)) somehow you will understand. The restaurant is small, but cozy, they cook very tasty, you don't even need to go to the city to restaurants, you can taste all the national dishes in the hotel restaurant: the variety is not great, but it is prepared super: meat, fish, seafood (and a lot of it), vegetables, salads, potatoes in various variations, pasta, rice. Breakfast is standard: scrambled eggs, omelet, sausage, very tasty cheeses, muesli, yogurts, vegetables and fruits. A large bottle of water is placed on the table for you. There is a juicer, you can make fresh orange juice yourself, a coffee machine for Turkish coffee, also self-service.
A small selection of cakes, a machine with two types of ice cream (unlimited). Fruits are very sweet watermelons, melons, cherries, ripe kiwi, oranges, grapefruit. From drinks, white, red, rosé wine is already available for money, beer on the beach. By the way, about the beach: right across the highway, spacious, good umbrellas and sunbeds, and most importantly, hotel-style, free. Very small pebbles, when entering the sea there is a natural slab and large stones, but we took corals and calmly entered. The sea is wonderful, transparent, warm, but we only had calm for 1 day and then waves (depending on the wind). We had breakfast and dinner, then we had to first buy drinks at the bar (beer - 4 euros, coffee 3-3.5 euros, water! - 1.5 euros per glass), then we started going to the store not far away, it is much cheaper there, yes that in the evening you can go and have fun.
The hotel has a small but clean area, everything is in order: the pool, the beach, and the corridors are perfectly clean.
From the animation, only water dances at the pool, beach volleyball, in the evening the animator (he is the only one) turns on the music and tries to stir up the drunk audience. Once a week they arrange a show, with live music and national dances, where the entire hotel staff takes part - very colorful. Almost all Europeans are vacationing in the hotel, there are very few post-Soviet countries and this is pleasing, but in terms of excursions, it's everyone for themselves, in general, a hotel for a quiet light vacation, if you need a "drive", then you can go to the north of the island. For the first time during my travels, I came across a place where you don't have guides running after you with suggestions for excursions, but you follow them (( on Saturdays" I don't advise you to waste your time, it's nonsense.
In general, I liked my vacation: the city is beautiful, the hotel is wonderful, the sea is gentle, but one visit to Crete is enough.
When leaving at 05-20 in the morning, we were offered breakfast!
I would like to write about an excursion to Chrissi Island: it is a wild, wild beach. If you go, be prepared for this.
The staff is professional. Many thanks to Olga, the receptionist. All emerging issues were resolved immediately. This fragile girl won the hearts of all vacationers.
You feel like in a family. Animation deserves special praise, thanks to Artur, Alexander and Mikhail, the guys were able to organize unforgettable evenings.
We are planning to visit this hotel in September.
Svetlana, Moscow.
Great food, everything is delicious. Beach across the road, but always free sunbeds. There is no animation as such, it's certainly not very good, it's still boring, though the staff is trying to somehow entertain the guests, then arranges karaoke, then "Cretan evenings" on their own. There is practically no territory at the hotel, 20 minutes walk to the city. by taxi 2 min. -5 euros.
In general, I really liked the rest, 8 days flew by in an instant, calm, good rest.
Many thanks for a good stay to Rania, Alina and everything, all the staff
We stayed at the hotel with a group, everything was very pleasant. The only negative is that there was no animation, but this did not affect our vacation in any way (those who want and know how to relax, have a great time everywhere). The service at the hotel is wonderful, everyone is so responsive and friendly (there are no signs for us to clean the room, I just don’t know how it was possible to think of such a thing to write this in a review). The food is quite decent, there was enough space for everyone (only when our countrymen were not seated compactly at the tables, there was a temporary lack of space). We swam in the sea every day, because we went for it. We also did not observe the phenomenon of "wind with a howl", go to the island of Tenerife - that's where the wind is. In general, we had a good rest, sunbathed, returned home satisfied.
We visited the island of Chrissy, I recommend swimming, boats and yachts leave the port every morning (10h30m), a boat costs 25 euros per person, yachts - 20. The island itself is very beautiful, the beaches are simply gorgeous, although sun loungers are paid there, but there are no umbrellas, so we took mats and towels and were happy. They bring them to the island and everyone immediately falls onto the beach near the pier, the water is clean, but the entry is not very good, there are a lot of plates. But if you are not too lazy and walk 500 meters to the other side of the island, then you will see a real sea wave of unearthly beauty.
In general, we and our children were satisfied with the rest.
5 hours drive, the hotel is located on the outskirts of this city, on foot along the promenade you can reach the center of the town in 20 minutes, where life is essentially concentrated, cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops! The weather in those parts is warm, warm even at night (South of Crete), but strong winds that never end, become gusty with a howl in the evening, the town is washed by the Libyan Sea, the sea is cold, especially before lunch it practically does not heat up, in the evening it heats up a little , but swimming and staying for a long time is very problematic because of the cold, I suspect that cold undercurrents go in this place and therefore the sea does not heat up! We arrived at the hotel, filled out questionnaires, at that time there was lunch, to which we were not invited and did not wear bracelets! But this is nothing, we went to rest in the room, in the evening we ourselves came up and asked to dress, but in fact in the future we didn’t really need these bracelets!
That is, in fact, you can enter the sea only if you swim from the shore itself, there is no question of bathing people who cannot swim and children, almost no one has swum in the sea, because it is simply dangerous to go there so as not to break or break your legs! BUT plus the sea is very clean! There are umbrellas and sun loungers on the beach, there are no problems with this, towels are charged 2 euros per day! There is no bar on the beach! And now I’ll touch on the hotel itself, the hotel is basically small 70 rooms, a small lobby, everything is decent, the rooms are very small, but in fact we didn’t need a huge room, the room has normal, not old furniture, there is a balcony, the bathroom is very small, for an adult a tall man can hardly get up in the bath, it is just tiny, but I won’t say anything bad about the rooms, everything is pretty decent in principle !!!
And now room service is generally a separate speech, the rooms are cleaned if you put up a sign, but they clean it in 3 minutes, and everything was as dirty as it was, in fact, it remained, for 12 days while we were resting there, they never changed bed linen, towels were changed for 10 day, only after they told the maid several times, the husband stained trousers and shirt with red wine on Santorini, explained to the maid whether you can remove the stains, in response, she heard ok, the next day, while we were away, they brought us ironed trousers and a shirt, but all the stains as they were and remained, I was shocked not because we paid 15 euros for it, it’s not a pity, but it’s a pity that the Dolce Gabbana trousers with stains just scalded them, and it’s unlikely that you can reanimate them now, but they didn’t complain at the reception , it's useless!
But the most interesting thing that was in this hotel was a restaurant, I would honestly call it a Soviet dining room))))))))))) there are always no forks, then spoons, then some other utensils like plates and the like, people are outraged, but the staff just doesn’t care that someone doesn’t like it! But my main favorite topic is food! this is not food, but a uniform disgrace, I can say I like to eat delicious food, but I’m not whimsical, I can eat simple food if it’s well cooked! but they just don’t know how to cook there, you come for breakfast food inedible soy sausages, hard boiled eggs, french fries (but these are not french fries, but something else that is hard to explain) and that’s it!! ! some kind of dried croissants, and cucumbers, tomatoes, Peking salad, pancakes tasteless!
Lunch is even cooler, there is simply no hot choice, and pasta for lunch and dinner, moreover, unwashed, only the types of pasta change, periodically french fries or boiled, that’s all from side dishes! From meat, beef that simply does not chew and fish (the only decent one, and some kind of hot vegetables, and there’s simply nothing hot to choose from, so if a thread runs out of a tray, as in all normal hotels they don’t take out a new one, but you have to wait 20 minutes!
some absolutely incomprehensible dressings, one like adjika, but such a muck that you can’t take it in your mouth, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, fresh salad lie (the only thing they couldn’t spoil), and vegetables run out quickly no one can stand new ones and this is in the middle lunch or dinner, desserts are a separate topic every day people urgently want to shove some kind of indigestible yellow jelly, no one takes it, but every day they strongly endure it, like someone who probably)))) there is another type of cake, and what kind of mousses then, in total, there are five types of desserts, there are no fruits, even though it’s the season in Crete, they give current watermelons that are not sweet, and melons that I have never seen in my life are green and simply tasteless, plus apples and that’s it! And the main joke is that what is served hot is always half-cooled)))) Plus there are also 7 types of cold dishes, some cold pasta with something, dressings, beans and other crap, but the view is so unappetizing that it’s scary to take it!
We went to the canteen for the first 2 days, but we realized it was simply useless, and began to go to restaurants on the embankment, good restaurants everywhere serve freshly caught seafood, awesome shrimp salad, octopus salad, squid, everything is delicious, be sure to try the national Greek coffee, very unusually, I really liked the zorbas restaurant, almost all restaurants have a menu in Russian, you can eat with wine for two for 50 euros, you will overeat! where restaurants sell hand-painted ceramics, figurines of ancient Greek goddesses and thinkers, all at normal prices, various unlined hand-painted ceramics (caskets, jugs, vases) from 6 to 50 euros depending on the size, figurines from 5 to 30 euros, well, heaps of magnets, coasters, sandals, and all sorts of consumer goods, bought heaps for souvenirs, by the way, you can take out no more than 23 kg of luggage from Greece!
And as for the slabs that are dangerous for entering the sea, they go along the entire length of the city, it seems to me that there used to be either an embankment or piers at this place, but they were bombed or something happened to them over time, because these slabs lie under water, even in those places where there were and are no beaches, and they were clearly not made to enter the sea, but for other purposes, but apparently it is expensive and no one needs to pull them out, which is why they lie for several kilometers! and all here such in holes and pieces! It’s scary to think that a leg will fall, I don’t know how to pull it out! Yes, the hotel will not be modest in terms of complete shit, but the town itself is quiet and calm, there really are no clubs there, but you can sit comfortably in a cafe by the water! And about entertainment in the hotel itself, there are none at all, at 10 pm the bar in the hotel closes, and all life in the hotel dies out, there is no animation, who is used to it, no music, nothing, as if 10 blacks are out of touch with life!
By the way, there are no coolers in the hotel either, there is no gym either (although they say it is supposedly available), so you have to go to buy water in a supermarket, or collect it in the dining room, but if you come there after 10 pm to get 0.5 water, they will look at you as an enemy of the people and what the thread will be voiced in their local recitative! ))))) even funny, people can not drink! Well, in principle, and all that I wanted to tell you about this hotel, out of good intentions, I do not advise anyone to go there! There are much better places in Greece I'm sure!! !