In the evening, the lights on the hills glow very beautifully, but the hotel itself is secluded. You can walk with an easy step in 10 minutes only to the village of Milatos, there are a lot of taverns, churches, cats, as well as shops and an ATM. Once a flock of sheep descended from the mountains, they were clearly visible from the beach and the sea, but the shepherd and the hotel staff drove them away from the gate. Sheep bleated, bells rang, the air smelled of flowers, and you swim in crystal water (by the way, fish swim most often in the left lagoon if you stand with your back to the bars and face the sea) and bite your legs - such a free fish spa). Incredible feeling.
We had a very beautiful room, superior, only Wi-Fi through a smart TV caused difficulties at first. The whole hotel goes in tiers, it's easy to get lost, the animation was calm - we liked the Greek bazaar, where you can buy souvenirs without leaving the city, and the performances of musicians. But the main thing is food. I don't know how you can stay hungry. Fruit - the sea, even sweet pineapples. Oatmeal, pancakes, waffles and yoghurts in addition to eggs of all kinds and cheeses for breakfast. Seafood, red fish for breakfast, champagne every day in a Cretan restaurant.
And we also signed up for an Italian restaurant for dinner. There is a very tasty bream and caprese salad, but the panacotta didn’t go in for me (probably the only thing I didn’t like). There were a lot of people, but most importantly, there were not so many children as we were afraid because of the holidays. Mostly babies in strollers. Rest turned out relaxed, real. We drove to Agios Nikolaos, a very beautiful town. There the water turned out to be a little warmer - and right in front of the sea there were delicious waffles and cappuccino. There is a half day bus from the hotel.
The next day, at a meeting with a representative of the tour operator, 25-30 people from those who settled yesterday took part, and it turned out that everyone had problems with settling in, but we were more lucky, we had a good room with a wonderful view of the sea and we did not have to run to change rooms throughout the hotel. The conversation was standard they say buy our elephants, our elephants are the best (I'm talking about excursions, car rental, etc. ). Speaking of car rental, I ordered a car from a girl from a travel agency, paid 120 euros for a Peugeot 308,
And the girl took the money and forgot to tell us about the car that she was booked, and we got a wonderful Opel Corsa car with a robotic box that refused to drive along the not-so-wonderful roads of Crete. So if you decide to take a car not far away ten minutes walk, in the opposite direction from Sissi there is the village of Milatos, cars are half cheaper and much better. In the same village there are a lot of taverns, I recommend the Panorama tavern, the Russian-language menu and everything is very tasty.
If you expect Turkish 5 stars, you will be disappointed, the food is not varied, there is no animation for children or adults, cleaning of the territory and cleaning of the pools takes place before your eyes. When the vacationers are located on the sun loungers around the pool, the children, escaping from the hands of their parents, jump into the water, a man appears with a long handle of a water vacuum cleaner and blue hoses and begins his monotonous work. Most of all, this pleases the younger generation, they dive under the hoses and it amuses them a lot, and the parents, in the stance of a cop ready to jump, look to see if their child is tangled in the hoses. There is also a person in charge of the sunbeds, so exactly at 17-00 he begins to fold the umbrellas and move the sunbeds to their places along with the rest, well, what if he has the same working day as ours. Women washing steps and paths, exactly when everyone goes to breakfast, don’t stand on ceremony, pour water from a hose and wave brushes, ignoring passers-by, noisily discussing the next episode of the series in an incomprehensible language.
In general, the movie character known to us was wrong, who claimed that Greece has everything. Summing up, the positive aspects of the hotel are a large beautiful area, good rooms (I judge by my number), a beautiful warm sea, food, although not varied, but tasty, differs from Turkish with the same taste of all dishes, with the exception of Turkish sweets in Greece they don’t know how to cook them .
Cons - sun-weary personnel, and problems arising from this.
But if you decide to go to Crete, relax and have fun, accept it as it is, with a high price (price-quality), with inhibited residents, with “unobtrusive service” but with beautiful nature and warm weather, and then It will make you feel good about your vacation.
Were at the Minos Imperial Luxury Beach Resort and Spa 5 *
From 29.06. 13 to 10.07. thirteen
We traveled as part of two families of 4, and 3 people (5 adults, two children, one is 9, the other is 15 years old)
We are not the first time in Greece, but we were in Crete for the first time. Before leaving, we read such reviews, especially the last ones, that the mood was very spoiled, we were a little upset ...
And so, on June 29, without any problems, at exactly 7:30 we took off, we flew for about 4 hours. We arrived, got our luggage, and at the exit we were directed by Pegas Touristik to the bus.
We traveled by bus for about 2 hours, Minos Imperial was the last one on the route, and it turns out that we brought everyone in first. Their roads are tin, in the mountains, it can even get sick, we drank pills in advance, we were sleepy, nothing like, we didn’t feel sick. We expected Crete to be a little greener, but still everything is very beautiful, the mountains, the sea, around the island.
I don’t remember how many seas, but I found on the site that there the Mediterranean Sea consists of several water areas, so it is divided into seven seas: Alboran, Balearic, Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean. Thus, being in the Mediterranean Sea, the island of Crete is washed by the Aegean Sea from the north, and the Ionian Sea from the west. Sooo tired, not sleeping all night, exhausted, we were finally taken to the hotel, the time was somewhere around 12. The reception looked right in the Imperial style. )) Columns, crystal chandeliers, you can say everything in dark colors, in general, it’s quite beautiful, in photographs, and the video still doesn’t look like that! The mood began to rise, at 12:00 they have lunch there, that is, we were right in time for dinner, they were glad that we would kill time a little, put on bracelets for us.
The hotel has 2 food systems: Diamond Class (Like gold bracelets, yellow for children under 18, swamp-colored for adults) and Premium Class (this is an economy class, birch bracelets for children, blue for adults) We took Premium Class, because we were convinced that special there is no difference, they said the number on the bus that they would give it only after 14:00, so they sent us for lunch, everything they didn’t take, all the fu (fish, meat, rice, potatoes) were upset again, after lunch they went to the reception, and it already turns out our numbers were ready, Hooray! We were lucky that it was so fast, but they gave us a room far away from our parents (our room was 208 Premium deluxe room with sea/garden view, area 31 sq. m. ), promised parents to change so that they were closer to us, waited for the queue, what ? They waited until we were taken to the rooms on the Carter, a car with a canopy, friends were taken quietly, but naaaas, ahah, like on a roller coaster. First they took the parents, then us. The driver awakened vigor in us, and it was remembered; )
My sister and I went into the room, very simple, the furniture is not new, but in good condition, although our friends had a room above us, on the second floor, they had a piece torn out on the handle of the sofa, we don’t understand how this is possible. The TV is normal, the rooms have tiles, they walked in shoes, slippers, and there were no dressing gowns. All rooms have a sea view, the smell is not new, especially in the closets ...in the toilets in all rooms it doesn’t look bad, but you should use the shower, the floor will be flooded, 2 large, 2 small towels, there was no rug to lay, it was cold to step on . In our room, the hair dryer had a burnt start, and almost did not work, on the second day the parents settled closer, ran to them to dry. They settled opposite, a view of the pools, on the right side of the bar and the sea, the room had a huge mirror, there was a wall, a sofa behind the wall, and an entrance to the balcony, there was a jacuzzi. In general, it's also good.
We didn’t sit in the rooms at all, and, in fact, it didn’t matter, although we were well in very super, modern hotels. We do not understand people who make a tragedy out of this, and all the rest is ruined. Rooms were cleaned every morning. The staff with a smile on their face greeted him "Kalimera" )))) Everything was beautiful, well-groomed, comfortable on the territory, pools, bars, towels are free everywhere, Diamond has yellow, Premium has blue. The beach, of course, disappointed, sand with pebbles, but we had special shoes with us, there were waves, the place was fenced with huge stones so that there were no waves, we didn’t lie by the sea, we swam to the pool. Therefore, in the pools, there was sand, everyone walked like that and did not rinse after the sea in the shower, but they are cleaned, one pool, which is right by the sea, completely changed the water. At this pool most often lay.
We got up early, before breakfast, in order to take normal places, the sunbeds are different everywhere, they lay only on those where the pillows are comfortable. The Greeks cleaned all the pools, and cleaned in the morning. Breakfast started at 7:30. For some reason, there was no cold milk at breakfast, only warm milk, everyone ate oatmeal, freshly squeezed juice, orange only, and only for Diamond. Also for Diamond there is a separate place where to eat, near the pool, there you can pour all the fruits and freshly squeezed juice for yourself as much as you want ...and all alcoholic drinks and cocktails are also for Diamond, And the most terrible thing is that the Internet is paid, but free only for those who use the Diamond service! Where they ate, there was a manager who kept order, and the waiters, such a kind uncle, it is impossible not to smile). There was a children's table, we liked it, we even sometimes took it from there)))). ALL pools with sea water turned out to have bleach added to some.
Once we were lying in a place where children are not allowed, but we did not make noise, they did not tell us anything, it was very quiet there. There is a fairly deep pool, near the water football. There are animators, and everyone spends, it's just not Turkey for you, they are not intrusive, and they teach dancing by the pool near the bar, and there is everything on the beach, there is a football field near the hotel, and water games and 3 water slides, but they are not very attractive . Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And in the evening, where the reception, live music plays at the bar, sooo many Russians, and enough children. By the way, after that first lunch, dinner was delicious! And all the rest of the days are fine, just at first you just try everything, and then you already know how it tastes, and you take what you like, and there are no problems. The fruits were just not tasty, and only watermelon and melon. For lunch and dinner, they make pasta in front of your eyes with whatever you want, they make delicious pizza nearby, I really liked it, but you will have to stand in line for it.
I make rolls, too, nothing, and they do grill, who cares. For breakfast and dinner they made delicious waffles and pancakes, but they are not very good, ice cream, only for dinner. Because all day long they give it at the bar. dinner at 18:30. And often at the entrance there is a queue, because of the reservation. Once we went to a Chinese restaurant, I didn’t like it, except for ice cream in dough, doused in wedge syrup, cooling, because it was very hot there. The weather when we arrived was windy, it was even forbidden to swim in the sea and in the evening we were very sorry that we did not take blouses !! ! But there was no humidity like in Turkey, for example, and therefore it was great to eat outside. They warned that because of the wind it is very necessary to be careful, you can easily get burned because it cools, and the temperature is dangerous. But in the end, it was stuffy, and we missed that breeze. On the 3rd day we went to the water park city, the largest water park in Crete in all of Greece, we drove from the hotel in a mini bus. Janet (Russian speaker at the hotel).
She organized, prepared a lunch box for us, and in the morning we went, had a good time, but on the map the slides are 2 times larger) We ate there, and went online for the first time, in our opinion, only we have such rules with the Internet ....Very often, instead of lunch, we went to the village of Milatos, where we dined at the very tasty Panorama Tavern at Olga's. (there is Internet access) For lunch, because we considered it not as tasty as dinner. And it’s so hot to go, 1 time we just went for dinner, we didn’t regret it, even better. Olga, who speaks Russian very well, advised us and showed us places on the map that are worth visiting. Due to some inconvenience, we wanted to purchase the Diamond service. And rather at the Janet hotel, she offered to go to Sitia, to another hotel for a day, from July 3 to July 4. At the same time, we are given 2 cars, we must pack our bags, leaving them in the room, taking with us what we need, and by 9 pm on July 4 we must return the cars.
After that, they change our bracelets for the Diamond service, and move us to the best rooms, naturally they open access to the Internet. This is due to the fact that the hotel is full, and more people choose the Premium service. They explained, showed how to go to Sitia, marking on the map where the hotel, hotel Sitia Beach City Resort and Spa 5 *
It is located at the other end of the island, it's like an advertisement for the hotel, there are no Russians there at all, because our planes do not fly to the airport located there. We drove there for 2 hours, made a stop near the Canyon, on which the road is being built. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with juices, how beautiful it is there! Everywhere! Immediately settled, the rooms are wonderful, bright, pleasant, new, everything is there!! ! The view of the sea, and the Internet, got bored there with him. We settled in, went to dinner, went nuts, there is not much choice, but everything is sooo tasty, they probably scored the main thing there. ))) In our hotel it’s not right, everything is in quantity, but not only was it delicious, but there is not enough, but it’s very tasty!
Dali towels took us to the beach. White clean sand, blue sea, buzz! We swam, and decided to go to the places that we were advised. This is on "vai" the confluence of 2 seas (but this is not noticeable there), and on "bai". The Greeks joke that the Bounty advertisement was filmed there, when we arrived there, we didn’t expect it, but this place is considered very unusual, because it is the only place where it is not clear where the palm trees themselves came from. And in general, in Crete, they die, and they cannot understand the reason. We took pictures there, the pictures turned out very unusual! )
On the way back we stopped at the Monastery for Men, did not go in, because the entrance is paid. We went up there, on the roof, and took pictures there.
We arrived and began to prepare for dinner, where it starts later. Enjoying delicious food again! And then we went to the city of Sitia, it’s very close there, we looked around, but didn’t manage to do anything, because they close early there.
We sat near the Bar, and in the rooms, the next day we had a delicious breakfast, and dispersed. Mom and sister went back to the city, and we went to an awesome beach! Until 12 had to have time to vacate the room. Released, did not have lunch, and on the road! Forgot to take the pills for motion sickness, it was terrible! We stopped by a friend, had lunch in a tavern, nearby, there was a beach with black sands. We had lunch, and went further to the hotel. We arrived, we were immediately put on the gold bracelets of the Diamond service, we were given a password for the Internet, and we were given numbers. The rooms are the best, my sister and I are on the first line, in the evening there were problems with him, the electricity was cut off, but we learned how to cope with this, but we were in the sea itself. And parents and friends had rooms in the tower. From that moment on, we had everything, and the Internet, and everything in the room (slippers, bathrobe, full bar). Breakfast began to go downstairs, near the pool, there are all fruits, and they themselves poured juice as much as they wanted.
by July 10, before 12, we had to vacate the room, only dads were swimming, and we were packing our bags.
While we were waiting for the bus to go to the airport, more tourists were brought with us, everyone was arguing that they had not been given a room for sooo long. Who cares apparently.
Rest will pass exactly as you want it, and nothing can spoil it for you.
We had a great rest, let your rest be great!
(+) pluses are as follows:
1) A beautiful area with a large number of pools, beautiful stairs, paths, palm trees, cacti. Most of the trees are in bloom and among them we saw several fruit trees, there are points where landscape designers have done a very interesting job and pleases the eye.
2) Well, sooo delicious honey desserts
3) The beach and the sea are clean
(-) and now the cons, which turned out to be much more than the pros:
1) The hotel is located far from civilization. To the nearest town Sissi on the road over the sea go 2km. For some reason there are no ATMs in the hotel, which was a big problem for us.
2) The number got disgusting. I don’t know, maybe we are so unlucky, but some moments just drove into a stupor. The lamp in the bathroom was held on by 2 screws instead of the 4 provided (in other words, by snot). The faucet in the shower was covered with some kind of coating and it seemed as if it had never been washed since the moment of installation (this is disgusting, I did not expect this from a 5 * hotel). The bed linen was always sent after we returned from the pool and I thought that it was as it should be, changed every day - I was wrong - my eyes were opened to the truth after I hurt my leg on the beach and accidentally put a spot on the sheet - after 2 days the stain did not go anywhere. the sheets obviously have never been changed and only re-made! I finished off the case with an elastic band - one morning a guy slipped a hair elastic in my palms and proudly said that I had lost it, and he found it under the washbasin (it is strange that he was not embarrassed by the fact that the color of the hair on the elastic did not match mine) - the gum was not mine, so you can draw your own conclusions about the quality of cleaning in the rooms. And the bathroom floor was constantly wet.
3) Nutrition. The food itself is normal, as for me, but the problem is to find a free table, sometimes they were not allowed into the restaurant and I had to wait in line until someone finished the meal and left(
4) Settlement in the room. The first impression and already negative - we arrived at 12 noon, settled only after 3 hours, I had to come up 2 times and remind that we still had not been settled.
5) Territory. The pools are very small - I was waist-deep, they tried to swim in them, but it didn’t work out. We swam in the sea with pleasure, but there were some injuries (because there are a lot of large stones in the bay) - I scratched my knee and the guy badly injured his foot on the stones, they treated me for another 2 weeks after arriving home.
6) Staff. Remember the fine American tradition of having to fake a mandatory smile to all customers. For Europeans - a smile, and for the Slavs - sidelong glances, as if they were an inferior race.
The vacation, which had been planned for so long, was extremely unsuccessful. I would never recommend this hotel to a friend. I am writing a review in the hope that when choosing a hotel, at least someone will read it, choose another hotel and spend their long-awaited vacation in better conditions. Good luck!
About food and service: it's something! I have been to Crete and Rhodes before. Service is top class. Here is the DISAPPOINTMENT! ! Worse than three stars in Turkey. There are no devices. Meat has to wait 30 minutes. Pancakes and pizza are delicious. But coffee in the morning and afternoon for 2 euros! Cola and fresh juices too! Wow! And this is with a Premium All Inclusive package!! ! The bar does not serve juice. Brandy and whiskey are watered down with distilled water! Immediately felt!
True ice cream for children heaps. From fruit stale oranges. The watermelon is taken out, snapped up, and then you have to wait 30-40 minutes!
They also came up with the Diamantis service. This service costs 30 euros per person. True, in Ukraine, tour operators for extra. 3-4 thousand rubles gave such a service. Pegasus didn't even warn us! Here they have champagne all day long, freshly squeezed juice, red fish. Good booze at the bar! And Premium All Inclusive doesn't work!
Therefore, TIP: next to a min. 15 walk is the village of Milatos. There, cars for rent are much cheaper and souvenirs are decent. Fruits and berries are fresh and inexpensive. Taverns are decent. We personally liked the tavern "No problem! " The choice is large. Seafood is fresh and delicious! We took both ourselves and the hotel a drink "Raki" for 5 euros a liter. quality product! The hosts even drove us to the hotel free of charge by car.
In general, I recommend not to turn sour at the hotel, but to rent a car and go. Fortunately, there is something to see in Crete! Only one fresh mountain lake is worth something. Well, what about looking at Crete, the choice is great! In the mountains, I recommend buying oranges and fruits. We took a huge bag of oranges for 5 euros and immediately all went down. Tasty!
Therefore, do not sour there, but organize a vacation for yourself and the impressions will remain
Neither the host nor the sender tried to resolve the misunderstanding in any way, the Russian-speaking hotel employee offered an individual pool for two rooms, of course this room was cheaper than the one we paid. The hotel has 2 food systems: Diamond Class
and Premium Class
, which, as it turns out, are practically the same. Diamond only has a separate area on the balcony for breakfast and the opportunity to treat yourself to Italian champagne. If you like to sleep, then this hotel is clearly not for you, only in the morning at 7....
7-30 in the morning, you can eat fish, drink champagne and see fruits (watermelon, pineapple, melon), you certainly won’t stay hungry, but you won’t find the above (for which, in principle, you paid) Another distinctive Diamond system (which seems to be included imported alcoholic drinks), so they seem to be in the bar on the beach, but for some reason they are not there, they offer local drinks (they tried local whiskey - horror, it’s impossible to drink! ), they are nowhere else until 17 o’clock. From 17:00, tourists with Diamond bracelets can treat themselves to normal quality drinks, having stood in line for 15 minutes, the waiters do not particularly bother with customer service. The system "ultra all inclusive" is valid until 23:00, then for the money. Even if you spit on their service and wanted to have dinner with your cognac from Duty Free (we were asked to remove the bottle from the table, we probably should have had a drink around the corner and only then jumped in for dinner!
Even if you woke up at 7 in the morning and decided to have breakfast on the balcony of the restaurant under the soft and gentle rays of the sun, this does not mean that you will succeed, a couple of times in 9 full days of vacation the hall was given to travel agency employees, why and for what reason, we this was paid for and the hotel guaranteed it to us, it turns out that hotel guests who have already paid for their vacation are no longer interested in the hotel, they are waste material. We personally didn’t see animation if it weren’t for renting a car for almost the entire vacation, I just don’t know what we would do - the sea is cold, the pool warms up only in the evening, the water heating in the jacuzzi ended on May 15, after 19 hours the jacuzzi turned off altogether. A separate topic is the beach, the entrance to the sea is huge boulders (Lazarevskoye is just resting), even entering the sea in rubber slippers there is a risk of leaving with a broken knee, why is there no pontoon in the hotel that positions itself as De Luxe? ? ?
Why not make individual heated pools, because people pay well for it? What is positive: the hotel is very beautiful, many pools, the furniture in the room is good, new, clean enough. The hotel would advise children under 3 during warmer months in the area with private pools. For everyone else, if you are not a fan of swimming in the sea (I have never seen the worst entry into the sea in my life), I would advise you to take the Premium system, because there is nothing to overpay for, and you yourself will buy champagne, in any quantity for a tangible difference in price. The nearest village is 2 km away, which is not such a short distance uphill and downhill in the heat, it is more profitable to take a car (much more impressions) than to pay for excursions. There is something to see in Crete for every taste, this is what inspired us throughout the holiday.
We really liked Crete and its locals, but we will never come to this hotel again, I would like to wish the hotel owners to gain experience and go to Rixos Premium in Belek, where the service and the client are always welcome there, no matter what level he paid for the room !
The food is relatively varied (similar to a 3-4 star hotel in Turkey), but they save on fruits - in the season there were offensively few of them, and everything, even oranges and kiwi, were cut into small slices.
The staff is polite and friendly. Jeanette perfectly accommodated, the waiters, the maid (2 euros every day) do the work quickly.
The rooms are spacious and comfortable.
A large area of the hotel is well maintained, growing pomegranates, dates, scarlet.
There are many pools, but they have a maximum depth of 1.5 meters, the largest is 1.2 m.
There is a special pool where adults without children are allowed.
Comfortable, quiet, without squeals and diving fry.
Recommendations - for this money you can have a much better rest in Turkey-Egypt without bothering with visas.
The tour operator Pegasus did a great job in Moscow (manager Martha), and ugly in Crete - Ekaterina mercilessly frightened tourists, sold excursions for big money, chattered incessantly, not answering a single question. We went on excursions from other tour operators.
The car was rented back in Moscow on the Internet and without prepayment, a week of rent was cheaper than at Pegasov's offices for 3 days.
Air company Nord Wind postponed the flight, stealing from us 3 hours of sea and sun.