Хороший отдых! Good vacation!

The hotel is not really terrible. Quite normal 2 (3) stars. Even more than. Of course, if you are used to five stars - you are not here. But overall it's worth the money.
We were in the middle of September 2008. There were not many people in the hotel, which, in our opinion, is good. We were the only Russians (if you don’t remember the priests who arrived, who traveled to holy places, and also drank beer at night by the pool and jumped into it from a running start), and so mostly citizens from Eastern Europe and, of course, Germans stay there.
The owner is really weird. But not to exhaustion. If you behave normally and do not sit all day in the hotel - you don’t notice it too much.

Rooms. We lived on the second floor - normal. The three of us lived in a two-room apartment. Pretty decent, no frills. Plumbing is so-so, could be better, but everything works. The fan in the bathroom rumbles when you turn it on. And we did not take air conditioning for 6 euros per day, in September there was no unbearable heat. The telly worked, there were no Russian channels (well, good! ). The beds are not very comfortable, but without protruding springs - you get used to it. Discos were not particularly heard, although the room overlooked the courtyard of the hotel, which is not far from it. Of the dishes in the room, a kettle, a glass and a couple of spoons and forks. Poor, in general. Well, we ate in taverns, and sometimes in the room - made of plastic.
Nutrition. We had half board: breakfast + dinner. Breakfast is so-so, a standard set: ham, cheese (nothing special, to put it mildly - the one who writes that it’s normal probably didn’t eat anything better), tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled eggs, bread, cereal, milk (completely fat-free), jam , chocolate paste... Dinner is normal. Usually three courses: some kind of salad or even something like soup (hot), main course (always meat or fish with a side dish or something national, but always meat) and dessert (always watermelon). Drinks separately. The wine cost 4 seems to be the euro for a half-liter decanter. Beer (Mythos) - 2.5 euros for 0.5. There are only two waiters. In the morning, Marie served breakfast (also a strange lady, they are all slightly crippled there), but then she worked in the tavern at the hotel (where they had dinner) until 16-00. And then another waiter came, and before the closing of the tavern he was already working. The latter didn't impress either. In general, they are all trying to deceive a little. So always check everything. True, their accounts are all in Greek and it takes a long time to deal with them... In the end, we scored on it, well, they deceived further - on their conscience. Although we always left a tip according to the bill. In general, you will not die of hunger in Mariren.
Swimming pool. It's not big, but nice and clean. Although, if there are a lot of people in the hotel, then, probably, it is a bit crowded in and around it. On our arrival, as I said, there were few people, so everything turned out great. It works from 8 am to 8 pm (although the priests, as mentioned above, jumped at 11, the owner for some reason did not say anything to them, he was probably afraid that they would curse). Big minus - you can't drink your own drinks by the pool. This is jealously watched by all and sundry: both Marie and the second waiter, the owner himself and his wife - an old woman sitting at the checkout and, possibly, cooking something in the tavern. And this ban applies even to Coca-Cola. In the room - drink, and by the pool order at the bar. We didn’t like it and, of course, we deceived them in various ways, we got caught a couple of times, but we still drank ours. So that they would not be so offended, sometimes they ordered cocktails or beer from them.
The sea is nearby, 5 minutes at a leisurely pace. The beach is of average cleanliness. Sunbeds are free if you buy something in the cafe to which they are "assigned". And how much it costs if you do not buy - I do not know. We have always bought. Actually, 20 times this is not necessary. It is enough to buy upon arrival according to the number of beachgoers, and then you can drink your own. In the sea (if you go a little to the right) you can go for a long time - shallow. Bottom and entrance - sand. They didn’t see hedgehogs, for that they saw a small octopus and even caught a mullet by the tail (they gave it to the owner of the cafe). There were no jellyfish when we were. You can have lunch either right there in a cafe or in a tavern on Andreas Papandreou Street (the hotel is located on it) or buy products from mini-markets, which are enough.

We arranged excursions for ourselves (tea is not idiots, we looked at everything we needed on the Internet, we also found where to go). So the prices for all this were not even recognized. For two days we left for the island of Santorini (they ordered everything and booked from Russia, again, no excursions and other bred tourists). By the way, near the hotel there is a city bus stop - to Heraklion.
Greeks are generally friendly people. Well, as everywhere - if you are good to them, then they are good to you. They love Putin, fools. In general, for an economical, but still very interesting and quite high-quality holiday, "Marirena" is quite suitable. The main thing is a positive attitude. And then everything else is such garbage... I would return to Crete once more. Perhaps even in the "Marirena" - in 10 days they did not have time to explore the entire island. If there are questions, I will answer.