Отзыв о Пальмере Бич Review of Palmera Beach

Journey to Palmera Beach.

Well, three days have passed since our return from Crete, that is, from the Palmera Beach hotel. All the details are fresh in my mind. But I would like to tell you about all the adventures in order.

I'll start with what friends told about their last year's amazing tour to Greece - on about. Rhodes and their road trips on it. Having studied the map, I realized that this island would be too small for us, as well as for our road trips, and set my sights on Crete, which is 240 km long and about 60 km wide.
I had to look for tickets.
Since we were not going to lead a plant-based lifestyle on “all inclusive” in some “reservation” of a 4 or 5 * hotel, we decided to look for a “three-ruble note” on half board (autotravel requires a morning breakfast before the road and a late dinner after) for an acceptable for three (two adults and one child aged 10) price.
Having climbed a bunch of tours in Runet.

sites, the choice fell on the tour operator Mouzenidis, it turned out for an acceptable three-ruble note, prices ranged from 1700-1800 Euros for 14 nights. But here it turned out that there was a fuel surcharge of 50 Euros per person. and plus, of course, for visas at 65. So the price bar was selected under 2000 Euros, which was already annoying.
I had already come to terms with this "disgrace", as purely by chance I stumbled upon an active discussion of one "dumping" tour. firms in Runet and decided to get acquainted with their prices. Surprisingly, they had no fuel surcharge and visas were cheaper. I won’t be engaged in their advertising here (I don’t name it deliberately, whoever wants it will find it) since the company is ambiguous and scandalous, which means it was necessary to keep an eye out with them. And indeed, having chosen from the site a tour for 1400 Euros for 14 nights in the three rubles I liked, I arrived at their stuffy office in the center of Moscow.
The office was crowded with people, it reminded me of the times of Tibet and Chara - the people were actively carrying money. When it was my turn, the director suddenly announced that a child in the parents' passport also requires a visa for a fee. I did not succumb to this “divorce” and showed her a printout from the website of the Greek Embassy - the misunderstanding was immediately closed. Then it turned out that there were no more places for this “three-ruble note”, this is also already standard, so they began to look for alternatives. Since there were few alternatives for that kind of money, I had to agree, despite the conflicting reviews of vacationers in Runet, on Palmera Beach.
Well, what is 6.000 rubles. for everything? And you don’t have the notorious fuel surcharges and surcharges for visas for a child. After signing the contract and giving an advance payment of 30%, I left to wait for the confirmation of the hotel with a restless heart - “they will throw it - they won’t throw it”?
A day later, everything was confirmed and it was necessary to come with a surcharge so that the documents with passports went for visas. And the tour operator turned out to be Biblio-Globus, which, from my point of view, was not so bad.

The flight was on Sunday, in the documents it was written in black and white “to show up for check-in 3 hours before departure”, which we did. Since we didn’t want to come to the stuffy office of the travel company again, we agreed to take the entire package at the Biblio-Globus counter in Domodedovo.
However, 3 hours before departure, there was no one at the indicated counter. Half an hour passed, 45 minutes, I began to call all the tour phones. companies, of course, no one. Then he found the phone of the Biblio-Globus, and the time was 7.00 in the morning, he began to call and found only the guards. And here is the joy, the guard was in the know! He said that the boy Aleksey had already left for us with all the documents and kindly provided his mobile phone, for which a huge respect to the security guard.
When I got through to Alexei, I realized that he was already on the way and it was worth just waiting a little more. When he finally appeared, I was surprised to find out that it turns out that it is necessary to appear not 3, but 2 hours before departure. So why is it written like that, I asked? “I don't know, we always arrive with documents 2 hours before departure, ” was his reply. Here is such a small misunderstanding ... , damn it.
Nord Star Airlines took off without delay, and the flight went great, without any complaints. Everything is as it should be.
The meeting company Millennium also left a good impression. We have never left the airport so quickly. That is, the bus with the people gathered quickly and we drove off.
Our unloading hotel was the third.
Since the hotel is located, I would even say on the “zero” line, the bus does not reach it, but drops everyone off on the main street of Hersonissos in order to walk 50 meters to the hotel, but downhill and towards the sea. So it's not stressful.
We settle ourselves. At the reception there was a Russian-speaking girl Oksana, who turned out to be more gloomy and unsmiling compared to her English-speaking replacement.
Somewhere in the reviews I read that she was already accomodating according to prepared lists. It really is. A room with three beds was already prepared for us. Not to say that it is quite tiny (we have seen less), but not spacious either.

The view from the window was on the pool, and not on the courtyard and not on the sea (on the noisy promenade), and this was pleasing.
Indeed, as I have already seen from many reviews, the biggest problems people have with the bathroom. It is nowhere smaller, from the toilet the legs fall into the shower tray. But that's not bad. Shower problems. The fact is that the shower curtain protrudes beyond the tray along the perimeter and it is very difficult to tuck it in so that water does not fall from it onto the floor. But even here you can contrive, which I did with my non-childish dimensions.
If you turn your back on the mixer and direct the watering can towards yourself, then the water will not hit the curtain and tear it off the pan. At first I did just that and the bathroom floor was dry.
But the problems started further when you come from the beach and start to wash off the fine sand, with which everything quickly begins to clog, including the sink.
That is, at first the sink clogged - he screwed it up with his palm - it worked. Then drain in the pan - the same way. But here the drain in the bathroom itself on the floor turned out to be successively clogged. Then, when taking a shower, the water begins to flow through it onto the floor, creating a nasty puddle. But even here it was possible to cheat with a hand - the stock went.
The biggest problem with this bathroom is that when you take a shower with foam gel, the foam comes out of this drain and creates a puddle on the floor, and the floor does not slope towards the drain, but on the contrary, it slopes towards the door, then eat in the room.
Hence the constant puddles in the bathroom and the inability to enter it barefoot, so we went only in beach slippers. And what to do - adapt to reality. But this, in the end, is not fatal.

From the air conditioner (and it was included in our tour) we had to take the key separately - Oksana forgot to tell us about it. I don’t recommend taking the TV remote control as a deposit, it’s easy enough to control the buttons at the top, especially out of 5 channels there are only 2 Russian-speaking ones, so it’s not difficult. A safe is also useless, unless, of course, you have a lot of CASH with you.
But another problem emerged later. It turned out that our room is located above the passage to the pools and not far from the stairs. When courage starts in the bar on the 1st floor, and it happens somewhere deep after midnight, even the dead can wake up. Oh, it's just unbearable.
And I still can’t understand the hotel manager who, through the bartender, arranges this wake-up call for the entire hotel, no, I’m lying, after all, for those rooms that are adjacent to this bar (but more on that later).
Now about the restaurant. I would like to express a special opinion about the waiter Nicholas. Despite the fact that the hotel is 80% filled with Russians, this boy is exceptionally willing to speak only in English (but that's us please) and exclusively with Germans and a few Englishmen. How could it be, I wondered, because we are the majority, on the streets many barkers speak Russian decently, but this one doesn’t really matter. At the same time, even as it disdains to communicate with us, even in English.
Here I will make a digression for those of my opponents who will say that "we came to rest and we need to tune in to the positive, not paying attention to any roughness. "
No, he says, I have no right, he did not order, here is a fax for you, send your claims by fax or by e-mail. But, I say, this fax is behind you, and this email is on your computer at the reception, I will send it - and you will all be in the basket. Throws up his hands.
For me it was a shock. Remembering the old “three rubles”, where the owners “went out to the people”, talked in company by the pool, and the especially hospitable even treated the collectible Metaxa, there was apparently an object of “deep secrecy”.

I won't dwell on feeding. Breakfast is rather continental, quite acceptable. Dinner is quite varied for a “three-ruble note” (we were fond of various soups in the evenings, it was still hot), with the presence of ice cream every evening (which could not but please the child). And so it was during our stay, various meat and fish. Of the fruits were oranges, plums, apples, watermelons.
In general, for those who want a lot of fruit, I would recommend buying them at the nearest supermarket or mini-markets. Prices are reasonable and everything is there.
Drinks at dinner are paid. At first they took it, but then they abandoned this idea, because the refrigerator in the room was filled with them from the same supermarket and by an order of magnitude for less money.
Cleaned every day and very well. Linen, towels were changed in about 3-4 days, I can’t tell you for sure.
Mosquitoes mostly fly through the vent. bathroom openings. Fumigator for the night - the problem is closed.
The beach near the hotel is small, with gray sand and rocky (in some places) sunset. A large number of hedgehogs. The son dived with goggles and recorded all their locations. So none of them were stepped on. But they took them out and took pictures.
Sun beds are paid, but you can bargain. Mandatory attribute - a basin of water for the feet. Otherwise, this sand will rub so much later that the whole rest will be spoiled.
Were on it only on the first day. Then we went for variety, that is, a car.
They took the car in the first counter rental office without even haggling, which I still regret. They took a small car, since gasoline costs about 60 rubles. per litre. I paid extra for 2/3 tank of gasoline and went ahead ...Well, how could we know that at that time gas station workers were on strike in Greece. True, we saw this when we decided to refuel after 3 days of travel. Having traveled in the vicinity of 15-20 km all gas stations, we, practically with an empty tank, reached the auto office and put them before the fact of returning the car. Actually, why is it needed if there is no gasoline. But the company had a reserve in this regard, which, in the amount of 15 liters, migrated to our tank. After that, we were given the address of the Streibeker gas station and, having spent another hour or so, refueled to a full tank.

Looking ahead, I’ll say that after a couple of days the strike was stopped and there were no problems with gasoline anymore.
Where did you manage to visit? Of course, the beach of the "homeland of the bounty" (they say that the famous commercial was filmed here) on Vai. Cave of Zeus in the Dikti Mountains, the beautiful Lasithi Valley, the ruins of the Knossos Palace, where we were lucky enough to sit on the tail of the Russian-speaking group TezTour with their guide. On the way to Vai we visited Agios Nikolaos with its amazing lake.
One day was devoted to a trip to the south of the island to the Libyan Sea to the beaches of Matala. Nice place.
Long sorties alternated with trips to the nearest beaches of Hersonissos. Once I asked an English-speaking girl at the reception to recommend a nearby high-quality beach for a trip there by car. She advised CC for Malia. But, I turned to the sea earlier, and ended up in the parking lot of a four-star hotel (I will also not engage in its advertising).
We parked, went to the beach, took sunbeds. I went to the bartender at the beach bar, talked to him, found out that you have to pay for sunbeds, but they have to come to us for this and got a glass of beer on “all inclusive”. Then they brought all sorts of snacks, and we, in anticipation of "billing", slightly used this service (the child took ice cream, popcorn, we had beer, sausages, and all kinds of pastries). Well, in general, a freebie, sir. After such a service, my son flatly refused to go to the beach in CC in the future. By the way, they began to “replenish” us somewhere on the 4th time of our visit, somewhere for 2 Euro per sun lounger (they didn’t take anything for an umbrella), while they didn’t mind our “dining” in this “all inclusive” . Well, in general, some positive emotions ...
Two days were spent visiting two water parks on the island "Aqua Plus" and "Aqua City". The child was delighted, and so were we.
Well, let's continue about the hotel.

Somewhere on the 5th day of our stay in Palmera, handing over the keys to the reception, an English-speaking lady told me that, with the permission of the owner, we were asked to move to a two-room apartment. Why not, I thought, because there must be at least some compensation for some of the inconvenience experienced by us, and agreed. It was only necessary to wait for the 12-hour "check-out" and drag your clothes. We decided to wait in the room under the air conditioner. Somewhere at 11.30 they called us and said that the room was ready. Since we were already ready to move in, in one go we dragged our junk further up the floor to a new room.
Well, our new room was, as it were, articulated from two rooms: the entrance is in the center, on the right is a room with two twin beds, a bathroom, on the left is the same in symmetry, but with a balcony overlooking the pool. In the right room, the window overlooked the internal well of the hotel. Naturally, two refrigerators, two air conditioners, two toilets, beauty.
We were happy - at least now we will live as expected.
About the cuisine of Crete. Having traveled a quarter of the island, we visited different Taverns, but I want to assure you that you can still run into obvious culinary hack. So, having dropped in on the way to one of the caves, to a roadside tavern, we made an order from the menu. By the way, the time was about 3 hours and I was terribly hungry, and the pictures with the dishes on the menu were very appetizing. So, my wife ordered Moussaka and what was her surprise when they brought her something completely different from what was on the menu. Firstly, not in a pot, and secondly, the second freshness (sorry for the pun). When they began to deal with the waitress, it turned out that: “she is very fresh, because she was cooked in the morning. ” So, it’s true that they didn’t take money for such a moussaka, and thanks for that. Another episode came to mind. When we parked and entered, they offered me a non-alcoholic beer, because I'm driving.
And when they left, everyone poured crayfish in a glass and nothing more about the steering wheel. It's funny...So you have to be vigilant.
I really liked the local raw oysters. Tried in a fish tavern on the old national road towards Heraklion before reaching Karteros. Or you can go by turning off the main road at the sign for Karteros and you will see it. Come in, you won't regret it.
Well, in general, they returned to Palmera only for dinner, tired, but satisfied, and immediately plunged under two air conditioners and other delights of our room.

Return. Since these days the Moscow region was actively burning and all of Moscow was in smoke (we saw from the news on PlanetRTR), planes were often not allowed into Domodedovo, but at best they landed at Sheremetyevo. And in the worst in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and even in Kazan. In this regard, we anxiously looked at the information of our guide about the departure. But nothing has changed and we were taken out of the hotel on time.
The most interesting began at the airport. At first, registration was delayed for several hours. And then for a few hours and the departure of the plane, in view of its non-arrival. However, attention, honor and praise to the Greeks! All passengers, after 4 hours of delay, were fed large sandwiches and drinks to choose from (coffee, tea, cola). Aye well done! ! ! As it turned out later, the Russian carrier in his fax flatly refused to feed us, and, accordingly, to pay for feeding from the Greeks. These are the pigs these air carriers of Russia (I hope not all of them). The total flight delay was 9 hours!
And what a nightmare the baggage claim hall in Domodedovo met us with, you have no idea. Smoky air and lack of any ventilation, not to mention air conditioning. One acceptable word is "gas chamber", in which we spent about forty minutes while waiting for our luggage. But, thank God, we returned home and everything is now behind us.

Conclusion.
In general, we are more than satisfied with our holiday in Palmera Beach and Crete. The rating for the travel agency is -5, the tour operator - 4, the host company - 5, Palmera Beach - 4 with a stretch, the car company - 5, and Crete - 5+.
But we will not go there again, because we love variety and new sensations.