Плюсы и минусы «Ретимно Бич» Pros and cons of "Rethymno Beach"

I prefer to write hotel reviews not immediately upon my return, but a little later, when emotions (both negative and positive) cool down, non-critical problems fade a little, but pleasant memories still remain. And this time, I decided to present my impressions of the Bomo Rethymno Beach hotel, where we were in the second half of September, after almost a month and a half.

As the name implies, this hotel is part of a fairly extensive family of Greek hotels Voto (Bomo) and belongs to the Mouzenidis group. In 2011, we had a very positive experience of a trip with this travel agency to Chalkadiki, and therefore, aiming at Crete, we first of all looked at the Mouzenidis base hotels. Reviews for their hotels were plus or minus positive, and for Rethymno Beach they were generally enthusiastic. Yes, and for the price, although it was close to us on the upper bar, it suited us.

Of course, we also looked at other hotels, but then a miracle happened, and the Rethymno Beach hotel got into the “Hotel of the Day” promotion with discounts of around 20%. There was no way out - I had to take it! ; ))) Moreover, thanks to the action, we were able to shift the departure time to an earlier date.

The flight was with an airline that is also part of the Mouzenidis Group - Ellinair. Of the pluses - strict adherence to the schedule, no delays, transfers of flights, they fed and watered on board, of the minuses - the start of the flight program from Heraklion, in connection with which the arrival in Crete in the afternoon in the late afternoon, and departure home early in the morning. As a result, you will have 14 nights to rest, but only 13 days! Based on this, it is logical to choose a hotel closer to the airport. ; )) We drove to our Rethymno Beach for about 1.5-2 hours and ended up at the reception closer to 6 pm. True, there was no eternal problem of waiting for a number - after promptly filling out the questionnaire, we were put on bracelets and given a key card to room 604.

Number.
We booked a regular SideSeaView double room and hoped that at least from some side we would see our piece of the sea. When we received the key, at the reception we were told to go downstairs and go through the territory to the left, as a result of which we, with slight confusion, ended up in a building that stood almost above the beach, and it was 20 meters from our room to the sea. I don’t know why we were settled specifically here with SSV armor, but we didn't complain! ; )))

Although, again, there were pros and cons. Of the advantages - proximity to the sea and the pool (although the territory of the hotel is already small, everything is nearby), the ability to go to take a sun lounger (yes, we had fun there) not through the door and around, but simply through the patio, remoteness from places of evening animation (silence), but not far from the pool bar (you can always run for more).

: ) Of the minuses - the room is on the ground floor and even slightly below ground level, during the day the sun almost does not get into the room (in summer this is probably a plus, but in September sometimes you still want to warm up the room), respectively, all bathing accessories dry a very long time. And in general, Crete surprised me with high humidity - for some reason I always thought that it should be hot and dry there. And one more nuance, it is also a minus - unexpected and unauthorized guests can look into your room on the first floor. A mouse made its way to us three times, which we deported with varying degrees of success. ; )))

Otherwise, the room corresponds to the description - spacious, with a free safe, air conditioning, minibar, TV with 3-4 channels in easily accessible languages, a tea and coffee set and a welcome bottle of wine produced by the same Mouzenidis Group.
There were enough tremples and shelves for placing things in the closet, nothing was left in the suitcase, as I read in some reviews.

The bathroom had replenished sets of gels, shampoos, lotions, caps, sponges, a hair dryer (it worked fine, but had a very short wire - either to dry your head or look in the mirror, it was not possible to combine), a shower cabin, which was fenced off from the rest of the bathroom a small threshold, but sometimes the water still uncritically overflowed into the bathroom.

The patio has a traditional set of furniture from a table and two chairs, plus a drying rack for swimsuits. The room is generally normal, quite fresh (not without flaws, of course), but without any frills. Tile on the floor. Cleaned normally, linen changed every 3 days, towels daily. The minibar, which consisted of beer, water and juice, was replenished as it was used.

Territory. The hotel is compact, close to everything, it actually stands on the beach.
From the hotel entrance to the beach, 3 minutes walking distance. The territory is not very green in terms of trees, but there are many flowers and bushes, there is no feeling of a desert. Clean, although I would add a few trash cans around the pool and pool bar, because there was nowhere to throw all these plastic cups, etc. There are 2 bars - main and pool bar, 2 restaurants - main and a la carte, a swimming pool with a separate children's section, a playground a little to the side and a massage corner. Actually, that's all.

The WI-FI signal covered almost all locations with varying degrees of success - the best, of course, at the reception, the worst we had on the beach. The signal in the room was normal.


The hotel is located in the village of Stavromenos, around small apart-hotels, several shops of varying degrees of remoteness, a pastry shop, a pharmacy. Yeah, there is also the Memorial to the Heroes of the Greco-Australian War across the road - a strange name, but suddenly someone is interested.
About 100 meters to the right from the exit of the hotel there is a bus stop number 20, which takes you to Rethymno. Bus tickets can be bought for 1.80 euros / piece (it is better to buy right away for a round trip) in a mini-market near the same stop. There is also a car rental, but we rented a car directly at the hotel through a hotel guide - the prices do not differ much (VolkswagenUP! vending machine for 1 day - 41 euros, two days - 80 euros, 3 days - 115 euros). And that's a plus. : )

Nutrition. The food was quite normal, although after reading the rave reviews I was expecting something more. Objectively, there have always been several types of meat (from a set of chicken, pork, lamb, rabbit, beef, duck), fish was usually in the form of a fillet fried in batter, or the same fillet, but stewed with some vegetables.
Seafood (squid, mussels, octopus) were, as a rule, not in the form of separate dishes, but with rice, or pasta, or greens ...There were also quite a lot of side dishes - various vegetables in various variations (grilled, baked, stewed), rice, pasta, potatoes. For lunch and dinner, there are always 2 types of soup, and for breakfast, 2 types of milk porridge (what a sweet oatmeal horror - for a big fan). Fresh vegetables, cheeses, olives. And pizza, the incredible virtues of which are mentioned in almost all reviews of this hotel. ; ))

From fruits there were always watermelons and apples, melons, pears, grapes, oranges, sometimes pineapples, plums also alternated. There were, as a rule, 3-4 variations of desserts and, of course, the dream of all children is free ice cream with toppings and watering.
The set of drinks in the restaurant is also traditional - a vending machine with cola-fanta-sprite and juices, red-white wine and beer, ouzo and crayfish served in crystal samovars.
Coffee from the machine, which I now attribute to the pluses.


In other words, the food is quite varied, of high quality and fresh. And one more advantage of the restaurant is a sufficient number of seats and the almost complete absence of queues, which can be written as a plus for the hotel. The disadvantages would include not a very wide selection of vegetables and fruits, as well as olives, which, in fact, are one of the hallmarks of the island, and cheeses - although Greece is famous for them.

But the a la carte restaurant turned out to be a very mysterious place. At first, it did not work due to unfavorable weather conditions (strong winds), and then, when we wanted to sign up for it, it turned out that it was open today for one day and then it is already closed for good until the next season. It's good that we found out about this at lunchtime and ended up in a la carte for dinner. The food there, of course, is excellent and in huge quantities - here you definitely can’t eat everything. Not everything was even possible to bite
! ; ))) An addition to the celebration of the stomach is a stunning view of the sunset that opens up to the eyes of the restaurant's visitors!

And the undoubted advantage of all these places is the administrator Marina - a spectacular Russian-speaking young lady, who was always in the restaurant during breakfasts, lunches, dinners, managed to pay attention to almost every guest, and in a la carte she came to the aid of the waiters when the number of guests exceeded their capabilities. for their service.

I don’t see the point in dwelling on the quality of drinks in bars for a long time - their set and taste characteristics approximately correspond to the expectations from the all-inclusive system. Gourmets with a "Whiskey Bible" at the ready and other oenophiles are unlikely to like it, but ordinary citizens, I think, will be quite normal. You can choose something to your liking from a dozen alcoholic cocktails, all the same beer-wine-ouzo-raki, as well as whiskey-gin-cognac of local production.
There are also imported brands, but for a surcharge. They made a good frappe in the pool bar - it goes very well in the heat. And another plus of the pool bar is free ice cream all day long. The downside is its dependence on the weather - with strong winds, the pool bar closed around six in the evening, and in the main bar there were not always enough seats for everyone - you had to look for places somewhere in the vicinity.


Sea and beach. This is perhaps the only point that almost all those who have been here and who have written reviews with varying degrees of expression described it as problematic. And it turned out to be true. : ((In calm weather, there are no questions - except for complete comfort, buy yourself aqua shoes for 8.50 euros in a nearby mini-market. But you can do without them, especially since a kind of underwater pontoon begins not far from the coast, along which you can safely go deep.
But if there is a strong wind and the sea is stormy - do not hope that you will be able to enter it, no matter how well you swim! Tested on myself - in a storm the hotel simply does not have a beach, sun loungers and umbrellas are removed from the shore, and a tidal wave reaches the retaining wall of the hotel. During our vacation, there were several days of such a storm, and we, having given up on a beach holiday, devoted time to the excursion program. Actually, we were going to do it anyway, but I just wanted me to choose the time for the excursions myself, and not the weather conditions put me before the fact. And this is a fat minus of this hotel, especially if you are coming here for a SEA (BEACH) vacation!

Although there is, of course, a significant plus - the rather isolated location of the hotel allows you to swim into the sea as much as you want, without fear of falling under the blades of some jet skis, "bananas", parasailers, etc.
We took full advantage of this opportunity and swam every time for an hour and a half (if we could go into the sea). : )

There were no problems with places on the beach and near the pool. The only places for which there was a battle, and which had to be occupied at 7 am (which I mentioned above), were a row of sun loungers located above the supporting wall itself and giving the illusion that you were on the beach. At the same time, oddly enough, there were plenty of free places on the beach - I think that this was facilitated by a rather narrow beach strip, due to which, at the slightest disturbance, your sun lounger was partially in the water. In addition, the shadow from your beach umbrella did not always fall on your sun loungers and you had to somehow invent yourself by moving the sun loungers in a rather limited space. Upstairs by the pool, this problem was not there - both sun loungers and umbrellas moved freely there.

And there was also such a cool thing as sun loungers, which are much more mobile than sun loungers and they could be moved anywhere following the sun.

Beach towels were issued against a deposit of 10 euros / person, which will be returned to you at the time of departure. The exchange of towels took place in the main bar (although, as for me, it would be more logical to move this point to the pool bar) from 9.00 to 12.00, you could return the towels in exchange for a card at any time.

Animation. I’ll make a reservation right away that this aspect of relaxation practically doesn’t interest me, and it’s not always possible to evaluate it, because we prefer to spend most of the day on the beach. Here, due to the fact that the beach and the pool area were actually one whole, there was an opportunity to watch the animation team. I think their motto was "Catch me if you can". ; ) And this is probably a plus. They were so inconspicuous and unobtrusive that it was almost ridiculous.
The young lady, leading water aerobics, brought plastic "pasta" to the pool, dumped them in a bunch and quickly retreated to the bar, where she stuck it into the phone for 10-15 minutes, after which just as quickly (so that no one had time to catch her and demand a water aerobics session) collected "macaroni" and disappeared. The main animation activities that I managed to see are a mini-disco in the evenings near the main bar, a “Cocktail Game” was held every other time near the pool and a “hotel dance” type at 6 pm in the same place. That's all. I don't know where the people who sent their fiery greetings and sang praises to local animators found these guys. I guess I just don't have experience in animation. ; )))

Outcome. Usually at the end of the rest I try to take stock and draw conclusions. For the Rethymno Beach hotel, as is clear from the above, they are very ambiguous.

Yes, the hotel is not bad, fairly new, located on the very shore and has its own beach, almost all services are initially included in the price, food and service are normal. But having been there, I sincerely do not understand the wave of rave reviews with aspirations and even a certain amount of exaltation. As for me, this is an absolutely ordinary, standard hotel, corresponding to the declared level of 4 stars and the title of the Mouzenidis Group basic hotel. Although, perhaps, in our time, the absence of pronounced disadvantages is already a big plus? ! ; ))