Hotel Petre Mare, Crete (Petra Mare)

Member Name: cherdyboy

Product:	Petra Mare
Date:	08/03/09 (203 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice location, good food

Disadvantages: some rooms are small

Petra mare hotel is set right on the sea front in the southern town of irapetra on the island of crete.
The south side of the island can get particuarly strong gusts of wind during the peak season coming in from the sea, although it can be quite welcome as the temperature reached upto 36degrees when we visited.

The hotel is family orientated, although is equaly enjoyable for just couples.

We lucked out and got a superb sea view room, which im guessing is intended for 4 people, as it was very spacious.
The balcony was large enough for a table and four chairs, although some other balconys were hardly big enough for one person standing upright. I think as we had a good room it immediately set the tone for the rest of our holiday.

The food was lovely, much better than many other all inclusived that i have stayed in, especially the greek salad bar which was simply outstanding.
There is plenty of choice to have something different pretty much every night, even if like more your not that adventurous with your food. There is also alot of food that you could give the kids if they arent that keen on greek food, such as burgers, chips, pizza, ice cream, although some adults spent all week eating nothing but chips and complaining that there wasnt enough choice, kind of says it all really....
Food is available all day, as out of breakfast/lunch/dinner tiems there is a snack bar open.

Drink is available all day, and is all in unless you want cocktails from the eveing cocktail bar.
At night we had a stroll beyond the pool area where we found a small bar that early on has a kids disco, but after 9pm is for the adults until whenever everyone has gone to bed. This is far enough away from the hotel to not disturb those wanting to sleep.
Beer is self serve, so take a couple of plastic pint pots.

The staff/locals werent as friendly as some other greek resorts, but this is a real greek harbour town which hasnt been inundated with tourists, so you can understand that whilst they are pleasant enough, that they arent bending over backards to accomodate the package holiday crowd. After all, it would be a shame to turn this place into Benidorm....

Large pool area with a slide for the kids and big kids, plus there is beach activities such as boats, jets skis etc.

We had a walk down to the town most days, as it has a few nice cafe bars along the seafront to chill out at.

There are daily boat trips out to a desert island, which is the most southern point in europe. The boat took around an hour, and once you get there it is around 5 degrees hotter than what it is on Crete, and is large enough to go exploring on your own, or have a beer on the beach (there is a cafe at the boat port, plus a small bar on the beach over the other side of the island).

We followerd the path over the sand dunes to the beach on the other side of this island, and the water was crystal clear.

Petra mare is a great hotel in a relatively unspoilt part of Greece, so if you venture out of the hotel at night you can see how the greek people unwind after a hot day, with a cold drink in a realxing taverna.

Summary: would highly recommend