Crete

Having read the many glowing reviews of Crete on these pages, I feel reluctant to have to strike such a discordant note, but while I didn't have exactly a BAD holiday there, it's certainly not a destination I would ever consider visiting again. The reality I found there was quite unlike the island idyll other reviewers have described; perhaps because notably, the next most recent review I saw was written in 2008, and Crete has clearly been hit hard by the global recession and the current high rates of exchange affecting the Euro. Wolves are at the door, figuratively speaking, for many of the businesses catering for mass tourism in the north of the island, and it shows: ...  Read the complete review

September holiday in Crete Had a really great trip to crete with my husband. Stayed in a small house, in the village of Spilia near Hania. Its a proper greek village, and you felt you were experiencing the real crete. Spilia is home to the cave church set above the village, which is truly spectacular. Also nearby is the Deliano Gorge, which is well worth a visit for vulture sighting, although we were followed by a pair of hoopoes all the way up. You can walk or drive it. The nearest town was Kolimbari- an OK place with some nice restaurants. But hire a car and go up into the Lefka Ori mountains. The scenery is amazing. You can drive up to the beginning of ...  Read the complete review

Hi all i spent a week in Crete last may and i must say it was the best time of my life, i stayed in the middle of Hersonnosis, where everything happens. My first impressions of the Island were " what have i got myself in for?" but then as the day wore on it was much more inviting. The locals are lovely, and my sister and i were lucky enough to be arriving with most of the workers, so we made some firm friends out of the trip. Hersonnosis - This resort is not for the faint hearted and is mainly populated by Irish, Germans and Swedes but none of this put us off, if anything it completely enhanced the holiday. That and the ...  Read the complete review

-----> Concrete Crete (meaning we went to see the island and I won’t present abstract ideas here!) One week at the beginning of November to fill ourselves up with sunshine before the drab and dreary season starts in Germany, how could we know that Crete would greet us with a cool wind blowing dark clouds across the sky and the tourists away from the beaches? We chose the resort Hersónissos, 40 km east of Heraklion, the capital of Crete, because it’s nearly in the middle of the north coast and we thought it would be a good starting point for excursions. Hersónissos is the busiest resort on Crete with the most hotels and an active night-life, ...  Read the complete review

I’ve just spent autumn half-term in Crete. It’s somewhere I’d already been to (“in a previous life” as my wife calls it) and she’s always wanted to go to. Having not been there since 1974(!), fearing the worst excesses of tourism, I was reticent, but as she’d booked a stay nowhere near my previous haunts, I was quite happy with this state of affairs, especially given the amount of ground work she puts into choosing a location. Please bear in mind that this was the very last week of the (British) tourist season, so you may have other views on the places I describe, relating to how crowded they were at the time. Where we actually stayed was ...  Read the complete review