Crete - Two weeks in the Sun

Unusual for me but this year I decided to do a "Sun" type beach holiday and after talking with others decided to give Solos a go rather than Just You . After reading both companies brochures Solos had two advantages for this type of holiday.
First I had the option to fly from Manchester with very little mark up as they use budget airlines but for a European holiday I don't mind. The second reason is I had the option to go for a fortnight which I wanted, think its good you have the option on a lot of beach holidays with Solos and the price difference isn't too bad.

My biggest worry was finding enough to do because there wasn't any included excurrsions and I'm not one for spending my time on the beach or by the Pool. Don't get me wrong will do 2 or 3 hours chill in the afternoon but thats about it.
In fact we had good fun in the Pool you needed it to cool off when tempretures hit there peak n the afternoon. Actually some of us played games with a ball, Men v Women but they played a bit rough.

 

When we arrived we were met by our tour manager a nice lady who was English but lived over there, she directed us to a taxi that took us to the hotel. The hotel was at two sides of a main road, reception and dining room was on one side which also led to the beach. Our rooms were at the other side which was linked with a footbridge, no comlaints it was a nice hotel

The beach was good and some mornings I went walking along it which was nice.
Our manager offered us a range of excurrsions which I signed up for some including the Samaria Gorge which i dealt with in another post.


We were only a few miles outside Chania the capital and the service bus went past our hotel so we went in 3 or 4 times over the fortnight. Its a very old place with narrow streets with some interesting shops, well worth a visit. The harbour area is nice with loads of cafes and bars surrounding it.

Although only a couple of us did the Samaria Gorge on the 2nd week first week most of the group did a short gorge walk, to be honest was just a gentle stroll and not really preparation for what was to come. Was nice scenary though.

Did notice a rain thing go past the hotel at first thought it was a kids thing but upon investigation there was actually 13 different routes and some interesting tours, over the fortnight went on four I fancied filled in a good 3 hours or so for only 14 euro. Sort of went into the mountains to interesting places and Villages remember visiting a small museum, German war cemetery, Olive Oil farm plus some stunning scenary.



Another day 6 of us went on a boat trip to what was advertised as a Pirates castle then on to a Blue Lagoon for a swim. My intention was to climb up to the castle then on the boat trip between change into my swimming shorts. Of course we did them the other way around and I had to change on the beach, Marilyn offered to hold my towell which I'll say she didn't do a very good job and I was left somewhat exposed. After a nice swim it was to the castle and Robert and myself were pleased to make it up to the castle, was a tough climb though.



Must mention the hotel maids who every day left a nice animal or bird on my bed, very talented and thouight a nice touch.

Was a nice holiday and I'll definately do another as I did manage to fill my time in although still get some chill time. Was also a great group of people that got on great, had some good fun. Was 21 the first week but 8 went home, was sad to see them leave. Another 7 came for the 2nd week only but was difficult for them I thought because they wanted to do stuff we'd done the first week so didn't mix as much. Think if I was going for a week only I'd choose the first week.

Another thing I thought was good is that our evening meal was only included 5 nights per week so over the fortnight we had 4 free nights which allowed us to try local restaurants including one trip for a meal in Chania.