Advantages: nice outside the peak season
Disadvantages: can't imagine being there during the peak season

...or: Concrete Crete (meaning we went to see the island and I won't present abstract ideas here!) One week at the beginning of November last year 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, we had read about it in a guide book and heard about it from a taxi-driver, we didn't notice it, though, as the tourist season ends at the beginning of November and the pavements were... Read review

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Advantages: Large island - plenty to see an do. Friendly people. Superb weather
Disadvantages: Doesn't feel like an island. The drivers

...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 a village called Koutouloufari, which lies just inland and uphill from the seaside town of Hersonissos, and slightly east of Heraklion Airport. Heraklion (or Iraklion, which is nearer... Read review

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Advantages: Hot weather, nice food, everythings cheaper than in England
Disadvantages: Dangerous roads

...Introduction ~~ Having just got back from Crete I thought I perhaps should write an opinion on the Greek island that has something for everyone. Out of the 1,400 odd Greek islands Crete is the largest and the most popular place in Greece for tourists. And having now been there twice I can see why its so popular with English tourists… Places to stay ~~ The main towns of Crete are on the North of the island and all of the main towns are on the coast and most hotels are in the towns or a few miles outside of them. I stayed very near Rethymno in the Rithyma Beach hotel which was part of the Grecotel chain. Though I won't go into detail about the hotel I'll stick to category - Crete in general! Places to stay in Crete vary quite widely and there are hotels to suit every budget. Though the overall cost of the holiday will be a bit more... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic scenery, great food, wonderful people, lots to see and do
Disadvantages: Depends how happy you are in heatwaves!

...not traditional Cretan fare, the chips were among the best I have ever had. A meal for two, with starters, freshly squeezed orange juice, main course and one or sometimes two litres of retsina, came to about £20. This also included a complimentary serving of warm halva (a very sweet concoction from sesame seeds) with apple puree and a double measure of Metaxa brandy to finish. We ate there for five of the seven nights of our stay and did not exhaust the menu. One night, we booked for a “typical Cretan evening”, although we knew it would be very much a put on for tourists. First we had to suffer an endless journey westwards with numerous pickups of other Thomson punters. This was when I realised how lucky we had been to end up in Kala Chorio. The two main resorts of Malia and Hersonissos can best be described as Skegness-on-Crete... Read review

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Advantages: It's beautiful, the weather's great and it's not expensive
Disadvantages: Eventually you have to come home

...the island when we got there, including Oiea and Thira, neither of which I can spell. You know those postcards of Greece with all the sugary houses on a hillside in beautiful sunsets? That's Santorini. It is just gorgeous, and a day there was enough to make me know I want to go back for a proper holiday there - but it's Kalymnos next year. Crete's probably a good island to try if you've not been to Greece before. It's big enough that there's lots to do, but not so big you can't get round it, and they're used to tourists so there's plenty of info in English and help available if you need it. If you want a quiet, relaxing resort with the option to do things, and plenty of choice for where to eat and drink, Stalis is great. I wouldn't want to go back to Crete, not because I didn't like it, but because there are so many more Greek islands... Read review

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Advantages: scenic and beautiful especially in spring and late summer
Disadvantages: Millions of other tourists if you go to the wrong place

...walk away feeling that I have benefited from an insight into another culture that is a rare privilege on a package holiday. ------------------------------------------------------------------- It is often said that of all the Greek islands, Crete is the most like a separate country of its own. The national slogan in fact is pretty much “Cretan first, Greeks second”. It is the largest of the islands forming modern Greece and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean (behind Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and Corsica) With its fine variety of sights and landscapes, it deserves to be explored independently by car, giving you the added advantage of escaping the over-trodden tourist trail for a while. As with most Mediterranean islands there are two distinct aspects to Crete: sprawling resorts packed with sun-deprived North European holiday makers... Read review

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Advantages: Landscape, history, parties and culture
Disadvantages: None really

...This trip to Crete was my third and although I normally travel there to engage in a drunken session of debauchery and sin, more often than not I end up hiring a Samarai Jeep and exploring the island. There is a vast wealth of culture and history, while for the younger members of the family there are parties and bars for all manner of mood ranging from cultured Greek dancing to mad dance clubs open til dawn and beyond. The ideal place to stay would be just out of one of the main party towns. These tend to be overly commercial and if you don't stay up til the crack of dawn you may find yourself rudely awakened by some inconsiderate drunkards. I always stay in Stalis which is by and large considered a family resort. It is a short cab ride from Malia and Ksonosos which are two of the larger party towns and therefore you are in reach... Read review

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Advantages: no comments
Disadvantages: actually nothing

...of the beach towns in Northern Crete have been over-run by British package tours and gigantic hotels owned by international travel cartels who have turned much of Crete into Nassau with Mousaka. Not to discourage those who are looking for a Club-Med style vacation. If that's what you want, it is certainly here in quantity and in quality and two days in Crete is fine, though you might as well have spent the time on whatever island resort you just came from since it was probably not much different from what you will find in Crete. But I have come to praise Crete, not to discourage those travelers who come to Greece looking for the real thing. Crete is spectacular and if you take the time to get to know it, you will probably return. Getting to Crete Getting to Crete is easy. If you are a backpacker you simply take the subway to Pireaus... Read review

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Advantages: Beautiful island, great weather, lots of history, good nightlife and so on
Disadvantages: None

...You may or may not have seen I have been away from ciao for a little while. For the last week I have been enjoying the Greek sunshine away from the cold and misty British Isles on the Mediterranean island of Crete. Well you may not have missed me that much, but here is the first in a series of opinions of my great holiday on Crete in general. Background ********** The island of Crete or Kriti in the local language lies 100 miles south of mainland Greece in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the fifth largest in the sea after Corsica, Sardinia, Cyprus and Sicily. It measures approximately 150 miles across and 50 miles wide making it the largest Greek island, but still retains all the features of the Med. Clear and warm blue seas, golden beaches and of course the great weather. Crete is very much part of Greece and proud of it... Read review

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Advantages: Culture if you go out and get it, excellent nightlife
Disadvantages: Loads of drunken yobs in summer, not cheap

...Last year I went on a cheapy holiday to Malia with First Choice holidays - £189 bargain! I stayed in the most tacky/loud/English resort on the whole island but I did manage to escape the resort in the short time I was there and I will detail you of my experience. General ------- Crete is one of the few Greek islands that could support itself if it wasn't for tourists. Even on the bus to my resort I came across the banana plantations, potato crops, olive and orange groves dotted by the roadside. Everywhere you get the feeling of self-sufficiency. They have snow capped mountains until the end of June which filters down providing the island with its own extremely valuable source of mineral water. The island itself is about the size of Jamaica about 260km long by 60km wide. The island was Turkish owned until 1913. Most of Crete... Read review

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