Stalis, Crete

My partner and I have both visited many of the Greek Isalnds before, Kos, Corfu, Rhodes etc and loved the Greek people, climate, culture and food. We wanted to try a new Greek Island.

For me the temperature was just about right, (approx 24c or 75f) in September, and not too far on a flight from the UK (approx 4.5 hours).

We looked on the web and found our deal advertised by Teletext on Yahoo! Travel. We paid an amazing £250 per person for 2 weeks in the 5 star apartments, Marie Sofi.

Following and 11 hour delay, we were given a photcopied information pack which told us that the holiday company had over booked to the Mari Sofi, and we were put in another set of apartments, and we didn't have a rep.

I was personally dissapointed about staying here 3 night as I had gone for my birthday and was not in the 5 star place I had booked ... BUT

This is Crete, the owners of our temporary aprtments could not have been more welcoming and made us feel at home, even though they were woken up at 3am and had no idea who we were. They made sure the local rep from another company came to help us and stuck by us, gave us coffee and welcomed us to Stalis!

We decided to hit the beach.

So many different coloured sun beds, all run by local restaurants and all offering a similar deal. Best tip i can give here is find a bar where you like the food and drinks o if you are  stuck there all day you know that you are going to get suitable refreshment. During your stay don't be encouraged by thers trying to tout for your business as staying in the same place will get you a good raport with the bar/erstaurant and you will get great service.

We decided to pick a nice pace near the end of the beach strip with a nice set of sun loungers, approx 3 Euros per day, and a nic shower was provided which led onto a cocktail bar which reminded me of Tom Cruise in the film cocktail. The waiter on the beach was lovely, and promptly bought us our fanta lemin and cheese toasty.

We returned in the evening to find cocktails with big umbrellas, sparklers and a geat measure of alcohol! My boyfriend took me for a lovely meal in the main high street where we had a lovely meal and the waiters brought us the biggest cocktail you have ever seen as a birthday treat, with plastic monkeys hanging off it and sparklers. Frustratingly we have gone to town on the meal and already drank a lot so were full up by the time this arrived, and already plastered. It took us over an hour to drink it!

Waking up with a burning hang over following a great birthday evening was not the best state of mind to move apartments!

Our new home was the 5 star apartments we had booked, so we were delighted to be going there, but we were being kicked out of our current place in the morning and taken by Taxi to the Mari Sofi.

When we arrived we were slightly shocked at the place because of the amount of peopl hanging around and a dog roaming. Our hearts sank and we pulled up a chair and bought a sobering coffee.

We found out the reason for the hustle and bustle was completely down to the day of transfers, people were leaving and arriving and the maid was tearing around like a mad fool trying to get everything ready.

Manos, the darling owner, appologised, explained the situation and agreed to give u our keys to store our luggae in while we went off to enjoy the day (he wouldn't allow us to stay in there as it hadn't been cleaned).

By the time we went and threw some filthy fry up down our throats and had a few coffees we were ready for the room, and luckily the room was ready for us.

Oh the Dog? he resembled scooby doo and was the most obedient animal ever!

We woke up in our new apartment at about 1pm, following the best nights sleep I have probably ever had!

The room was fitted with double glazed doors, with full height metal shutters on that you could close on their own securley, so you could keep air coming through whithough any light - genius! We also had black out curtains and all your normal curtains. We were woke up and had no sense of the time, so we were able to relax without worry.

As we were on the top of a steep hill the area was silent, no disturbance at all. We were so so happy with the whole set up because the main purpose of this holiday was to relax and de-stress.

The balcony was brilliant to sit out on, it was huge. There were pretty mountain cats around that were timid and part of the scenery, I could have stayed there all day.

We didn't leave the apartments surroundings until the evening. We just enjoyed our surroundings, the pool was pretty empty, and the bar area gave us all we needed.

Evening consisted of a nice meal of Souvlaki at our local Taverna, and a jug of Rose wine before we returned to our very comfy beds.

Today was a grey and wet afair.

We slept in until mid day (this became a trend throughout our stay) , had coffee and hung around until there was a break in the weather.

While the rain was gone we took a damp stroll down to the main area where we bought newspapers and breakfast.

The rest of our day consisted of drinking coffee in a variety of bars, and reading the newspaper. Everyone was talking about the crash Richard hammond had, that had happened a few days previous but was only just filtering through to us.

What fantastic weather Crete has in the later part of the year?

Using a high factor sun block is an absolute must. Today we literally hung around the pool, and taking full advantage of the complex selection of inflatable boats and lilos.

Fortunately being up a hill we were lucky to have a constant breeze so you never got too hot.

After a day lazing abot and doing absolutely nothing we hit the town.

There is a fantastic bar (I can't remember the neame so i will have to describe it) that is quite small to look at on the outside, and at first glance would resemble something similar to a young persons night club type bar with a girl standing outside. At first we were put off by this and in the end we gave in and ended up staying all night. Once inside the music being played was classic stuff from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's with requests being taken. We sat by the bar and took advantage of their cocktail happy hour until 11pm.

By 1am we were absolutely finished with the alcohol and dancing that we needed bed.  We decided to exit by the back door to avoid the heckling woman, and found it was a family restaurant by day, and walked straight out onto the beach!

Will definietly come back here for a good night out, and good value for money.

Isn't it funny how a cold long walk home never seems so bad when you have had a drink ;o)