Aghios Nikolaos Resort

Advantages: Picturesque, friendly, great weather
Disadvantages: Nightlife fairly quiet

...and food it offers. Aghios Nikolaos (AgNik) is no exception to the rule. We booked thorugh Kosmar to stay in the Dilina Rooms on a bed and breakfast basis. On first approaching the 'hotel' in the middle fo the night we were quite worried that it was a bit of a shed, however, after sleeping then waking in the morning for breakfast we were warmly welcomed by the owners - Nikki and her husband ( I forgot his name). Breakfast consisted of bread and ...
...drink. One day a week Nikki went to market and served fruits and on a Sunday she brought some different breads from church. The personal touch was really sweet. At the welcome meeting we discovered that the owners were actually famous across the island for their dancing - in the breakfast room downstairs they would hold massive dance events and cram locals and tourists in, serve wine and home cooked foods. There are various cuttings on the wall ... Read review

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

...! The resort has no tall buildings, I didn't see a hotel with more than four floors - a Spaniard from, say, Torremolinos would only sneer derisively - in Heraklion we didn't see a single skyscraper, Crete appears low key and modest to us. The private houses in the small towns and villages are exactly like the ones in other Mediterranean countries, i.e., simple, ugly concrete boxes with flat roofs, the Cretan variety is advanced in one respect, though, nearly all houses have a collector for solar energy on the roof, very laudable! What did we do? We walked along the coast, had a look at the tiny harbour (the town itself isn't pretty) and discussed the fact that every ten metres there's a high price jewellery shop or a pharmacy, never have we seen more of both in one place! Or we took the bus to Aghios Nikolaos, a famous resort in the east... 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

...to the Greek spelling) is about dead centre on the north coast of the island. The famous resort of Aghios Nikolaos lies much further to the east, whilst the largely unsung but nonetheless visit-worthy towns of Rethymnon and Chania are west of Iraklion. All well known towns are along the north coast with the exception of Ierapetra in the south. This can be explained by the fact that the south coast, apart from the odd flat stretch, is largely impenetrably mountainous except by dead-end roads or by boat. Koutouloufari turned out to be something of a 'designer' village - not entirely phoney, as it contained a wealth of old buildings and sympathetic new ones, but with a much higher proportion of eateries and boutiques than you'd expect in a 'real' village'. However, eating out is high on our agenda, so this looked more like our cup of tea than... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful