occupational therapist, single, vegetarian, allergic to lots of things so very fussy about cosmetics...
occupational therapist, single, vegetarian, allergic to lots of things so very fussy about cosmetics/toiletries, and in the throes of a giant Owen Wilson crush...
Member since:02.12.2003
Reviews:26
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I went to Stalis in Crete for two weeks in September 2004, with a couple of friends. We had an eventful flight there - a couple of hours after leaving Glasgow one of the passengers became ill and we were diverted to Salzburg to get medical attention for him. Then, the plane was overweight and needed to be checked before it could take off again - no 737 engineers in Salzburg, one had to be flown in from Manchester, we were stuck in Salzburg airport for 6 or 7 hours, eating Toblerone until we felt sick. But we have good holiday photos - here we are in Crete, and that's an Alp!
Anyway, we should have arrived in Crete at lunchtime, but it was early evening by the time we got there, so it was 9ish by the time we got to our apartments, Triandafillo in Stalis, or Stalida. It was pitch black and we walked
around in the dark for a little while until Giannis, the manager, found us and showed us to our apartment. Triandafillo is your standard Greek holiday apartment - beds, wardrobe, drawers, kitchen with a fridge, sink and 2 electric rings, balcony with table and chairs, and a shower room with toilet and sink. Clean, nothing fancy, but who cares? How long do you spend awake in your apartment anyway? There's a nice pool and pool area with loungers, and bar serving drinks and snacks, but we had issues with that... We were told we couldn't bring our own drinks/water to the pool, we had to buy from the bar, which would have been fine if Giannis was there all the time. But there were several days when he didn't turn up till mid-afternoon, by which time we would have been dried up husks...
Stalis is a lovely resort, if you want somewhere fairly quiet. If you want party paradise/hell, go further along to Malia. Stalis is spread out along the beach road, and has two distinct ends - one end has the Greek shops and restaurants, which is where we ate most of our meals and spent our evenings, and the other end is the "Brits abroad" end with "English" pubs serving roast dinners and offering bingo and the like. We stayed well away from that, apart from on the Saturday nights we went to the Indian restaurant for a curry, and it was great - vegetable bhuna and peshawari naan - fantastic.
The resort has loads of restaurants - plenty to try, and the Greek food was great in all of them. Two of the three of us are vegetarian, and we had no difficulties at all. The local wine is cheap and good, and the supermarkets had Cava at E6 a bottle, which was fab. There are several bars, but I honestly couldn't tell you about clubs and discos - we wanted a relaxing holiday and didn't bother looking for them. We were there quite late in the season, the last two weeks of September, and you could have fired a cannon up the main street after 10pm and not hit a soul; it was quiet at night. There are plenty of souvenir shops, and some lovely jewellery shops - got lovely green/yellow/orange amber.
The beach was long, narrow, clean with loungers and sunshades available readily. The weather was great most days, I think we had one day of grey skies and drizzle, which meant the solar heater hadn't heated the water, Giannis wasn't around to turn the immersion on, so we showered in cold water that night - have you ever seen someone try to shower without getting wet? :) But most days it was hot and dry and sunny. We had a couple of days when it got very windy - apparently this happens on that side of the island at that time of year, and the parasols all blew over, the empty loungers ended up in the pool - quite exciting really.
There are plenty of excursions to take in Crete. It's a big island with lots to do. We went on a couple of trips into Heraklion (not pretty) and Ag Nik (beautiful) - we used the organised trips once, and just got the bus on the other days. We went on a one day boat trip to Spinalonga, which used to be a leper colony, on an island, which was good, with barbecue and beach stop off on the way. The best trip was Santorini, though.
Santorini is quite a distance away, so we were up at 4am to get the early coach to the early ferry from Heraklion. It was the slow ferry, so 4 hours, but you can get a faster one. Santorini is beautiful, absolutely stunning, and we had a choice of coach trips around 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 to explore - like I say, Kalymnos next year. But if I was going to go somewhere twice, I'd have no hesitation going back to Crete, or back to Stalis.
Pictures of Crete (Greece)
Triandafillo apartments
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I went when I was a kid but I don't remember that much about it! Nicky x
red234 05.10.2005 23:39
Im hopeing to go next year sounds great carn't wait Good review
pinkmatchstick 19.08.2005 13:06
We went to Stalis in 1993 and where you stayed sounds like the place just up from the beach where we were. It's a nice resort and as you say much quieter than the headbanging in Malia….though we did go up there a few times. A good review.
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Advantages: Mesmerisingly beautiful beaches, awe-inspiring mountains, friendly people, great fruit and veg produce. Disadvantages: Cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet due to their old plumbing system. You get used to it.
Ebele 05.06.2001 (05.06.2001)
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Review of Crete (Greece)
Advantages: Sightseeing, markets, weather, amenities, culture, friendly people, nightlife, food. Disadvantages: Euro rate. Some places shut due to economy. Drivers.
Phweeter 28.04.2009 (25.09.2009)
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Review of Crete (Greece)
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