Yannis Manos, Malia

The Trip:
I went to Malia in September 2006. I needed a budget holiday for 2 weeks, with sunshine and the beach.

Malia gave me just that... so I booked the holiday. It was only when I started looking at reviews AFTER the booking that I began to panic... Malia has a bit of a bad reputation with regards to young English, drinking and clubbing.

Arriving into Malia by coach I was still considering making a resort ...
...The Hotel Yiannis Mannos, was quite pleasant... quite far away from the main strip where all the bars and clubs were... 2 swimming pools... clean, but very basic rooms... and what appeared to be friendly staff.

The first night in the resort was interesting... walked towards the strip (about a 10-15 minute walk) and quickly returned to the hotel.

Luckily, at night it wasn't that hot, so was able to close the doors and ... more

The Trip:
I went to Malia in September 2006. I needed a budget holiday for 2 weeks, with sunshine and the beach.

Malia gave me just that... so I booked the holiday. It was only when I started looking at reviews AFTER the booking that I began to panic... Malia has a bit of a bad reputation with regards to young English, drinking and clubbing.

Arriving into Malia by coach I was still considering making a resort transfer as it didn't look that great.

The Hotel Yiannis Mannos, was quite pleasant... quite far away from the main strip where all the bars and clubs were... 2 swimming pools... clean, but very basic rooms... and what appeared to be friendly staff.

The first night in the resort was interesting... walked towards the strip (about a 10-15 minute walk) and quickly returned to the hotel.

Luckily, at night it wasn't that hot, so was able to close the doors and the curtains in the room. I say lucky because every night you could hear what music was playing down in the strip... Very annoying, but once the doors were closed you kind of got used to it. Until the hotel bar, (right at the front of the hotel) decided to play music - really loudly - on a few occassions.

The Rep/ Staff:
Met the Rep - very pleasant when selling excursions to you - but when faced with queries about moving resort, Not so nice. Quite rude, no eye-contact- Not helpful.

Manageress - Rude. Very unapproachable.
Other hotel staff - None that I met spoke English, which is fair enough being in Greece, but not so good when they barge into your room and can't explain to you why. Again, I found them very rude and unfriendly.
It's as if the staff at the hotel get so used to dealing with pissed up English kids, that they have forgotten how to be civil to normal couples who are staying in to hotel to actually enjoy Crete.

The Room:
Had room 217 (I think) on the 1st Floor. Good size. Twin beds (not so good for a couple).
Table and chairs to eat.
Kitchen area VERY basic. Not so good for proper self-catering.
Bathroom - HORRIBLE! Pathetic shower (had to be hand -held or else the water went EVERYWHERE). Shower curtain that was useless, water went all over the floor. Drain in the floor didn't actually work, so floor was ALWAYS soaking wet... (Apparently this was not the staff's problem, if I wanted this sorted, i should have gone to the manageress to get a mop!!!)
The balcony was lovely. Due to situation of the room, we had a lovely L-shaped balcony, much bigger than the rest. Overlooked the main pool and the mountains.

The Location of hotel:
Not the best location, but ended up being perfect for my partner and I.
About 15 mins walk from the main strip (still very noisy at night).
About a 5-10 min walk from a lovely quiet part of the beach (not the main beach).
About a 30-40 min walk to Stalis.
Right round the corner from a great Restaurant (Eva Taverna).
If you go out the hotel, and immediately turn left... then kind of walk diagonnally right towards the mountains, you hit the main road and then the Old Town- which is lovely. Going this way you completely bypass the main strip. (Lovely restaurants and bars in the old town - much more chilled out and more Cretan - Restaurants more expensive).
Turn right out the hotel, and right again, you head towards a posher pasrt of Malia and you can do a nice walk to the Malia Palace (about a 45min - 1hour walk) and head towards Sissi.
Turn left out the hotel and walk straight up to the main road, there are lots of bus stops whicj take you to Agios Nikolas or Heraklion. Much cheaper to do this than go on excursions through the hotel.

OVERALL.... Malia was actually a pleasant surprise because we were out of season and the resort was winding down... so although it was still loud at night time with the noise from the srtip and the quads... I would NEVER EVER go there in peak season.

The hotel did attract some nasty characters that slept all day, went out late at night and then staggered back at about 6am only to have a fight outside your door and then all go off screaming on their quad bikes........
But apart from that and the odd occassion when they put some really loud music on until 7am... It wasn't that bad for the price paid.
The pool played music every day.... but very rarely changed the CD (so if you don't like RnB and Rap it got a bit annoying), so take your MP3 player.
Generally, we were out every day so were rarely at the hotel... so it wasn't really an issue, it was OK.
The resort itself was quite nice actually... quite central so easy to do day trips. And a nice base to just go on random walks up into the mountains or along the coast.

So, if you're looking to go on a cheap holiday at the end of September/ October, then consider Malia and the Yiannis Mannos apartments. I would probably go there again if I had the same budget and couldn't find an alternative. It's a good base for exploring Crete!

 

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