We recently returned from an amazing weeks holiday in Crete. Although I have been abroad many times, this was actually our first holiday abroad as a family of 4 and Izebellas first time on a plane. I was of course a little apprehensive and slightly nervous about travelling alone with 3 children but it all turned out quite well.
Unfortunately it didn’t get off to a great start with a very annoying 6 hour delay to our flight at Manchester. This meant we didn’t arrive at the hotel until past 3am, thus missing our first evening and being very tired.
We stayed in the Stalis area of Crete, approximately 2 miles or so from Malia. Our hotel was located on the bustling strip, surrounded by hundreds of bars, shops and restaurants. The hotel – Panorama studios was basic but clean with a good size pool. It was also opposite stalis beach.
The weather remained hot but bearable all week with temperatures just about tipping 30C.
Stalis is an amazing little place, excellent for souvenirs. The food and drinks are very reasonably priced and the people are lovely and friendly.
We managed a few trips whilst there. The first to Star beach which is an amazing beach resort with lots of pools, and a foam party. It’s free entry with a small charge for the slides and certainly worth a visit.
We also took a trip to Malia town for more shopping and beach. My older 2 kids hired a pedal boat to the small island for just €20. Malia does get very lively in the evenings with many young people going there to party. We even managed to find a McDonald’s whilst there too.
Acquaplus is a large water park. With many slides. It’s good as it’s sectioned off with the extreme slides at one side of the park, the young children’s part in another and then the rest of the slides elsewhere. Some of these slides are huge.
We had a great week in Crete. To be honest we really needed longer than a week to see and do all that we wanted.
