Хм. Hm.

Travel report to Crete from 26 June to 03 July 2008. And at the same time about the Elounda BlueBay hotel
This trip came to me quite by accident. A friend called and offered a tour to Crete in a five-star hotel for 10.000 rubles. The fact is that her sister works in a travel company and constantly offers various profitable options. I immediately suspected something was wrong. 10.000 rubles - 8 days in a five-star hotel with a buffet - breakfast and dinner, plus air travel, plus delivery of 100 kilometers from the airport back and forth, but oh well, I think, at least I'll look at Crete from the corner of my eye. Went with a friend. came to this company. Indeed, ten thousand per person - a total of twenty thousand, plus, it turns out, you need to pay for a visa, insurance. As a result, I paid 25.000 rubles for both. It would seem that everything. But no, problems with a visa began, moreover, it feels like no one in this company is doing anything, except for what they want to be paid quickly.
They just terrorized me with this payment. As a result, by hook or by crook, we received the long-awaited travel vouchers, plane tickets and insurance on hand. At the airport it turned out that a TU-154 plane was waiting for us. Anticipating events, I will say that it was the most unpleasant in the whole trip. The feeling is that the plane will simply fall apart along the way. The cabin is cramped, stuffy, the seats seem to be welded on, everything is shabby. In short, not a plane - but horror. Farther. Arrived at Heraklion airport. When I landed, I breathed a sigh of relief - it was so creepy to fly in this bucket. Heraklion Airport, when compared at least with the Cypriot airport in Larnaca, is a real garbage dump. Quiet horror. And they serve better - faster, better, fewer formalities. In general, the attitude of the staff pleased. Our tour operator was Tez Tour.

We met without any problems, put into a very comfortable brand new Neoplan tourist bus and took those who travel to the eastern part to take them to hotels. We drove to Elounda and were the last ones to leave. This, by the way, is very good, because we could compare hotels (at least approximately). I must say right away that there are very few hotels in Crete that correspond to European standards. For example, you can compare three stars in France and five stars in Crete - and the comparison will not always be in favor of Crete. Farther. In general, we arrived successfully. The appearance of the hotels in which we stopped by did not make much of an impression on us, with the exception, perhaps, of two. The first is Ikaros (there are two words further on), and the second - I don’t remember the name, but it is all overgrown with climbing flowers from head to toe. Finally, we arrived at Elounda. It turned out that there are two elite places in Crete - the first is Elounda, and the second is Vai (palm beach).
Bourgeois prefer Elounda, while Russians go to Vai. I was pleased that we were going to rest in an elite place. We arrived at the hotel - here we were in for the first surprise. It turns out that the hotel is not five stars (as it is written in the booklet and indicated in the contract), but four stars. In short, the real first wiring. I immediately noticed what I noticed - poor air conditioning at the reception. And somehow it's a little shabby, or something . . I don't really know, but the first impression is not very good. The staff (more precisely, the only woman who is on duty at the reception) was friendly, polite, gave us a map and offered to go and find our room ourselves, which is not very easy. The fact is that the hotel is a collection of two-story houses (8 rooms in each), each room has a separate entrance, which stand on a slope. Therefore, some rooms offer a wonderful view of the sea.
Our travel vouchers said "garden view", which made me a little upset. Would love to have a sea view. So I immediately asked if it was possible to pay extra for the view. Then some strange conversations with another person followed, and it turned out that, it turns out, we have a sea view. These Greeks are strange people. The Russian couple we met paid 4.000 rubles extra for the view, and they were accommodated in a room that, although overlooking the sea, was located behind such bushes and on the first floor that nothing could be seen there. Okay, let's go look for the number. Searched, searched, found. Looks like the cleanup hasn't finished yet. The maid doesn't even speak English. However, like all the staff in Russian (with the exception of certain words). We entered the room. The view from the window is amazing. For this view alone, I would give this hotel an extra star! Greek-style room - bare walls without wallpaper, but very pleasant.
Large bed. Quite harsh, but I liked it so much. The pillows are uncomfortable, but there were two more in the closet that were of a different shape and turned out to be very good. The room is clean enough. Linen and towels are clean. The air conditioner worked properly. Although there was a De Longhi company, which, in my opinion, has not existed for 8-10 years. The floor is tile. The plumbing is old, but clean and serviceable. Doors and windows are not double-glazed windows, in some places they have dried up and small cracks are visible in the light. The table and bedside tables, as well as the armchair, table and ottoman are old. But it didn't bother me at all. The room was immediately made a small rearrangement in order to ensure convenience. The TV impressed me the most. More precisely, not so much it as a bracket for mounting it. It is something. Imagine a metal stick that sticks out of the ceiling and the TV stands on a platform welded to this stick in the form of fixing it on all sides of the grid.

In short, a complete fox. I just freaked out. In addition, the TV is so ancient that it has only 6 buttons on the remote control. It worked fine, we watched it all the time for about an hour. AA, yes, we also had a smaller number than some of the others that we saw, however, this did not bother us at all. We also had a balcony. And it also has an ancient table and two chairs. Our balcony was also smaller than the others. We had a refrigerator (we defrosted it at the very beginning, it worked very mediocrely), which would be built into the cabinet (capacious enough). What more i can say. Breakfast and dinner - buffet - quite normal. To be honest, I don't live to eat, I eat to live, so I always had something to eat. Julia was also pretty, but, in her words, it was not very diverse. They serve delicious baklava for dinner. And watermelon. Every day I ate like a seagull - I could hardly leave the table.
At dinner, drinks are not included, so you need to order something. The wine is overpriced in my opinion. A standard bottle of dry red wine is 18 euros, a small bottle is 9 euros. We ordered a couple of times, then realized that it was a scam and then ordered water (2 euros for a liter glass bottle). By the way, about water. We were scared that the price of a liter of water in Crete reached 2 euros per liter. We prepared for this morally, however, the reality exceeded all our expectations. If you take a pack of 6 one and a half liter bottles, then it costs 2 euros. 74/9= approximately 8 rubles per litre. By the way, their water is delicious, not like ours. It's called something like LYTTOS. Like so. Just do not buy it in a hotel supermarket, just like renting a car at a hotel is a real scam. Yes, by the way, about cars. In my opinion, here are 2 excellent agencies where you can rent cars (we and our friends rented there).
Excellent service, friends had problems - the car was replaced within an hour and a half without any questions at all: http://eurocar. gr and eaglerentacar. gr. And in eaglerentacar. gr I liked more, but they only have 2 offices in Crete, and there are much more in the Eurocar. If finances allow, it is better to take more powerful cars. But if you don’t want to spend too much, then the lowest price for Fiat Seicento is 60 euros for 3 days. This is such a small low-power car (like our oka, but much cooler), in my opinion, it has no air conditioning. We rented a Daewoo Matiz with air conditioning (he helps out a lot). Rental price - 70 euros for 3 days. But I certainly recommend something more powerful. Take, for example, Toyota Aygo (80 euros for 3 days) or Hyundai Getz (90 euros for 3 days). When renting for a week, there is usually a lower daily rate - more profitable. When you come to the car dealership - ask the Fair Price manager - they usually meet halfway. Especially at the Eagle Agency. I do not recommend Budget.
The divorce is specific - we rented an ATV from them. They just didn't get in touch after that. In short, don't mess with them. Farther. As for the breakfasts in our hotel, they were normal. Muesli, various flakes (corn, chocolate), unlimited milk. Indeed, very strange. Came poured tea and coffee only once. Then it is necessary to persistently, so to speak, demand. And yet, all the guests of other hotels on the way back complained that the coffee was real slop. Just not with us. We had very good coffee! I really understand this and can say with all frankness about it. There were juices. They are made from a concentrate, however, they are quite okay, apple tastes somewhat reminiscent of Dobry Juice. Eggs were in all possible forms - scrambled eggs, fried eggs, hard-boiled, soft-boiled . . 4-5 sausages (good). 3-4 varieties of cheese, whipped cream, canned fruits. Generally the breakfast was ok.

Dinner is also quite good - everything is cooked in olive oil, but you can also take different varieties of olive oil and season your dishes with them yourself. There was always a delicious watermelon, melon, kiwi, apples, pears, oranges. We ate watermelon, melon and kiwi. Ice cream 4 types. Jelly, soufflé , puddings. Eggplant is often used in dishes, and something like lasagna is also often prepared.
In short, here's what I want to say. For the money we paid, it's a sin to complain. but for those 64.000 rubles, that is, real money for how much they sell it - it's not worth it. We rested there for 10 points out of 10. I wish you the same.