October school holidays is an ideal time to discover Southern Europe - the weather is likely to be still quite warm, but not hot like in summer, the crowds are reasonable and the flights to many destinations are pretty short from where we live. We were considering several destinations in Southern Europe, but finally chose the island of Crete. The history, culture, food and beautiful nature seemed good enough reasons for wanting to go.
Our holiday actually started already a day before, on October 24th. We wished to get to Crete as fast as possible, not taking any connecting flights. From the closest airport to us, Nice Cote d'Azur, there were no direct flights to Crete and with taking connecting flights we would have ended up spending the whole day travelling and waiting around in airports. Milan Malpensa is about three and a half hour drive from Antibes, where we live, and there was a convenient and very cheap direct EasyJet flight from Milan to Heraklion. We did not think long to buy those tickets!
The flight to Heraklion was leaving at 6 in the morning and it seemed like a good idea to go somewhere near the Malpensa airport the evening before, in order to get a decent night of sleep. We opted for a MO.OM hotel about 10 minutes from Malpensa airport. The Garden Family Junior Suite was on two levels. The ground level had a sitting room with a sofa bed (was large enough that my 9- and 11-year olds slept there comfortably) and a modern bathroom with a big rainfall shower. The double bed was on the mezzanine level. The hotel was reasonably priced and within walking distance of several restaurants. We tried a nearby restaurant called Rosso and it did not disappoint. We would definitely stay in the same place again when flying from Milan Malpensa.
In front of the Rosso restaurant after a lovely meal
The two and half hour flight from Milan to Heraklion ended with a bumpy crosswind landing at the Heraklion airport. The weather was cool and very windy, not the sunny Indian summer that we had hoped for. We got our rental car from Europcar to start the half an hour drive towards Anissaras beach, where our hotel was located. Fortunately the gloomy weather only lasted for the first day, we had sunshine for the rest of our holiday.
Wishing mostly to relax and to have everything available at the hotel, we chose to stay the all inclusive Mitsis Laguna Resort and Spa. This time we also vacationed with my sister's family, who had already arrived at the hotel a day before us, so we were a group of 10 in total - four adults and six children. The hotel was beautiful Venetian style with immaculately kept grounds, several swimming pools and just across the road from the beach. The beach was a bit smaller near the hotel, but we walked on the beach till the nearest village and loved it. The kids discovered something new on the beach every day - crabs, fish and enjoyed observing the nature.
View from our room
The beach near the hotel
We had reserved the sea view family
bungalow room. The room was divided into two parts - a double bedroom
and a twin room with a little balcony with
sea view. It perfectly suited the family of four (kids aged 9
and 11). The rooms had lovely decor, two TVs, a
minibar that was topped up daily... The rooms were serviced twice a day -
a bigger cleaning in the morning and turndown service in the evening.
Other pools
The
hotel had a main buffet restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner and
several speciality restaurants. We managed to try all of the different restaurants. Our
favourite by far was the Italian - they had a
pizza oven and all the meats and pastas were lovely. Cretan restaurant
was also very good, but the Mexican and Asian did not really impress us, they were not bad, just really average.
The main buffet was very
nice, a good variety of everything that changed slightly every day, lots
of local dishes also. The kids loved the endless crepes, waffles and Carte
d'Or ice cream they could have from the Creperie cafeteria by the main pool. The
cocktails in the main bar were delicious, but our favourite spot was the adults only Champagne bar for the cocktails and the atmosphere.
There was a minidisco for kids every night followed by a show (magicians, comedy, acrobats) and also live music in the main bar, some evenings
international pop/rock, some evenings local Greek music.
Although the hotel was fantastic and we could have spent all days in the hotel, we wished to discover the Crete island a bit more. Knowing that the Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archeological site in Crete, also called the Europe's oldest city, was only a short drive away, we decided to take a look. It was amazing to walk around the old palace complex, dating back as far as 1900 BC. The children had a real history lesson there.
We also visited a beautiful little coastal town Agios Nikolaus for a nice walk around. The town had lovely local tavernas and cool bars, but we were fed so well by our hotel, that a simple walk around the old town was enough for us.
The holiday in Crete with the people we love was all we needed to recharge our batteries for the winter. Although we mostly love to wander around and discover, staying in a luxury of an all-inclusive hotel is sometimes the best way to relax and have fun. Au revoir, Crete...
Molto bello.
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