Minoan Magic
Sharon and I have been together for over five years. In that time we have worked hard to make a foundation for ourselves – we have bought a flat and changed jobs three times since we first met. All that and trying to make a dent in our inevitable student debt meant that we did without holidays.
Our Honeymoon, in fact, was our first holiday together.
As we already had a home in the making, we didn’t need another toaster or blender – for us just going on holiday together was the best gift that anyone could give us. So it was logical for us to forgo the normal wedding list, and instead opt for a wedding list based around our honeymoon. We couldn’t have chosen better than the amazing team at Buy Our Honeymoon. Their service is top notch and the options to personalise the list are second to none.
Our honeymoon itself was in Crete, the most southerly and largest of the Greek islands. While I had done a lot of travelling in my childhood, as a couple we were relative novices, especially when it came to planning our own adventures. To this end we opted to go for a package holiday with Thomsons.
The package operator
Going on a package holiday is always going to have a sense of impersonality and budget offering. It pays to go into them accepting these facts, and then you can take everything in your stride.
The airport service is basic but efficient, and even with early morning check-in queues we didn’t have to wait too long. You get a decent luggage allowance and you are able to choose your seats weeks in advance, which is a nice touch for this level of experience.
The flying experience itself is ok – leg room and seat space is compromised for a gent’ of my height, and the in-flight meals were not great. However, it filled a spot and the time taken to get to Crete was short enough for it to be tolerable.
Once you pass baggage reclaim the Thomson “Sensatori” experience comes into play. Quickly directed to our priority air-conditioned coach, we were at our hotel in 30 minutes.
We also knew our hotel room and information about the resort itself – in fact our cases had already been marked for the porters, and would be delivered straight to our hotel room!
The hotel
The Sensatori Crete is a very nice resort, which is laid out thoughtfully to separate family-friendly and adult areas. Rooms vary from having their own mini pools, to swim up rooms and more standard balconettes. On arrival we were given a champagne reception and taken straight to one of the six restaurants. This was the main largest restaurant and did not require reservations. While it was a buffet service, the quality of food was good.
The other restaurants required booking through a touch screen terminal, and as you could only book for that day, we quickly learnt that you needed to book early in the day to get a spot at the restaurant of your choice.
Two of the restaurants were not covered by the full board package, and actually this showed in the quality of their service and food.
In particular I can recommend the Aroma Stone Grill – where the food is cook by you: you receive a red hot volcanic stone on which you get your meat and vegetables raw, allowing you to cook the meat to your exact preference. It’s an amazing experience: I went for a rib eye steak and O-M-G it was the single best bit of meat I have ever tasted. It was a simply massive piece of steak, and was amazingly tasty; combining with your stone-grilled veg and a variety of sauces and I was in meat-eater heaven. Around me I could see other diners having similar experiences with other dishes.
The Room
Our room was large, clean with very good storage and fixtures. The beds are a huge King Size as standard, and are simply the most comfy beds I have ever had the benefit from sleeping in. They are also robust, which when combined with the rooms being very self-contained from their neighbours presents a great environment for any honeymoon romance without the fear of furtive glances over the breakfast buffet tables…
The Island
Crete has a lot to offer, you have the option of hitting areas of the island for good nightlife if you want a night out, and there are also a number of excellent locations to cater for your need for culture or shopping if that’s what floats your boat. We undertook a few of the excursions that were on offer.
The first was a trip covering a port town a good way down the coast, followed by a village visit up in the more mountainous area of Crete. This first excursion was not great – the coach trip itself was way too long from our hotel, and the coach was ill equipped, causing Sharon to suffer from dehydration badly, ending up with her being sick on the return leg! Not the best start to a honeymoon.
We also took trips to the Palace of Knossus – the ruins where the fabled Minotaur was said to be kept in Greek mythology. This was good, but the tour guide took overly too long to navigate the relatively small ruins, especially considering the extreme heat. This trip ended up with a shopping trip in the main city of Crete. This was ok but we quickly realised that it was way too tourist-centric for our liking, although we had a great time at a local bar!
Our favourite was probably the boat trip. The opportunity to get out on the open waves, possibly see dolphins and generally have a great time swimming in the amazing coastal waters should not be missed.
Final thoughts
I really liked Crete, it has a lot to offer, and the people are extremely friendly and welcoming. I think it will be worth another visit there in years to come. I think that excursions are probably better served by hiring a car and getting out on your own pace. Oh, one of the nicest touches we found on leaving was Thomson’s Sensatori service to allow you to check in at the hotel. This was awesome, as we bypassed the extreme queues that awaited us on arrival at the airport, making the departure experience much more bearable. If you are looking for affordable luxury, then it’s something I can definitely recommend
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I am drooling over that steak. Yum.
I like a rare steak, but that looks a little blue, even for my tastes. Amazing concept though – why aren’t restaurants in the UK this much fun? In Tokyo I went to one place with a barbecue pit in the table and another with a hot plate to cook omelettes on.
There’s a pub in Leeds that has the volcanic rocks to cook your steak on :-)
I only eat things that have come into contact with volcanoes. It’s a rule of mine.
The steak comes basically completely raw, but the cool thing is that you can slice a chunk off, and then cook the chunk on the stone slab it arrives on, so each mouthful can be cook just to your liking. They also did stuff on skewers and had a wide range of meats to choose from – ’twas awesome!!
Everyone needs a volcanic rock in their life, I know think it’s the only way to eat meat. Unfortunately my experiment with a brick and a zippo didn’t go very well…
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