Well, I guess it is too late now to stop the person who originally asked about Villa Melia in Koutouloufari. We have just come back from there today!
We too went with Hellenic Voyages - never again!
Firstly, my other half was told by
name removed at Hellenic that he had given us "good flights". He joked that we could go cheaper if we went in the middle of the night, but he was sure we didn't want that!
When the itinerary arrived, the flights were to leave Manchester at 21:15 and arrive in Crete at 03:25 - great flight times!!! We complained, but were told that they were the only times that the flights went at this time of year! The flights for the return were supposed to be much better, leaving Crete at 18:00 and arriving in Manchester at 20:20. However, when the tickets arrived, we were going at 22:45 and not 21:15, so we got to Villa Melia as the sun was rising! The return flights were supposed to be leaving at 19:30, not 18:00. Still acceptable though for the return.
Well, we got there on Viking Airlines - a somewhat basic no frills Swedish airline. No food, no duty free, just drinks and basic snacks on a 4 hour flight! EasyJet has a better selection of food on board than Viking, who run ageing McDonnell Douglas MD-83's which i would guess must be on at least their 3rd or 4th owner by now.
Villa Melia can hardly be called a "complex". it looks smart on the outside as it has just been newly painted, but inside is a bit of a let down! Simplex maybe but certainly not a complex
No reception area, just a desk and chair outside for the rep to use, no pool or usable garden, nowhere to sit outside really except on your balcony, which faces towards the sea, which is north, so the sun never gets to the balconies. No use if you want to sit in the sun! You can just about see the sea from the balconies, over the other buildings in front of you. As Basil Fawlty once said "Of course you can see the sea from the bedroom. It is that bit over there between the land and the sky!" Perhaps the higher rooms have a better view!
The rooms are big enough but fairly basic. The comfort is minimal. You can sit on your bed, on a hard dining chair or on a hard plastic patio chair on the balcony! If you expect to have some fairly basic things like a plug for the sink in the kitchen area or in the bathroom wash basin so that you can wash the crockery and your face, then think again! There are none, at least there were none in the room that we were in. If you expect a kettle so that you can boil water for a cup of tea, bad luck. You will be boiling the water in a saucepan - the only saucepan that there is! So, luxury it is definitely not!
It is a bit noisy even though we were the only ones there as there is a new "Sports Cafe" just across the narrow road and it plays football mostly from Sky Sports, and any other sport and/or music pretty much from dawn until the last person leaves the following morning, which is well into the wee small hours!
Koutouloufari is quite a nice place though, with plenty of tourist type shops, bars and restaurants. It is a village though rather than a town and if you want a good selection of shops, bars and clubs you can easily walk down the hill to Hersonissos, where you will find pretty much everything that you could wish for.
Well, as I said. On the way back, our flight was supposed to be leaving Crete at 19:30 but we were informed a couple of days before leaving that the flight had been cancelled! We would now be leaving Crete at 03:50 and picked up from Villa Melia at 01:10!!! Marvellous! In the end, we took off from Crete at 4:50 due to delays and got back to Manchester, really tired at 06:55 this morning......
