We have been back from our holiday in Crete for over 10 days now. It’s nice to be home but always rubbish having to wash, tidy and clean up after yourselves again. And go back to work!
We had a lovely holiday, the weather was fabulous. It was so hot and sunny and we really didn’t do much apart from shopping and a day trip.
We stayed at the Nana Beach Resort and apart from a few niggles regarding the food and service, it was a beautiful resort with lots of facilities. It’s also really easy to hire a car if you want to explore.
We didn’t have any issues with the flights or had one of those issues where we needed a company like CSG, who offer numbers when you are struggling to get hold of an airline and panicking!
We expected to struggle a little with the smallest one on this holiday, as at 20 months, she is the perfect age for tantrums but she was amazing. She settled in so well, ate like a horse and slept really well too. You would have thought she had lived at the resort forever. Her elder sister on the other hand, was a tad more difficult, struggled with tiredness, the heat and really didn’t get on well with the food. But we tried to overlook this, make her have a nap and cheer up!
I will share the best bits of our holiday in mainly pictures.
Crete was two hours ahead of us which meant the girls shifted their bedtimes to 10pm and get up times to 7.30-8am. This was a plus but they didn’t get enough sleep and needed naps during the day.
I often woke up between 7-7.30am and tended to hit the gym for 30-60 minutes depending on when I rolled out of bed. They had a good gym and enough to keep me busy.
We all headed for breakfast then and there was always a good choice. The youngest lived on baked beans and pancakes, as there wasn’t a good cereal choice. The gremlin had boiled eggs, milk and croissants. This was probably her best meal of the day!
When then took up residence by the pool, unless we had a day trip planned. Both hubby and I and my Mum and step Dad separately went to Santorini for the day but I will write a separate post on this.
We also headed into the local town to do a bit of shopping on one day but the grem was probably at her moaniest and by the end, we had enough. We did manage to go for a nice cool drink on the sea front though.
We tended to stick by the kid’s pool, as it was right next to our room, so we could easily nip back and use the loo. Plus it was never too crazy or noisy.
The gremlin really got her water confidence back over the 11 days and Piglet, who hated the water at first, loved it by the end and was going down the slide.
Piglet was usually wrecked by mid morning so one of us took her off for a walk to sleep in her buggy. We’d rotate who was with the gremlin. One of us would maybe go in the pool with her, take her to the soft play or usually my Mum would get roped into one of her imaginary play games, which could go on for hours!!
Sometimes hubby would take her for a walk down to the beach and she would play or they would explore.
We tended to have a later lunch, sometimes well after 1pm and tended to go back and swim more or go and play on the amusements. The kids loved the rides and we all got very competitive with a basketball game!
After spending some more time swimming and chilling, it was cocktail hour! As Piglet doesn’t like ice-cream, I kid not, she always had a little sandwich and some cake. I tended to have a mojito and perhaps a cup of tea too. The grem liked to pinch as many biscuits as she could!
After chilling for a while, as headed back to the room to get ready. The girls always had some TV time whilst hubby and I showered and sorted ourselves out.
Then we would head out for food. Piglet adored the food in the hotel but the grem did struggle. She didn’t like a lot and often wanted to come home to eat again!!
Hubby and I had a couple of meals in the a la carte restaurants but they were so rich! Very tasty but too much for our sensitive tummies. Lots of oil and salt which tastes good at the time though!!
After food we often headed down to the beach, went for a walk and chilled around the hotel. We don’t tend to watch the entertainment much when away and the grem wasn’t as interested in the mini-disco this time around.
With the crazy kids we were usually heading to bed between 9.30-10pm, as I was knackered and it took us a little while to get them settled and asleep. They were good though and shared a room for the while 11 nights, usually sleeping through.
Overall we did have a lovely holiday, despite it being a bit harder with the gremlin this year. It was a very chilled break, with a couple of trips out but we do like it that way. Very relaxing.
It has made me think I would like to consider a different type of holiday in the future and not go all inclusive. I fancy something a little more relaxed, even though we would have to cook and tidy up.
Let’s see what happens!!
Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.