Grece: Crete: Sissi

Summer 1998 Chania: charter, Star Tour
Summer 1999 Rethymnon: charter, Saga Solreiser
Summer 2006 Sissi: SAS, car from Zakros car-rental and Vasia beach hotel.

The only place I want to comment is Sissi, as this isn't too long ago. We booked the airfare with SAS (www.sas.no), the car for one week was booked at www.zakrostour.com and the hotel was booked directly at the hotels web-site www.vasiabeach.gr

The airfare was ok and when we arrived at Chania airport (we would have been much closer to Sissi with going to Heraklion, but those tickets were much more expensive) the car-rental company was waiting for us with all the documents and the car. It was a pleasure and I recommend this car-rental company as all the insurance and two extra drivers was included in the price, which was very nice too.

We had to drive all over the island, from east to west. I think it was about 3 hours, with 6 heavy suitcases and 6 people in the car. :) We arrived at the hotel very late in the evening. I had written an e-mail to confirm and to tell about our late arrivals. When we arrived the hotel had arranged a "cold-plate" for all of us! Very nice!

The hotel was EXCELLENT and so was the food. We had all inclusive and all the meals were fantastic.I think I put on 2 kilos... :-0 There were two pools and a little bit crowded, but I didn't find it too crowded. There were games for the kids all day. Luckily our son at 12 speaks fluently English after living in Liverpool for a year. For kids that don't speak English, German, Dutch or French, it can be hard to get in contact with other kids. However I heard the hotel would get Scandinavian guests this year, so they may have something for them now!

The rooms were big and we had both a bath-tub and a shower. Another thing I really appreciated with this hotel was that there were PC's with free internet in all the rooms!

I tried the SPA several times. As I am in the same field myself, I know what I should expect. The SPA itself is FANTASTIC! The treatments were also nice, but I missed some of the personal "touch". The therapeut never asked what I was used to use for my skin etc...

Sissi is a little bit "in the middle of nowhere", so if you want disco's and bars, this is not the place to go. For families it's excellent, but I would recommend renting a car.

All in all I would recommend going to Vasia beach hotel and have all inclusive, at least if you are going for only a week.