I probably should tell you about the hotel with the proud name Hydramis Palace. The tour operator advertised it as a 5-star, but obviously, it's actually considered a 4+. By the way, the hotel is named after an ancient city.
In general, all these stars are a confusing thing. Wikipedia enlightens us that there usually isn't even a unified rating system within a single country, let alone an international one. So figuring out how many stars there actually are, and whether there's any real use for them, isn't easy. Like, a five-star hotel must always have a doctor, a hairdresser, and all that stuff — but what use is that to me? For instance, ours had a gym — but I didn't see a single person in there once. It makes sense: who in their right mind on vacation, and in such heat on top of that, is going to pump iron and run around when you could just take a dip in the sea?
In any case, it's better to check reviews on the internet, which, by the way, we did. The reviews were generally positive, but there were few of them and not in English. I must say that the hotel consists of several buildings, and along the perimeter runs a pedestrian path planted with trees and bushes on all sides. Overall, there's a lot of vegetation in the hotel, which is great — it's pleasant and creates an atmosphere of rest and relaxation, just like in the movies. On the official site you can check out lots of pics and even 3D panoramas if you need that for some reason, but I'll throw some in too, just in case. So, first things first, we walked down to the beach, and it threw me into a mild stupor. Basically, a classic case of elvism. After all, Tanya had warned us that the northern coast of Crete, where most hotels are located, isn't exactly famous for beautiful beaches; the sand looks gray, the beach strip is narrow, and there are rocks on the shore. They say it's so it doesn't erode. But our initial scare quickly passed — eventually, we can see pretty little sand in Jūrmala too, and Crete has plenty of its own interesting stuff, including inside the hotel.
