Adele Beach Hotel

“ We booked late, so were a bit nervous about what it would really be like, but were pleasantly surprised! We wanted to be near the beach, with a pool and somewhere which looked traditionally Greek, within easy reach of sightseeing too.

Adele Beach is a very attractive, quiet hotel with lovely well tended flower beds all around, which were in glorious full bloom in May. The rooms are quite basic, a bit like little caves, which is probably why it's only 3 stars, but they were adequate - with bathroom and patio - and were cleaned daily. The hotel is just yards from the beach, although unfortunately it was quite pebbly and the sea was a bit too rough for young children to swim in, which I think is just that bit of coast. Fine if you're a brave grown up! The hotel has a big swimming pool, although it was extremely deep and the kids (aged between 6 and 9) were out of their depth within a few feet, so had to be watched all the time. Health & safety is a bit more relaxed in Greece!! You have to pay extra for sunbeds - E3.50 a day.

All the hotel staff were very friendly and helpful and spoke great English - and German! We thought it was a really good deal, as we got half board and every evening there was a buffet, which was pretty good, except that there wasn't much vegetarian food - if you are vegetarian, it might be worth letting them know in advance. We just ate pasta every night! The children loved the buffet, especially choosing 3 puddings every evening... We couldn't really go anywhere after they'd gone to bed, but sat out on the patio (watch out for the mosquitos!), which was nice. If you didn't have kids, you could walk to the 'high street' - we never did really establish where we were - it was kind of the Road to Rethymno, but 6km away - and there are lots of tavernas there. We would have liked to go to a Cretan music and dance evening, but they all seemed to start at 10pm - too late for children. If you're after clubbing, there's probably not much going on there, but we didn't want to be in a noisy resort, so it was great for us.

All in all, a good value holiday that felt pretty luxurious - we paid £2,200 for flights, a week's accommodation, airport transfers and meals for 3 adults and 4 children. It all worked very smoothly, except for Monarch's flights - but we got there in the end, only 8 hours late!! Luckily our airport transfer still worked at midnight. I had never booked a holiday on the internet before, but after such a positive experience, I would definitely book with Travel Republic again.

“ Top Tip: I would recommend the bakery/cafe in the main street, almost opposite the hotel. The proprietor was really sweet - we were looking for a cake for my daughter's birthday, and he brought out a piece of cake with a candle in it! They serve great ice cream and spinach pie, a nice low cost lunch, instead of a more expensive taverna. The Dolphin Express speedboat trip to pirate caves from Rethymno was fun - the skipper let the kids 'drive'. We did a trip to Knossos by coach and went on the Yellow Train to Arkadi - all worthwhile visits, though you do get whisked from one thing to the next quite quickly. On the Yellow Train we got to see a lot of the countryside and some of the more obscure villages. We visited the Archaeological Museum in Iraklion and that had some fantastic exhibits, but unfortunately the staff behaved like prison camp guards if anyone so much as breathed on the glass cases!

The hotel didn't push these trips, so we had to do a bit of research, although they kindly made arrangements for us when we asked. It's worth noting that you need to get to Rethymno early to get a boat trip, as most go by 11.30am. The buses to and from Rethymno only go once an hour and the timetable is laid back to say the least! Finding the bus stop back from Rethymno was a hassle - it's behind the coach station. Taxis are easier, or if you want to go out a lot, maybe hire a car, although you can manage without one and once you know where the buses go from and don't mind waiting, it's cheaper. Rethymno old town has a good sandy beach, an impressive fortress and some lovely souvenir shops, but we also found a great selection of inexpensive presents in the little shop right by the hotel.

“ Fabulous Holiday - flight - transfer - hotel - absolutely brilliant - a big thank you to Travel Republic for a wonderful holiday

“ Top Tip: White Lady - a fantastic restaurant and loads of entertainment its a must

“ arrived early hours of the morning and they had no record of our booking(still not sure who's fault this was(hotel or english end)) but luckily they had a spare room (not a superior room as we had booked) which they filled with the items that we would have got in a superior room ( but no view). The room was clean and comfortable although we never had any hot water even though we complained twice( just above freezing was the best we could get.). The breakfast was fine(if a little dry and german), the dinner on the other hand was poor, an attempt had been made to make it international but its quality was worse than an old school canteen and flys were all over it(wasn't covered), needless to say we only ate there once. On a good point the staff were friendly and tried to be helpfull and the hotel is right on a really nice beach

“ Top Tip: The area around the hotel is fairly quite with about six or seven restaurants and a load of supermarkets, min golf etc.. The best of these and the one with the most atmosphere is the white lady (by the bridge to plantenes) which has cretan dancing some nights. It is worth a walk into plantanes as there is more choice of restaurants. a drive up into the hills is well worth doing , even though the roads can be a little scary, especially the village of gerakari which is famous for its cherry products and a trip to the samari gorge is an amazing site( bring walking boots as it is 16.6 km over rough terrain (takes all day as you have to get a ferry out, would advise doing an organised tour).

“ Hotel clean,staff very friendly and helpfull. Food good but could be more varied.