Ierapetra, Petra Mare Hotel Review

Overall Rating

The hotel was brilliant, the staff are quite friendly and there was always something to do in the hotel and around the town.

The food was absolutely terrible, after the first night me & my girlfriend decided to eat out every night. We went back in there one breakfast and that was no better, had a spoonful of cereal and it was enough.

An absolutely lovely place, the entertainment was ok despite all the bad reports but always crowded and impossible to find a seat if you arrive late. The First Choice reps weren't the most helpful people but can still answer whatever you need to know. Definitely recommend cafe on the rocks along the front, brilliant food and brilliant cocktails. Cafe Acropolis few doors down (the one with the parrots outside) was terrible, probably the rudest guy ever as we interrupted him during the football, tried charging us double in the end. The souvenir shops are great but I'd recommend going in when theres a lot of other people as the assistants harass you non-stop, they won't leave you alone until you buy something.

Chrissi island was nice but nothing special, after the long journey there we found the bar then decided to see what else the island had to offer, sadly it was absolutely nothing the bar was the only building on the island, the rest was all sand dunes, nowhere stable to walk so did become quite tiring eventually.

The town towards the fortress is quite nice although its not the touristy area so the locals didn't seem too happy to have us there, there is a pet shop somewhere near the fortress but the animals are kept in terrible conditions and being a pet shop manager myself i found this extremely distressing.
Everybody gets around by moped but a lot are kids and inexperienced riders, I even saw some which had four people on. Nearly got hit few times crossing the street.

All-in-all I'd definitely go back, what the hotel lacks, the town makes up for. This time I'd rather go for 2 weeks.