Banana Moon

“a very pleasant stay at Limas Apartments”

I booked a 14 nights stay at Limas Apartments with the Greek company Mouzenidis Travel,which included flight with meal on board,a 20 kilograms luggage and an 8 kilograms cabin luggage,transfer from Heraklion to the hotel,about 70 kilometers,half board and a 40 square meters room they call maisone... more

I booked a 14 nights stay at Limas Apartments with the Greek company Mouzenidis Travel,which included flight with meal on board,a 20 kilograms luggage and an 8 kilograms cabin luggage,transfer from Heraklion to the hotel,about 70 kilometers,half board and a 40 square meters room they call maisonette which consists of a large room with two beds on the ground floor,a table with four chairs,a kitchen with sink,refrigerator,smoke absorber,an electric stove,kitchen furniture and naturally the bathroom; in addition there is an inner wooden staircase to a sleeping place,a kind of wooden platform with a big double bed with very good matrasses; and all the above for an incredible 550 Euro for 14 nights !!! flight was done by Ellinair,a somewhat new airline based in Thessaloniki which also belongs to the Mouzenidis Group; so they have their own airline; they are flying some 6 or 7 old,leased aircraft,both Boeing and Airbus and as far as I could learn they are doing internal flights in Greece and international flights especially in Eastern Europe,like Russia,Ukraine,Serbia and from June 2016 also from and to Bucharest; the flights are basically charter but they also sell only flights for those who happen to fly to their destinations; unfortunately the journey did not begin very well;we should have taken off from Bucharest-Henri Coanda at 2,20 pm but took off at 11 pm and arrived in Heraklion on Tuesday at 0,30 am !!! so with a delay of about 9 hours; when we arrived at the airport,the flight was on display but there was no precise departure time; so rumors began to circulate that we would take off at 6 pm; despite of this,check in was made and the we were waiting at the boarding gate ; at about 5 pm they gave us a sandwich and a bootle of 0,5 liters mineral water; the rumor was that one of their planes had a technical problem so another plane had to fly to Moscow but this second plane was stuck on the airport in Moscow,probably Domodedovo,which supposedly was closed for a few hours ;this same plane had first to fly to Athens,then to Heraklion,the back to Athens and only afterwards come to Bucharest; my impression is that they are overwhelmed extending their activity faster than they could bear it;they want to have more and more tourists but they can't keep up the pace with the aircraft which are few and over 15 years old; finally,the plane arrived in Bucharest at about 8 pm and take off was sceduled for 9,30 pm; in the meantime they gave us the second sandwich and the second bottle of water ; we were boarded at 9,30 pm,stayed in the plane about 30 minutes and in this time the captain made an annoucment that the Heraklion runway would be closed due to a kerosene leak; so we descended from the plane at 10 pm,went back to the boarding area where we stayed for another 30 minutes after which we were boarded again; so we took off at 11 pm and arrived at about 0,40 am in Heraklion,where we indeed saw that the runway was still wet; we arrived at the hotel at 2,30 am where Nikos the owner waited for us and gave us the maisonette from where we even had some seaview from the large balcony,despite the fact that the maisonettes are on the ground floor with a view to the swimming pool and the restaurant and naturally to the road in front and the buildings across the road; although we should have had dinner on the first evening,Nikos told us that he waited for us for some time,but as he saw that we are not coming ,he couldn't keep the food for us ;this is a family run hotel with only 20 rooms, all of them studios of different sizes including a kitchen; the hotel is run by Nikos and his young wife;he is supervising the breakfast and dinner,cleaning up the tables,cleaning the swimming pool,mowing the grass around the pool and his mother and wife are preparing breakfast and cooking for dinner;additionally there also is a chamber maid,so about four people in total; they are really friendly and try to be as forthcoming as possible which gives the guests a really pleasant feeling; the rooms have tiles and are cleaned each day;towels are changed every three days ; so there are no complaints about cleanliness;anyway this four people are doing their their best in order to keep things clean and functioning ; anyway it seems like the hotel was renovated recently as the paint looks fresh,electric installations are fully functioning,the bathtub is not overflowing and the furniture looks in good condition,including the beds which ensure a good rest; the breakfast is very standard consisting of very good white bread,the same juice each day,milk,a choice of ham or mortadella,butter or margarine which is in a big bowl,corn flakes of two types,a choice of cheese and strawberry and apricot jam; in addition,sometimes,maybe every third day there are in addition fried eggs,or greek yoghurt and honey; the very pleasant surprise however was the dinner which is freshly cooked each day by Nico's mother and wife ; each evening there were two kinds of salads with mayonnaise and the traditional Greek tzatziki salad almost each evening; on some evenings there was also served feta cheese; in a big bowl there is also salad (lettuce,carrots,cucumbers,tomatoes); there where each evening some 6 main courses which were carefully prepared and tasted really good,consisting of chicken,beef or pork with rice,potatoes,also seafood prepared in a very tasty way and each evening a choice of pasta with a specially prepared,housemade sauce for them which tasted wonderful ; so I must express my special congratulations for Nikos mother and wife for the wonderful food ; I think ,on some evenings there was also a wonderfully prepared Greek mousaka;the restaurant has an indoor part and a terrace and a small bar with drinks and coffee; there is also white,rose and red wine which costs 2,5 Euro a jug of a half liter; the swimming pool is small but clean and has a lot of free sunbeds around it ; the beach can be reached by crossing the road and walking some hundred meters ; in the area of the hotel the beach is narrow and not very clean; above the beach there is a kind of restaurant and the arrangement is that you have to take at least one drink a day so that you can use a sunbed ; there is a girl of Russian origin who comes several times a day and asks you if you want to drink something; she seemed somewhat intrusive to me; the cheapest was a coffee,frappe or capuchino freddo which was 3 Euro but as a bonus you received a small bottle of water; so in fact,the rent for a sunbed could be settled for 3 Euro a day; in that area it was impossible to go into the water due to many cliffs and stones ; fortunately,right beside this beach,there is the blue flag beach of the five stars Grecotel White Palace,which has even showers,and where you can enter the water normally,the stones being cleaned up; the hotel is in Pigianos Kampos about 8 kilometers from Rhetymno ; there is the bus number 20 which can be taken from Grecotel across the road,very near to Limas Hotel and a ticket costs 1,3 Euro; the bus is coming about every 20 minutes ; Rhetymno is definitely worth visiting especially for the Venetian port ,the nice and colourful bars and restaurants near the port,the nice,romantic streets of the old town with Italian inspired buildings,with a special atmosphere and lots of people hanging out for a drink or a dinner ; concerning breakfast and dinner at Limas Hotel,there is a habit that breakfast begins exactly a 8 am and dinner exactly at 8 pm and it is recommended to be present exactly at eight,as in the evening,in case there are more guests ,it is possible that some courses are finished very fast as food tastes good and people are hungry;as to the guest,I noticed that most of them were from Serbia,few from Russia,some Germans,Italians,a Greek couple and a couple from the United States ;concerning attractions,there is naturally the opportunity of parasailing and in the Venetian port there are to Venetian inspired wooden vessels which are doing journeys on the sea; for those who want to rent a car or motorcylce,Greenways company,which is very outspread in this area ,is about 50 meters from Limas Hotel and the main office is some 2 kilometers away; aircon is for an extra charge of 3 Euro/day but we didn't use it as we left the balcony door open and closed only the shutters ; the main road from Heraklion to Rhetymno and Chania ,a kind of highway is also very near to the hotel ; all in all it was a very pleasant stay and I can warmly recommend this hotel for a nice ,pleasant stay ; I almost forgot: there is free wifi and it is really running ! concerning home flight with Ellinair,there fortunately was a delay of only 30 minutes ;I must say that meal on board was good,yet no alcoholic drinks,only coffee,water and juices and the flights were without incidents ; on the first flight there was a Boeing 737-400 series with 180 seats and on the home flight there was a Boeing 737-300 series with 156 seats ;

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“Nice family hotel”

The hotel is nice and clean. The food was very good, especially dinner with a variety of home made dishes, there was everything for everybody's taste. The owners are very friendly and the atmopshere is releaxed. The internet in the lobby, dinner and the swimming pool area is free and good.