The resort was very quiet,although it offered a lot in many brochures,we found none of it!
The Golf course was not finished,the one aqua park was not finished and the other was not even reccomended.
There were no excursions apart from a trip to Heraklion and Knossos as the locals were still getting everything ready for later in the season.We feel that we were mis-informed and ill prepared for this hotel and resort.we certainly will not be going to Crete again after this first impression!

Stalis is lovely, especially if you are wanting to be in a place where there are bars and tavernas and a couple of late night type clubs but not wanting to be in a place such as Malia where all the clubs and things tend to be. it is an excellent resort for those with families as the beach is lovely, gentle sloping and my son was able to play safely in it and not have to worry.

It is easily accessible to other resorts, to malia byt car, or road train or bus. Hersonnisos is close by and a couple of stops on the bus which was easy and cheap to use. There was a free waterpark there called Star beach which again was excellent for all ages, and was far better than the expensive water parks further in the island. The beach was lovely, was more open and breezy at one end than the other, but there were plenty of places to hire sunloungers which were fairly cheap but readily available. if you didnt want one, the beach was clean and plenty of room to just sit on.

The resort has some great places to eat, taverna style, but offering an excellent choice of traditional greek food. Not a Mcdonalds in sight until you hit Malia! The resort is clean and friendly, with great facilities for a family (although we never could find that post office!) Plenty of shops and mini markets to stock up on water and things, good choice and cheap too.

Bus service was a bit odd, especially on market days, but had to make use of them more than expected when my partner had an accident and spent 3 days in a hospital in heraklion. Plenty of places within the resort to hire cars and to arrange trips which were cheaper than the hotel or skytours offers...

All in all a great place to go for a holiday to do whatever it is you seek, there was a choice of watersports, bars, tavernas all of which love kids too!

Definitely a place I would go back to, and highly recommend

Stallis itself is great the bars and restraunts are excellent, especially Artemis and Mythos (both of which have been there for years) and the lovely little bar called Trixi's which do the most excellent cocktails and pints of larger and lime!!!! The majority of people are very friendly and it's a reasonably priced resort. I visited the resort about 9 years ago and my boyfriend was there about 8 years ago and although its grown a lot its still kept the majority of its charm and "greekness" unlike some of the nearby towns.

The top place in my opinion to dine out is Maria’s golden beach, we ate there most nights, there’s lots of plate smashing and greek music, try the swordfish, a truly wonderful dish served with rice, chips, vegetables, lemon etc, the carbonara was nice, also for starters meze a dish for around three people was lush and the beer is served in huge glasses!. We always got asked what we would like to drink on the house as a finish to the night, usually raki. Peach schnapps, Metaxa etc was always available, the raki came in a jug and reminded me of gin, I personally loved it, the children always got an ice cone, the service was tops and very fast overlooking the sea and is on a huge corner nearer to the end of Stalis.

Usually our bill would be around 46 euro for two adults and two children including the drinks. Another place to recommend was Roma a lot quieter and very friendly, my husband enjoyed the seafood calzone and I like their kalamari squid very nice again a nice drink to finish and free ices for the children. The sun loungers are 3 euros for two for the whole day and the guys are great at meet and greeting, wear sandals for walking on the sand so you don’t scorch your feet, Akti was a great place for eating breakfast, I used to have continental which comprised of two slices of bread one piece of toast, ham, cheese a boiled egg fresh orange and tea or coffee and believe me the fresh orange is freshly squeezed, no powdered rubbish!

I could get all that for 4 euro, a full English was around the same although you can get it cheaper, however Akti served English bacon and sausage and was a great place and is highly recommended.

In the second week of staying at the Athena 6 young girls came to stay and three guys which made it a very uncomfortable place to stay during the night for the life of me I don’t know why sunset put 6 girls here as in the brochure it said ideal for families and couples some days I didn’t get to sleep while 6am and with having a toddler I just couldn’t go to sleep on a lounger in the day because I had to look after my family, where they could please themselves and had no respect for anyone else, we never complained but the manager came up to us and apologised.
In Other reviews the girls have said we have been petty but in no circumstances have we been like that and it was tthe girls that was noisy all the time.
Thats why we stayed in Stalis and not Malia.

Sunset will be informed, for a holiday like that they should have been placed in somewhere else. We took a train ride on the normal roads around Stalis which is stunning, Malia which is like Maplethorpe or my husband says Blackpool! The sites were lovely in the hills and is highly recommendable for around £12.00 for all of us. The rate of the euro when we went was 1euro 40 cent to the pound so its easy to work out.

The gift shops are lovely and decent and are famous for their ceramics, nappies are expensive out here so be warned! Greece has certainly got more expensive since the drachma died but i would definitely visit Stalis again but maybe in a villa where no one else is around, not hearing people getting drunk or just staying up and not thinking about anyone else, next year we are off to Florida!

Oh don’t buy any replica guns, knives, lighters etc, Heraklion is a military airport you will be arrested if you don’t hand in souvenirs of the weapon kind, just don’t buy them, stay clear and keep safe.

Last point keep alert on the roads as there are very little paths if any and there are lots of quads now and few mopeds, road safety is a must, must, must! Enjoy!