SENTIDO Mitsis Rinela Beach Resort & Spa

Dear all,
My family (me 34, my wife 35 and our girls 9 and 15 years of age) and our friends (2 women with 2 kids, 7 and 15) head a great time at Mitsis Rinela Beach from 16th till 26th of June.
I mean reeeally great time.
It was our first time in Greece and Rinela was one of the best parts of our vacation.
About Rinela:
Very convinient location, just 15 minutes away from the Airport and 20 minets away from the center of Heraklion.
The hospitality of the Rinela team is felt right at the first step on the hotel territory (we were offered wet refreshing towels while filing the guest cards). It took 10 minutes for the bell boy to get our 50 kilo luggage to the 3rd floor of or building and he didnt even asked for the tip (i head to chase the poor guy to give him his 5 euro).
The complimentary bottle of wine, fruit basket and sweets in the room was very surprising and unexpected. Beautiful sea veiw completed our maderightchoce filling.

I'm in the foodservice business and I definitely did not expect such wide veryety of dishes at the main restaurant buffet. lots of showcooking (grilled beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fish and other seafood, vegetable stifry, 4 dishes of pasta etc, etc, etc) lots of salads, vegetables and fruit. Kids were stunned by the sweet buffet ...... Actualy, it was our first time when we didn't have to put up with "papa, mama I don't whant this and I don't whant that, get me something I can eat".

A la carte chineese restaurant was really good and the beach Taverna buffet offered us even more grill dishes, pizza and a nice view to the beach and The Cretan Sea. It was also convenient not to have to wait at lines for ice-cream and beverages at bars (I think there are 4 or 5 of them throughout the territory). By the way, the territory is not too big but very nice, green and carefully managed.

The beach is a separate story. It is just great! Nice send, no stones at all, I brought 4 pairs of coral shose and wore them once at the first day, through them away right after.
Nice lifeguard twice worned me not to leave the kids anattended just in case. He probably figured out that it was our first day by the color of our skin.
it was always enough of sunbeds at any time we went there (I don't understand people that go to the beach at 7 in the morning just to reserve sunbeds, let me assure you - there is enough for everyone and if there is not, the guy from the beach bar brings more, I don't know where he gets them but gets them somewhere).
The sea is beautiful. Kids loved it. We loved it!

The animation - I thought that the Turks have the best animation and Turkey is the best place to go with kids, that is why we went there every season for 6 years, which was my biggest vacationspendingtime mistake.
As I understud, there are 3 multynational animation teams (guys from Italy, Belgium, Chech Republic, Russia - Slim, Boris, Andrey, Marco, Marco Jr., Zulu, are the best, the girls are great to, but I don't remember their names, sorry girls). They take you and keep you entertained at the day time and give you another shot of laughter at the knight show. The mini club has a seperate territory but my kids were too big for it and never went there, although it seemed nice from the outside.

I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting but after 10 years of visiting good quality hotels of Egiept and Turkey I probably never go there again. Rinela offers better service, better food, better animation, definitely better sea and better hospitality in general for the same money.
About Crete.
We got 2 cars for 4 days which was definitaly not anogh to see all the beautifull places Crete has to offer. Ageos Nikolaos, Heraklion, Knossos Palace, Rethimno, Bali, Vai, Xania, Spinalonga ......... Kournas Lake. Approximately you gonna need at least a week, so if you are ok with driving a lot, don't waste time, just get the car and go. But be careful with private valet parking at Heraklion, they scratch your rental car and you will never proove that you didn't do it. Use official Central Parking (navigation signs everywhere).
Heraklion is a great city. Shopping, food, museums, antique architecture, nightcubing etc. The only thing is the stores working schedule – every corporate branded shop is open till 18:00, private owned shops close at 14:00 and that’s it (some of them open again at 17:00 but not all). Visit Crete Aquarium (kids liked it).
Ageos Nikolaos. Very nice port territory, shops, restaurants, chill out.

Lake Kournas. Beautiful nature. Nice clear water. You can see lots of fish, but not the turtles that locals tell you about. The turtles maybe there, but you will spent hours looking for them in the water.
The definite place to visit is a Taverna by the waterfall, where they will serve you fresh water right from the waterfall.

Rethymno. Is a nice town with a fortress on the hill by the seaside, where we didn’t go, but we had a great time at the Taverna on the seaside below the fortress (very good seafood).

Knossos Palace. Interesting story, ruins, King Minos etc. Do not go there after 12:00 till 16:00. It is just too hot to walk around the Palace.


Enough. Just go there and see it for yourself.