36 hours ago I had hardly thought about next year but when I got up yeaterday it was pouring-and it went on.
By lunch time I had got so fed up with it that my thoughts had turned to Greece and I'd found flights to Crete.Then I booked them without a lot of idea where we'd go from there.We were last in Crete in 1982-I'm now at a stage of life where I've been to all those places I REALLY wanted to see and I 'm revisiting the ones I like best.
I'm thinking of a nice small hotel In Heraklion for one night with pool before we ship out north.
Is there any such thing? I don't think there was in 1982- Heraklion was a fume filled dump then.

Frances,
I"m guessing you are from UK, and you are flying home from Crete,and you are going soon (August?) early Sept?.

I"m also guessing that you'll stay at some resort? or else a small village and only doing Her-Uglyion in order to make your plane? or Ferry?

I don't know of any nice small hotels with pools there. The only pools might be at pricey 4-star places. But why not stay just OUTSIDE?? If using a car, you use the bypass below Heraklion and go East to Karteros on the shore just about 10 Km from the airport. Friends of mine did that & turned in car at airport. ANother shore place just WEST of Heraklion is Amoudara which has small family apts on the beach-- linked to Heraklion by local bus. I would check with the car-rental people about this one first, tho, becuse my friends said the road to this one in July was blocked, for ?construction?
http://www.greeka.com/crete/heraklio...oudara-all.htm

Best of luck in getting a week or so of decent weather -- I hear that there has been NO summer in Britain!

Yes we are from the U.K. and yes you are right that the summer is not great!
We are coming in May next year and as far as we have planned so far are thinking of heading straight out of Heraklion to Santorini for two or three days and then back to Crete.
Santorini was on the radar in 1982 but the boat from Sitia was three and a half days late! Consequently we arrived at Santorini in the early hours and with no accomodation booked we stayed on the boat to Paros. Whereas we shall book a car when we return to Crete we probably won't do so just for the first overnight.

Frances, go right down to the south west or out to the far east. Email me for trip reports.

Frances we have done so much Crete research over the last 6 weeks.
After 4 weeks roadtripping on mainland Greece we are flying to Crete for 2 weeks.
Our flights are very reasonably priced with Aegean Airlines and we are based in 3 different places in Crete. A village outside Chania,Rethymnon and Hersonossis (outside Heraklion)Its in October and the prices are the cheapest ever!
look on lastminute.com or expedia.co.uk to see whats on offer. From there we searched the hotels own websites to see if it was cheaper. Sometimes it isn't.

Carylspall: What hotels will you be staying at in Crete? Will you be getting a car to drive around or will you be relying on individual guides?