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Day 23: One night only in Crete and we picked the Hotel Rea straight out of the Lonely Planet. A short walk from the main square (the centre of Heraklion/ Iraklio is arranged as are spokes around a wheel), the family-run Hotel Rea was reasonably easy to find. Staff were friendly and very helpful upon check-in and recommended a good little taverna within 2 minutes walk of the hotel for us to grab a quick dinner.

Our double with private bathroom set us back 40 euros. The only drawback was that our room immediately outside reception abutted a laneway which had noisy intermittent motorcycle traffic during the evening.

It also became clear during the course of the evening that the Cretan authorities had not consulted a map before placing the main flight path directly overhead the city centre, nor had they embraced the notion of a curfew. Effectively, this makes every hotel in central Heraklion an airport hotel.

All this said, Hotel Rea was a good little spot for us and we were able to leave our luggage there the following day when we went off to visit the Minoan archeological site of Knossos.

Hotel summary
Double room, AC, private bathroom: US$52
In a few words: Noisy but cheerful
Rating: 7