Crete Lodging offers a huge amount and variety of holiday accommodation to suit all tastes and budgets. There’s a plentiful supply of cheap and cheerful pensions, camp sites and youth hostels geared to the needs of budget travellers and backpackers. Masses of mid-range hotels and apartments cater for the hordes of package holidaymakers who descend on the island each summer and you’ll also find a generous helping of top of the range deluxe hotels likely to strain even the healthiest of bank balances.
It’s risky to turn up on spec at any of the main tourist destinations without a reservation in July and August though you may strike lucky if you persevere and are prepared to take whatever’s offered. If you visit outside the most popular months (June to September) you’ll be able to get a discount of 50% or more on high season prices if you hunt around. But expect to pay top rates if you’re visiting at Christmas or Easter. Freelance camping on the beaches was common in the sixties but is now frowned on by the police and many of the islanders. There are plenty of well-equipped official camp sites dotted around the island’s coastline but many backpackers still take the risk of camping out in secluded spots. Breakfast is included in the room price at many of the island’s hotels and the more upmarket establishments lay on in-house entertainment such as weekly Cretan nights with traditional music and dancing.
Package Crete holiday accommodation is largely concentrated in the frantic seaside resorts of Hersonissos and Malia on the northern coast east of Iraklio. The beachfronts are lined with hotels of all standards but most are block booked by the tour operators months in advance. You’d be ill advised to pitch up in either resort in high season without a booking though you might find a last minute bed in Malia’s old town which has numerous rooms and cheap pensions geared towards independent travellers rather than package holiday tourists.