Cheap as chips! - D. Date of travel: Aug 2007
I have learned now from experience to never travel with Budget Holidays ever again. The money you save in the short term will be extracted from you twice over in the long term. I found the Lyda Horizons Stalis very basic indeed, their idea of a studio is a bedroom with a noisy fridge thrown in. I stayed here for two weeks in August. The staff are pleasant at times but on very rare occasions! The pool bar played the same six songs for the two week duration morning, noon and nightly, sometimes till five in the morning, which meant you had to sleep on till twelve to try and catch up. This is the type of place that accommodates well for drunks and louts. If it is a peaceful holiday with family, friends or children then this place is a definite no. I also left a small bag behind by mistake and was promised after numerous phone calls and sending money that it would be forwarded. The last time I rang the place had closed for the season, no lost property and no return of money to me to cover postage. I contacted Budget Travel on numerous occasions asking them to contact the rep to ensure that it would be posted but of course this was not company policy or too much trouble. If you are a drunk and enjoy staying in cheap noisy kips then this is the ideal holiday for you! Enjoy!

Hell on earth - Patrick. Date of travel: Aug 2006
The Lyda Horizon Hotel was the worst holiday experience of my entire life and I have travelled extensivel. It is billed as a 4* hotel, I would not rate it even 1*, the staff were a disgrace, they were rude and ignorant, the accommodation depressing, gloomy and the view was of a dumping ground, the pits of the earth is how best to describe the place, I thought I would never get home, and I was only there a week, I complained to budget travel and was comtemptuously dismissed by their customer service department, I will never ever book a holiday through them again, they delivered nothing they promised to me in the travel agency when I booked this hell hole of a place. I needed a holiday after the nigthmare experience, please take my advice and avoid this place like the plague aud don't trust a word out of budget travel's mouth, you have ben warned, I hope you take heed from my experience.

The Island of Crete - Glen McArdle. Date of travel: Jul 2006
On arrival, we were pleasantly surprised when we entered the reception area of the apartments prior to checking in. The panoramic views of the Gulf of Stalis from the reception area were very impressive indeed. Checking in didn't take too long, we paid our '€100 deposit' and gave the receptionist our passports which they keep for the first night of your stay. Once we received our key we made our way down to our studio, number 208. My wife and I were extremely disappointed with our room for the many reasons I am about to list. Firstly, Budget Travel lists these studios/apartments in their brochure as being 'new' apartments. Well Budget Travel, you never mentioned that the Lyda complex consists of two separate buildings, the old 'Lyda Beach' block and the newly developed block. If you are unlucky like my wife and I were, you will find yourself thrown into one of the old apartments in the old 'Lyda Beach' block. In saying that, you may be one of the few lucky ones with a pool and panoramic sea view….good luck with those odds! Our studio was much smaller than what we expected; it was also very dark and gloomy due to the fact that a tree had totally overgrown the balcony outside, obstructing any sunlight from getting through the balcony doors and the side window. The studio was very basic and somewhat impractical with regards to its layout; you may find yourself moving the furniture around a fair bit before getting settled. Budget Travel also claims that these studios/apartments will accommodate up to four persons, think they really mean two persons and two leprechauns!! They should really have sofa beds in these studios as the double beds take up most of your space. My wife and I usually prepare our lunches in our apartment when on holiday; this year was an exception due to the lack of preparation and sitting space in the studio. It states in the information booklet you find in your room that the apartments are cleaned by a maid every day and the sheets/towels are changed every 3 days, well sadly this is not the case. Our maid did not enter our studio at one stage for 3 days! When she did show up all she did was emptied the bins and occasionally sprayed the bath and brushed around. Also, make sure to go easy on the single toilet roll they supply as they only replace this roll every time the sheets/towels are changed, they expect you to purchase toilet roll in their mini market. The studios do come with air conditioning, local charge of €60 per week or €10 per day; rip off if you ask me. The louvre doors and windows can be closed at night allowing the main sliding doors and windows behind them to remain open so to let the outside breeze circulate throughout your apartment whist keeping out the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes here are a problem at night - make sure to bring spray mosquito repellent with and spray all exposed areas before heading out and reapply before hoping into bed later. Plug in mosquito killers don't really work in the apartments as the electricity in your room will not work once you leave with you key. This is a clever power saving device installed into each of the studios and apartments. It works like this; you must insert your door key into a holder by the door which will then turn on the power supply for lights and sockets, once you leave with your key the power supply is knocked off again. If you need to charge anything make sure you do so while you are in your apartment. Our studio, number 208, was situated right next to the entrance of the complex and also next to the main busy road. It was constantly noisy outside; the traffic on the main road was always busy - day and night. Also, because we were next to the entrance we were constantly kept awake by groups of late morning revellers returning to their apartments to continue their partying. Even though we both had ear plugs the partying & music from other apartments could be heard pumping into the early hours of the morning…..and that happened every morning! My wife and I do not have children and warn you that this is not a place for children or anyone seeking quiet accommodation!! We found the groups staying there to be very inconsiderate and disruptive both during the day and especially at night. Lyda Horizon Staff Prior to heading off on our holiday I read some reviews about the reception staff at the Lyda Horizon and all your negative reviews were 100% actuate. The reception staff were very unfriendly and extremely unhelpful. Lyda Horizon Swimming Pool/Rock Bathing The swimming pool is a grand size with plenty of sun bathing space and sun beds. There is also a small pool with a mushroom waterfall in the centre for young children. The poolside bar has a large terrace with amazing views serving a good selection of drinks and food. The rock bathing area can be found a few steps down beyond the right of the pool area as you face out to sea. You can swim off the rocks or jump in from the boardwalk. My wife and I preferred the rock bathing area to the pool as the sea water was very relaxing and warm. It's a great spot if you like snorkelling as you will discover plenty of fish below you. Tour Operator: Budget Travel

Steer Clear if aged over 21 - P. Nolan. Date of travel: Nov 1999
We are just back from the Lyda Beach apartments in Gouves. Utter, utter disgrace. We stayed in "studio" 206 which had no natural light on account of there being NO windows in the place. The main balcony door let no light through it and was often closed for security reasons. This place was FULL of what I can only describe as kids aged around 14-17 who were pissed most of the time after 8PM and did not care about keeping everyone awake all night. There is nothing good to say about these apartments other than possibly the location. The "cooking" area in the studio is a joke. There is no air conditioning, though you can pay an extra €10 a day for the privilege. The shower curtain lets water run all over the bathroom so you are walking in a mix of dirty shower water and scum everytime you go to the toilet. The pillows and matresses are probably hand-me-downs from the local prison. Absolute and total disgrace. The staff (apart from the friendly night porter) are a joke, and just dont want you to come near them. How Budget Travel can get away with this utter rubbish, I do not understand. Stay away from this place if: a) you are aged > 21. b) you actually want to sleep at night c) you want to be able to use the bathroom without walking through scum d) you see the apartment as somewhere you won't spend a lot of time but it should be up to a standard to allow you to relax there for a while after a long day out. In summary, spend a bit more money with a quality operator (Great Escapes have a good rep. for accommadation in Crete) and steer clear. NEVER EVER again travelling with the crowd of sheisters called Budget Travel.