advise about booking crete

[johnc86]

me and my partner went to crete last year and stayed in a small family run hotel called the europa which was situated in a village called panormo, a 15 minute(give or take) bus ride from rethymno. this hotel was basic but we just wanted 2 weeks of doing nothing but loungin in the sun, so we got more than we wanted and then some realy.

however we fell in love with rethynmo and we would very much like to go back there this year. last year we went on a tiny budget hence the all inclusive. as panormo was a bit isolated we we felt that we missed out a little. we wished we had more cash to expore this fantastc island, and indeed - fantastic town more.

so this year we are wondering what to do. we wont have a mega budget, but should have easily enough to eat and drink out a fair bit. i quite fancied the idea of self catering experience this time around, maybe spending half the time eating in the apartment (i enjoy cooking), and half eating out in reasturants at our leisure etc.

the thing is, self caterng holidays (at least for the searches iv done), dont look that much cheaper than half board as far as i can see, which isnt what i expected. with this in mind it would seem more logical to just get half board and then have the choice to do what ever.

basicaly im after some advice. should we book the best deal we can find right now, or to wait till a lot nearer the time and see if we can get a better deal?