Atlantica Caldera Palace

Sadly, this is not the review I wanted to be writing after spending well over £5k on a family holiday, but here we are. We travelled at the end of May as a family of four; two adults, and two children aged two and eight. CHECK IN - As many have said, the check in process is arduous and the pre-check in feature on the Atlantica app doesn’t work. We arrived just after 1am, and with only one person behind the reception desk at this time of night, and four families checking in, things took a while. Once we had finally checked in, around 01:45am, we were given our key card, pointed in a vague direction and sent off to find our room by ourselves. Our luggage didn’t reach us for another 25 minutes. Not the best start, but we were very tired and grateful to have our beds. FOOD - We had only been informed by TUI a few days before departure that the main restaurant was out of commission due to a refurb, but were assured adequate alternatives were in place. Unfortunately, we found that wasn’t the case. Two adjoining à la carte restaurants had taken over the role of the main buffet. Whilst the seating area wasn’t an issue, the buffet itself was far too small to accommodate the majority of guests from a very large hotel. Long queues formed at every station regardless of time of day, often with people waiting in line just to get a glimpse of what was on the counters. As a vegan family, we were told by the hotel on two separate occasions that we would be well catered for. Again, sadly, I’d have to disagree. There were definitely vegan dishes, but they were predominantly sides and salads; nothing of any real substance, and lacking in any protein. As for desserts? Forget it. Outside of fresh fruit or a fruit purée that resembled baby food, literally nothing that didn’t contain eggs or dairy. Aside from the lack of choice or imagination, even if you were first through the door, the supposedly hot food options were only lukewarm. The kids buffet was no better. Every day/night presented us with boiled pasta, tomato or bolognaise sauce, chips, chicken nuggets and either peas or sweetcorn. Not at all inspiring. This theme continued through the à la carte menus as well, which gave us enough excuse to not attempt to book in to any of these. Judging by other reviews and the many comments we heard around the resort, we would have more chance of a lottery win than getting a table at any one of the other restaurants anyway. We ended up going out to eat at a local restaurant on one occasion just to have some variety, and we spent a good amount of money in the resort shop just so our kids could have something sweet and didn’t feel like they were missing out (thank God for Twister lollies). The staff themselves were not overly hospitable in most cases. There were one or two exceptions (Thanos at the pool bar was delightful), but for the most part, things felt robotic and unhelpful. At one point we asked for some fresh strawberries and grapes for our toddler (they had them as garnish on various cream laden desserts), only to be told “No, we don’t have any”, before the staff member walked away. On another occasion we asked the pizza chef if they could make a marinara pizza for us (had to explain the concept), again I was told “No. We’re only doing Margherita and Bacon tonight”. After bringing various points to the TUI rep, some shop bought vegan vanilla ice cream was sourced on our second to last night, but it was a poor effort for a supposedly 5* resort. ROOMS - We had treated ourselves to a swim-up family suite and were allocated room 8006, which, unexpectedly, had a partial sea view which was lovely. The room itself was, at first glance, very nice. Large and well appointed, with a king size bed and full bathroom with shower and whirlpool bath in one area, and two double sofa beds and shower/wc in the other. There was plenty of room for clothes and luggage, as well as a sitting area, mini bar, TVs in both bedrooms, and a desk or dresser in each. Each bedroom had sliding patio doors out onto a good sized terrace with sunbeds and chairs and table, which had direct access to a pool shared with about 7 other rooms. The sliding doors also had safety gates attached, which gave peace of mind where the children were concerned. Overall, the accommodation was one of the better parts of our trip, but the cleanliness did leave a lot to be desired. Rusted plug holes in the sink, corroded and scummy jets in the bath, cobwebs and dust on the light fixtures, and peeling paint on the walls. The mini bar was restocked with waters, soft drinks and local beers on most days, however we kept getting pots of mouldy cucumber and carrot sticks left in there, which was less than pleasant. Not remotely indicative of an expensive 5* hotel. POOLS - For a family resort, there were a disproportionate number of adults only pools. The three adult pools were by far the most accessible and had the most room around them. The family pools were fine, but weren’t very big for a resort of this size. The kids area and splash park, however, were in dire need of an overhaul. There were pump fixtures that were loose and raised from the pool floor, some had covers missing entirely. There was peeling paint and rust on the slide structure. Several of the fountains were blocked and not working. Three of the tipping buckets were broken, and another was missing entirely. The most dangerous thing, though, was the several screws that were sticking up around the edge of a filter cover. This was reported to three different members of staff, but as of day six, nothing had been done about it. As well as this, nothing was done about people smoking cigarettes or cigars at the pool’s edge and dropping ash on the floor where babies and toddlers were moving around, or the teenagers who were causing mayhem around the splash park. I had to step in after I witnessed one of them throwing a ball at my son as he came down the slide. The lifeguard was just slouched in his chair, either not noticing or not caring. Lastly, the pools were supposed to be open from 10am, but on several days they were being cleaned well past this time which meant they were unusable. Our room pool had cleaning equipment in it until after 1pm on one of the days. ENTERTAINMENT- The musicians that played in the lobby bar in the evening were very good, but very repetitive (the chap on the piano was very fond of Elton John). There was nothing during the daytime other than an occasional singer or guitarist at the adults only bar, or the barely audible playlist coming from the family pool bar speakers. The evening kids entertainment was pretty sad and again, repetitive. The team didn’t seem to be overly interested and some of them didn’t know the routines. There seemed to be lots of awkward ad-libbing during what should have been rehearsed acts. Also, everything seemed to start too late in the evening. 7:30pm isn’t the time to start a baby and toddler show regardless of whether people are on holiday or not. The “main act” each evening didn’t start until 9:30pm, so we didn’t actually get to witness any of them. The Enlightenment Room (as the entertainment venue was called) was ill equipped for any sort of family or child friendly events. It was set up like a conference room, with rows and rows of sofa like benches facing towards a small stage. There was little to no room for people to walk between the rows, and the space in front of the stage where they expected parents and children to gather was nowhere near big enough. Each time we went there, it was like a battle royale to find anywhere to put yourself that wouldn’t result in being tripped over or stood on. Add to this the fact that this room was in the bowels of the hotel, with only one entrance/exit, no natural light, and no room to keep pushchairs (they all had to be parked outside), it didn’t make for a particularly enjoyable place to be. ACCESSIBILITY - This was a huge problem for us (and many others that we spoke to). The hotel is on a sprawling complex and set over several levels. From our room, which was on ground level near the beach, there was no clear way of getting to the splash park without taking two different lifts and circumnavigating the entire hotel. When my wife was out for a walk on her own with the pushchair, she enquired at reception as to the best way to get there. She was told to either carry the pushchair up and down the stairs, or walk on the service road outside of the hotel. The road had limited pavements and was in use by coaches, delivery lorries and other vehicles. At one point I overheard a gentleman in a wheelchair ask one of the reps the best way for him to get to the snack bar, and even she couldn’t figure it out. There is only one lift out of four that will take you to the main restaurant which caused long waits at busier times, and also a bottleneck situation at the restaurant entrance as the lift users and stair users all converged at the same “please wait to be seated” sign. KIDS - Whilst this place is promoted as family friendly, it doesn’t stack up against most other resorts in the same category. The kids clubs are available most days (if you get on the app at Midnight the day before and book in), but are in two windowless rooms that are tucked away behind the adults only bar. The team seemed friendly and competent, but the spaces themselves were sad and uninspiring. There seemed to be very little happening throughout the day for younger children, with most of the bookable activities only suitable for ages 10 and up. There was another disused conference room that had been reappointed as a play room for smaller kids. In actuality, it was a vastly empty room with a handful of breaking or broken toys and some ripped books, alongside a pool table and some arcade grabber games. The play park was tagged onto the back of one of the accommodation blocks next to the neighbouring hotels bins, and was of no use to anyone under the height of about 5’9”. I don’t think I saw anyone in there for the duration of our stay. The changing facilities for babies were so poor. Tiny changing tables, not big enough for any child over the age of six months, unceremoniously put at the ends of corridors outside of toilets, or tucked in next to sinks and hand dryers. When we weren’t in our room, we ended up having to change our two year old on the accessible bathroom floor, or hidden away on a sofa in the downstairs lobby. MAINTENANCE - At first glance, the hotel looks fine. The grounds are nice, and the location is excellent, but on closer inspection there’s an awful lot of issues. Paint and plaster were peeling off the walls and left on the floor across the resort. Broken sunbeds were everywhere, both in use and discarded around the edges of the pools. Lights were not working in various areas, including the ground floor lobby and in toilet blocks that have no natural light source. One of the poolside toilets felt like an underground rave with the lights strobing on and off every five seconds. Our keycard reader was hanging off the wall outside of our room. I had to place it back into the hole in the wall to hide the exposed wires. There were broken panes of glass in one of the fire doors. There were several awful smells around the complex, like dirty mop heads or compost bins. Again, for a 5* resort, this was a huge let down. All in all, this was a far less than perfect holiday. The hotel has the feeling of an adults only resort that has been poorly retrofit to accommodate families and children. As for the TUI reps, they just made excuses for several points that I raised with them directly (“they won’t use vegan cheese on pizzas because it doesn’t melt”?! “The service road isn’t that busy”!!). After staying at another 5* TUI blue Sensatori resort in Cyprus last year, I know for a fact that they can be incredible, with friendly staff, good food, and beautifully maintained grounds and buildings. This fell well short of the mark. We made the best of it, but it was a long week and we shan’t be rushing back.

We stayed here as a family of 4 , children aged 1&4 also grandparents booked a separate room. Overall we had a really lovely holiday. We booked a swim up room and I think it really is luck of the draw which one you end up with. Some are fully shaded and others ( such as ours) aren’t cleaned as regularly as not part of the main flow of pools and the water can become quite dirty and stagnant. In all fairness we did ask them to come and clean it which they did but it seemed to get very dirty and murky quickly. One thing to be very mindful and biggest let down is the buggy/ wheelchair access, there is some guidance on this on the app on how to get around .. but it is very difficult and the routes are much longer. We did a lot of hiking buggy up and down stairs, some areas with slopes then led to a set of stairs at the end which is so frustrating. We enjoyed the food, lots of options and snack bar was great. In the adult only areas the sun beds are taken sooo quickly, especially the double beds on the water, we saw people putting towels out on these beds at 5.30am . LOL. Hotel really need to stop people doing that. Had a couple of treatments in the spa, although treatments themselves were nice the spa itself is very underwhelming. Smells like sewage and facilities not great, they could make a lot better use of the space. Overall staff really friendly, hardworking and kind. Deffo download atlantica app to check in before arrival and to book the à la carte. One other thing to note we booked this hotel specifically as our child loves TUI bot. In the other resorts we have stayed in the entertainment was outside but here it was inside and TUI bot only came out for around 5 mins per show - understandably must be quite hot but outside shows we have found had a much better atmosphere. Also worth taking bottles and refilling them at the water stations around the hotel. Hotel have a part of the beach with beds you can use and a water station and drinks service which is a nice touch. Located in a nice area with main towns not too far away and some restaurants on the beach outside of the hotel if you want something a bit different . Overall had a lovely time , I can see why people saying not 5* but for what we paid we were happy with what we got and would return at the right price.

My husband and I spent a week here at the end of May/beginning of June for our honeymoon. On arrival we had checked in on the app on the coach but still had to wait around for a very long time to check in fully which was a shame but understandable due to the amount of people arriving. We were all given a drink though while we waited which was nice. Our luggage was brought to our room separately which was over an hour later but wasn’t a big issue and was very helpful not having to lug it around ourselves. We had requested a room close to the beach as I have mobility issues and we knew we would spend most of our time in our swim up or at the beach. They couldn’t have put us closer if they tried (7007) and we couldn’t have been more grateful. While there are a lot of steps around the hotel, there are also lifts that we were able to use mostly and I think I only had to use the steps to get to the snack bar once during our holiday so it was definitely accessible for the most part. Nothing was too far away for us only a couple of minute walk which meant I was able to mobilise quite well for the majority of the holiday which was fantastic. On arrival we had champagne on ice and a great fresh fruit plate along with walnuts and honey, crisps and sandwiches in the fridge which was a very welcome treat having arrived late along with petals on the bed and a card wishing us a happy honeymoon which was a lovely surprise. Our suite was immaculate and cleaned daily by very friendly staff and the fridge restocked daily also without requesting it. Only thing we could possibly say was bad was the shear amount of ants on the terrace but that’s not something that can be avoided really and it didn’t affect our stay at all so we couldn’t really complain about it. The food was as you would expect at a 5 star all inclusive and we only had an issue with slightly undercooked meat on one occasion which is considerably less than we have experienced in other places. Unfortunately the main restaurant was closed until our 2nd to last day and we felt that the staff who had clearly stayed up late to get the restaurant ready for the following morning, spent most of their time desperately clearing away so they could get home earlier and as a result ignored guests completely and left us and others without drinks/glasses etc and even watched several tables be completely cleared away while the guests had gone for more food or desserts. This felt very rude but didn’t ruin the holiday as it was just one meal and honestly we understood they wanted an early exit that evening after a long night the night before, that and the staff for every other meal were very friendly and helpful. One of the main reasons we booked this hotel was for the large range of restaurants, bookable and payable. The main restaurant being closed sadly meant that we only managed to book the TexMex once and one of the fantastic TUI reps, Dina, managed to get us a table in the Mediterranean on one occasion also but we were unable to book any others and not from lack of trying. This was a great disappointment for us both as we found out that while we were ready and waiting at 8:58am every day, others had pre booked through reps and guest relation services several days in advance and that meant they were overbooked and had 0 reservations left at 9am days before they should have been released which was very disappointing for us as this was one of the main selling points of the hotel and reasons for us booking. The bars were great for an all inclusive and the staff, especially in the Guru Bar were amazing, particularly George. We were never left waiting for a drink and they went above and beyond also when you requested drinks that were not on the menu and remembering your orders and room numbers. The live music in the lobby bar was fantastic and very much embodied the vibe of our honeymoon, relaxed and peaceful. The staff in the spa were fantastic and very friendly, they would stop and say hello and have a chat even after we had booked (it was one of the 1st things we had done) and they were amazing giving us extra time on separate days to use the facilities, unfortunately we ran out of time and we didn’t get to pop back again but we had a fantastic experience when we did get to go and while expensive for certain options it is definitely worth it. Andrea was incredible all week and she even made the effort to come and say goodbye as we were leaving which was a lovely gesture. We did the 4x4 sunset excursion and while we didn’t realise that it would be quite as painful as it was for myself due to the roads you go on or lack of, it was absolutely fantastic and well worth having to spend the following day dosed up on pain relief and doing nothing but sunbathing. If you have hip/spine or back issues I would suggest giving this a miss maybe but if not I’d absolutely recommend it as it was a fantastic experience. The staff running it were all fantastic and gave us some great information and insights about the area and the history of it. The meal at the end was also very nice and the dancing at the end of it was a fantastic touch. We took a trip over to Hersonissos by taxi which was €15 each way, booked by reception it arrived within 5mins and dropped us off by the taxi office that we used going back and again the taxi was there in 2mins. Quick, easy and definitely worth doing, if we were to return we would definitely ensure another visit to the town, old town and port and a longer one perhaps mobility allowing. The photographers onsite were also great, Jessica was fantastic and we had a great time going around the hotel and finally onto the beach for the sunset. Again was a little expensive but there were cheaper options and we found the package we paid for was absolutely worth the money we paid. The check out service was fantastic, as we were leaving on a Tuesday our bags were collected by the hotel from outside our room by 9am, checked in and taken by the airport staff in the morning at 9:30am saving us the hassle entirely as we next saw them back in the UK. We also paid for the VIP lounge in Heraklion airport which while it is small and not the greatest we have been to it was a fantastic service and we would highly recommend it to those with mobility issues, families travelling with additional needs or if you want to avoid the large queues and crowds. The staff were fantastic, taking us straight through security, up to the lounge where we were able to pop out and do a bit of last minute duty free shopping. They then escorted us straight through passport control and to our gate which saved us so much hassle and myself pain while waiting and standing around. Not too expensive per person so again I’d highly recommend this being booked via TUI on the app before you go. Finally we had booked a late check out and we had a call the day before we were due to leave to say that we were able to stay in the same room until 6pm on our day of departure which was fantastic. Overall we had a fantastic honeymoon here and we would 100% recommended it for other couples looking for a relaxing holiday. We have already discussed returning ourselves both with and without our children as while we didn’t experience the children’s amenities/clubs and entertainment, from what we saw and heard from others it is very worth while and we know our children would love it. We can see why many people return here year after year and we look forward to our next visit too.

Beautiful complex with plenty of food choice and premium drinks on offer. Rooms were well equipped and clean. The adults only pools were perfect for us. Every member of staff were cheerful and helpful, nothing was too much trouble. My only quibble was why was the coffee machines being cleaned during the busy breakfast service, couldn’t this be done before breakfast service started or after. Would definitely return

Therapists at the spa were amazing, first time I have ever felt so relaxed