Creta Maris Resort

This 5-star resort, located in Hersonnisos, comprises 676 rooms, villas, and suites in a beachside setting. There's an adult exclusive area which has 3 pools, access to the main buffet restaurant, a pool bar and sunbeds and gazebos. Guests come from across Europe and give it a very cosmopolitan feel. The resort is 30 minutes by taxi from Heraklion Airport. The resort attracts many families. There are 7 restaurants, including 3 buffets and booking for à la carte meals can be made online. In fact, it's a good idea to download the Creta Maris app because it provides lots of information about the resort and will add value to your holiday. The staff here are excellent, helpful and appreciative. Food is very good, varied themed menus and plenty of choice. Wines are local but acceptable. There are some issues which I will highlight: For those with mobility issues it is best to ask the hotel for a ground-floor room. The resort is extensive and getting to different restaurants can be a challenge but you can book a buggy at reception. There are plenty of child buggies in the food area of the buffet. Avoid busy times and prepare to queue. The adult area bar needs more umbrellas to provide shade for guests enjoying a lunchtime drink. Rooms are well designed and we were in the refurbished adult-exclusive area. However, there are no rubbish bins in the room. You have to use the bin placed in the shower room. There is no shelving in the large shower so you have to adapt accordingly. However, there are tea and coffee facilities, soft drinks and bottles of water delivered daily. Pool towels are provided. Sunbeds are plentiful around pools and on the beach. These are quite low-level but in the adult area, there are gazebos which might be easier for those with mobility issues. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would recommend this resort.

Where do I even start with this supposed “5-star” hotel. It is honestly unbelievable that they are able to charge the extortionate prices that they do while delivering such a poor overall experience. This has genuinely been the worst family holiday we have ever had. Please do not make the same mistake we did by choosing this as your holiday destination. The food throughout the hotel has been dreadful and completely unacceptable for a so-called 5-star all-inclusive resort. The buffet restaurants serve extremely low-quality food which is often barely edible. I actually raised this directly with one of the managers at the Enomy buffet restaurant and his response was: “Have you tried any of the à la cartes?” That response says everything about this hotel’s attitude. It basically confirms they knowingly keep the buffet food at a poor standard because they expect guests to rely on the à la carte restaurants instead. That is not what people expect when paying premium prices for a 5-star all-inclusive holiday. The service at the buffet restaurants is awful. Rarely asked by waiters for drinks orders and when you are you could be waiting 10-15 minutes for your drinks. I’ve had to find a baby high chair myself multiple times because the waiters either failed to find one or just didn’t bother and left us waiting. There is no dedicated kids area, so every mealtime becomes a struggle trying to find something remotely edible for young children. Most of the time we ended up resorting to pizza, bread and chips because there simply weren’t suitable options available. Even the fruit selection is incredibly poor. Every single day it is the same limited options: apples, bananas, kiwi, watermelon and oranges. No strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes or any of the variety you would expect from a premium resort in a country known for fresh produce. The snack bars are no better — bland, overcooked chicken nuggets, cheap burgers, poor quality chicken meat, stale pizza and food that is regularly cold. The family rooms are located directly next to the amphitheatre, where loud shows and music take place every night from 9pm–10pm. Who thought it was a good idea to place family accommodation next to nightly entertainment? Trying to get young children to sleep while music and shouting is blasting outside is an absolute nightmare. The family rooms are extremely dated and look like they haven’t been refurbished in over 20 years. The bathroom feels especially cheap, a flimsy glass shower screen and a basic handheld shower head instead of a proper fixed or rainfall shower you would expect in a luxury hotel. The waterpark and slides are practically unusable because the water is freezing cold. Not slightly cold, absolutely freezing. To make matters worse, there are freezing cold sprinklers firing water everywhere, which means younger children refuse to go anywhere near it. Every time we walked past the waterpark it was almost empty, and now we understand why. Out of the entire resort, only one medium-sized outdoor pool is heated, along with the indoor pool. As a result, we’ve effectively been restricted to using the same single pool for the whole holiday. The children’s playroom is filthy and completely unfit for purpose. The carpet is sticky and dirty, the toys clearly aren’t cleaned, and most of the equipment looks cheap, worn out and neglected. The children’s entertainment is equally poor. The daily “kids party” consists of two staff members putting music on while encouraging parents and children stand in a circle dancing. That is not entertainment. It genuinely felt like the guests were expected to create the entertainment themselves. The children’s “playground” which consists of 1 climbing frame with 4/5 slides attached to it (no swings, see-saw or any other typical playground toys) is fitted with cheap fake artificial grass which becomes burning hot even in fairly mild 23 degree heat, which burns children’s feet when playing. I witnesses multiple kids run crying to their parents because they had burnt their feet. Any branded alcohol costs extra. The “all inclusive” package only covers the absolute cheapest versions of drinks available, which feels incredibly misleading for a resort advertising itself as premium all-inclusive. Overall, this hotel is unbelievably awful and falls massively short of its advertised 5-star standard. It is absolutely criminal. The entire place feels tired, poorly maintained and focused on cutting costs at every opportunity. We came expecting a luxury family holiday and instead spent the week disappointed, frustrated and counting down the days until we could leave.

Fabulous resort, food was amazing. Stella in the restraunt was fantastic, she looked after us from day 1. Can’t thank her enough. She is an asset to the hotel.

A decent hotel with a vast amount of facilities for families. We went with one 2 year old and one 6 month old. - Nice grounds and it was all kept nice and clean - Few different restaurants. Some of which were Good, others not so good. Seafood one was disappointing - I expected maybe some lobster/crab/ more variety on menu. Also the service and attitude of the staff in this one was not good at all. We waited over an hour for our food, in the pooring rain with a young family - not acceptable. - Decent facilites for young kids to be fair - Baby room and Kids Club. Arcade, playground, etc. - Surprised the family room had a couple of dangerous steps in the room. Not where i would personally choose to put a young family - rooms are not baby safe etc. Apart from that the bathroom could do with towel rails as there is nowhere to hang towels. - Overall the food was Pretty good - although some hotels do nice omelette stations and stuff where you can choose your own omelette/eggs etc. for breakfast. Kind of missed that personal touch. - Most Pools were cold which was disappointing, there is one heated a little bit, but would be nice if others were too! - Also they don't really know how to make coffee at the hotel. If you like coffee don't expect a decent cofee. If you go, you will probably have a good time - just a few issues really, Thanks so much and have a great day.

Fab holiday Staff are all super attentive and caring. Never too much trouble. Spotless and great food and rooms Photo shoot with Ana was spot on, thanks