Creta Palace, A Resort to Live®

Creta Palaces creates a beautiful oasis that you could spend all your holiday in or use it as a respite from a day of tours and exploring. The location is close enough to both Chania and Heraklion airports so you have options when travelling, and as it lies in the Rethymon region, you have a good route through the centre of the island to southern areas like Previlli Beach, Kourtaliotiko Gorge and villages like Spili, Matala etc. Or to the west like Chania, Rethymon Town, and close enough to Heraklion that you can visit the Palace of Knossos and the supporting museum in the city. For the first time in Crete, this location gave us lots of near locations to visit. The hotel itself is stunning. We had a balcony room that overlooked the main pool area and out to sea. We spent every morning enjoying the stunning view. The pool and resort as a whole was immaculate - constantly being cleaned and cared for. The Beach was ever changing - some days the ocean was so flat it was like a mirror with crystal clear waters and tons of fish - we were so glad we took our snorkels! We did go in October, so the weather was changeable, and the sea was not always suitable to swim in - so we did rely on an unheated pool for a lot of the trip. The resort was definitely more of a family resort. We've been to 2 other Grecotels and were expecting some quieter times, but even in off season, it was busy with kids. For us, it did have a plus side as the staff were geared towards families, with children feeling comfortable to go up and order their own ice creams, choose their own dinners and wander in the relative safety of the resort. My early teen was enjoying some independence, which was great to see. We booked some excursions through Ioanna at the hotel. She had clearly been on the trips and followed up after to see how they had gone. We weren't sure on the Jeep safari on paper, but she talked us through it and it was a highlight of our trip! Having an excursions coordinator on site makes such a difference. Tip - find out what they offer before you go and book as soon as possible for the important ones. Many sell out or are on specific days. We thoroughly enjoyed our Cretan Jeep Safari and the Knossos Palace & museum guided tour. The Drinks and Dining teams were amazing. You could choose a quieter restaurant with a clear menu, but we loved the Buffet choices. We have a Gluten Free diet, so when a restaurant team gets to know you by sight after 1 day and makes sure they can point out the options and provide alternatives we feel very spoiled and cared for. A highlight was gluten free pancakes prepared specially for us. The range of foods was incredible - it's hard to not over eat! The F & B manager Ioannis ran an incredible team and regularly checked to make sure his team were on top of the dietary requirements. After so many positives it's hard to write the downsides, but I do want to point out a couple that did affect our time at the hotel. The pools are not all heated. They run with saltwater and are cold. There is only one pool that is slightly warmer when we went and everyone crowded that area. Because of this, the sun loungers were in high demand and I'm not kidding when I say as soon as the sun came up, the towels were on the seats. We would watch the guests come down at 7am to place their towels on their favourite loungers and then not come back until the sun was warmer around 11am! Life's too short, so we rarely got a seat until later afternoon. Sadly the resort team are not on top of this and it is frustrating to not be able to get near the pool on daily basis. Live entertainment. The music was wonderful and varied, BUT if you want to be in bed before 10pm then I would avoid the main building rooms facing the sea. Our room was on the third floor above the terrace and no one was getting any sleep before 10pm in our room. It wasn't every night, but if you have an early morning excursion - it can be tricky, especially with a child. Dining top tips: I always ask the team when's best to go for food in the buffet as peak times were very busy and lots of queuing. Even 30mins earlier made a huge difference! Overall, a wonderful trip. We felt cared for, we got to explore the island, memories were made! Thank you Creta Palace!

We had a brilliant time at Creta Palace! We went on a family holiday and had our 4 month baby with us! The holiday was a total success as the hotel provided all sorts of baby equipment (cote, bottle steriliser, play chair, changing mat - you name it). It was really easy to request the items on their website through a link. I would highly recommend this! All the staff and everyone was extremely helpful and we would definitely come back. Also in my family we have quit a few food intolerances and allergies. I am celiac with a lactose intolerance and on our first day we had a meeting with the food &beverage manager Ioannis Stratakis. He made sure that all our needs were seen to and was very proactive and kind! Him and his staff would take special requests and all our food was made separately in the kitchen for breakfast. He also arranged that a chef would walk us through the buffet to show us what we could and couldn’t eat! It was a very stress free experience. Thank you to the entire team and to Ioannis for continuing to check in on us during our stay.

We traveled there with the family 6 Adults in late October, we had a bit of an issue with our rooms on the first night, however this was resolved for the next day. We were met by the hotel transport at the airport in a very nice minibus with a pleasant driver. The hotel was very nice and clean the welcome was very well handled. Overall we felt what made this hotel outstanding was the staff, they were all very good and polite a special mention to several whom we all got very familiar with Christina (restaurants), George (Restaurants), the lady and gentleman at the bar (sorry can't remember their names they were mature lady and gentleman) were more than outstanding and made our break very special. The rooms were nice and clean, however lacked cupboard space to put clothes away. The food was outstanding at the a la carte restaurant (Asian, Italian and Greek), however the buffet restaurant still needs a bit more to it in terms of which food is required. The quality was good for a mass kitchen, however lacked a sensible variety. With reference to the pool, good facilities however in our view the smaller pool should be made into the sea water pool and the bigger one being the normal pool. Definitely the need for more sun loungers should be placed as it was always a struggle to find one anytime after 9am as other guests blocked them as early as 7am on most days. This is possibly the biggest drawback for the hotel.... We all would suggest maybe some light music around the pool may give it a better ambience. Overall an outstanding resort and the staff are the ones that should take all the credit for this.

The pictures on the website are true to life. The hotel lobby area is immaculate, with real flowers and plants. The staff are polite and very attentive. Anna-Maria (oh damn) had only been there a week when we had arrived, but so polite, attentive and knowledgable. She also made me laugh at lot. Manolis, he sorted out all the issues we had with our room very quickly. Nothing disastrous, just the sink wouldn’t release the water. Antigon, was very friendly and happy to talk when she could. Seem to work 24 hours a day. Elena, was very helpful with our invoice/bill at the end of our stay. She asked if we were happy with everything and made a note of the things we weren’t happy with. Very patient and polite. Veronica, she helped Anna Maria with all these names that I have quoted. All of these staff members were on the front desk and I think in-house. Excellent team of people. Made our stay as comfortable as anyone could wish for. I would definitely recommend this resort. We were a party of six adults and we had a great time. Equally, the resort is very child friendly too.

In summary this hotel is over run with ferile very young children and limited nation mix predominated by German families The good bits Room cleanliness is amazing, the ladies work incredibly hard. Reception staff lovely, food is great Bad bits Young children running around the restaurant, jumping on chairs and tables, feeding children on the floor an the restaurant entrance mats- and so on Restaurant staff over whelmed at certain times, tables not properly cleaned, large queues forming, mixed service, sometimes offered coffee sometimes not Watersports very limited and not as advertised Beach large but not great Evening entertainment limited In conclusion it feels as if you are staying at a posh nursery