GRECOTEL LUX.ME White

We had such a wonderful stay at this hotel in Crete! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ From the moment we arrived, we felt so welcomed and looked after. The hotel was lovely, comfortable and had everything we needed for a relaxing stay, but what really made our experience special was the amazing staff. A special thank you to Dimitris, the manager, who was incredibly friendly, helpful and welcoming throughout our stay. He really went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect for us. We also want to thank all the other staff members for their kindness, warm smiles and excellent service. Everyone was so friendly and made us feel genuinely welcome. We absolutely loved our time here and would happily return on our next trip to Crete. Highly recommended! ❤️🇬🇷

I have NEVER written a review after just two days but here we go! We arrived tired after an early morning flight and were greeted in the open plan reception with cold towels and a refreshing citrus drink. We had already checked in via the app so they just needed an imprint of my card for incidentals, should there be any…there won’t as almost everything you would like to eat or drink is provided. We were immediately upgraded to a Petit Yali junior suite with a shared infinity pool and dedicated sun loungers and an amazing view of the sea. Perfect as I am travelling with my 20 year old son who now has his own room; there is a sliding door between the bedroom and the sitting roommate that now has a large double bed in it. The bathroom is not brilliant as it has a very small shower. P Ours leaked badly and the sink plug did not work. A quick call to reception and maintenance came and swiftly sorted both problems. Hungry after our travels, and in need of a pick-me-up, my son went to the creperie and brought back crepes with ice cream. Dinner: night one was at Tavernaki; delicious Greek food served mezze style. Yesterday we attended a superb wine tasting with the sommelier who is available to suggest one of the more than 150 wines available here to suit your palate and the type of food you are eating. Last night the choice had already been made, as we went to the adults only fine dining restaurant which was excellent. A wine flight had been created with excellent pairings including a delicious dessert wine. I am looking forward to the other speciality restaurants too. Breakfast is in the main buffet restaurant with a great choice of hot and cold options with omelettes cooked to order. The entire staff from pool and maintenance to service and bar staff are very professional and well trained. Super polite, friendly and incredibly helpful. While the pool drinks service is sporadic, at our swim up room, it is no hardship to stroll to a bar to pick something up and for a change of scenery. Even at full capacity, there are enough places to sit in the evening. The hotel also thoughtfully provide a plug in mosquito repellent which is extremely useful and very necessary. The hotel has a great chilled vibe and it has taken just 24 hours for me to fully relax when it’s normally a three day job! Looking forward to seeing what unfolds over the next few days

**The good.** Hospitality and service across the resort are superb. Every member of staff we encountered went the extra mile, and the general attitude everywhere was warm and pleasant. It's highly commendable and clearly part of the culture here. The WhatsApp concierge service works well and made day-to-day requests easy. The pool and restaurant facilities (with one exception, below) are fantastic — modern, beautiful and well maintained. The bars and the sunset lounge are chic and thoughtfully laid out. A special shout-out to the bartender at the Sunset Bar: friendly, and outstanding at putting drinks together. Food at the speciality restaurants is genuinely good — well cooked, tasty and nicely presented. **The bad.** The buffet restaurant is very, very "meh". Quality and taste simply aren't there — it's high-volume catering and we didn't enjoy it. The restaurant is also clearly focused on turning tables over, and hygiene standards around plates, cutlery and tables left a lot to be desired. A practical tip for future guests: book your speciality restaurants **before** you arrive. There is little to no availability once you're on site. We couldn't pre-check-in or log into the resort app because of a technical issue on their side, so we arrived with nothing booked. To their credit, the concierge sorted us out once we raised it — but don't rely on that. **The ugly.** The rooms. We booked two Superior Luxury rooms and both were poor. There is nothing five-star about them. Essentially a bed and a dated 1980s-style built-in wooden wardrobe. Both rooms smelled, with odours coming up through the drains, and the shower drain didn't clear properly. The towels were visibly worn out and in bad condition, and the linen was equally tired. The rubber seal on the shower door was in tatters. There were no amenities to speak of, and nowhere for my wife and me to sit and relax. In my opinion the rooms don't merit a star rating at all. **Overall.** I thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality and the friendliness of the team, and they deserve better than the accommodation they're asked to represent. But I've stayed in five-star hotels around the world, and this was the worst room product I've experienced. Sadly, we won't be returning.

We stayed in the Grand Family Sea View Suite for 9 days and absolutely loved the hotel. Incredible views, 8 restaurants with the most delicious food. Highly recommend going to Agreco farms which is one of the restaurants included and is a short 10 min ride from the hotel. They arrange the transfers for 10 euros return per person. 30 courses dinner with views over the farm with olive trees everywhere. The sunrise and sunset views across the hotel were priceless. I can't thank the staff enough for making our stay very special. We found the hotel through polly_the_pa who runs a boutique travel business. Highly recommend her to get the best rates.

The hotel is absolutely stunning! Everything is white, spotless, beautifully maintained, and surrounded by greenery — it’s genuinely a pleasure to look around every single time. I simply couldn’t get enough of it, because almost every corner offers a panoramic view of the sea. The layout is also very convenient: no long walks or huge distances, as the entire property stretches along the coastline. The pools deserve a special mention — warm seawater, beautiful modern design, and incredibly aesthetic. I absolutely loved them. The beach is very long and divided into around seven different areas. Some parts have rocks or stone slabs, but at least three beach areas are sandy. The sunbeds are comfortable, and there is even occasional beach service. The sea was quite rough during our stay, with strong waves, so we could only really swim in it for two out of five days. That made the seawater pools an absolute lifesaver. I could honestly write a separate review just about the design. The hotel feels very modern and stylish, the terraces are incredible, and watching the sunset there while listening to DJ sets, relaxing on the large white daybeds and having cocktails was one of my favourite parts of the holiday. Hotel design & grounds: 5+ out of 5. We booked a swim-up room with an additional bed, and honestly, it exceeded my expectations. It was extremely comfortable, clean and well designed. But stepping directly from your room into a seawater pool, with the sound of the sea just below you… there are simply no words. It was amazing. Housekeeping was excellent — our room was always cleaned by around 11:45 a.m. The air conditioning is centrally controlled, and there is no iron in the room, but otherwise everything we needed was there. The toiletries were also quite good. Room: 5 out of 5. The reception team deserves a special mention. There are plenty of staff around, and whenever we needed something, the response was very quick. For example, when I mentioned that the Wi-Fi signal in our room was poor, within half an hour they brought a personal router to our room, which completely solved the problem. But what impressed me most happened on our departure day. Our transfer was at 9 p.m., while check-out was at 11 a.m. The day before, I asked whether it might be possible to extend our room. They couldn’t confirm it at that point, but later they actually called me themselves and explained that we couldn’t keep our particular room — but they would give us another room until our departure, free of charge! Honestly, this really impressed me. I have travelled quite a lot, and I have never been offered a swim-up room for another sihours completely free of charge. It was the perfect final touch to an already wonderful stay, and I am incredibly grateful to the team for it. Reception team: 5 out of 5. As for the restaurants, we booked four à la carte restaurants in advance. The Italian restaurant was okay in terms of food, but the service was slow. We actually ended up going to the main restaurant afterwards because, honestly, the food there was consistently better. We really enjoyed the Greek restaurant — both the food and the service were excellent. The Asian restaurant didn’t impress us as much food-wise, but we really enjoyed the atmosphere and the service. We also visited the olive farm experience, which is another à la carte option, but it wasn’t really for us, and it was also very hot that day. Interestingly, we kept coming back to the main restaurant because it simply had the best combination of variety, interesting and tasty dishes, panoramic sea views and fast, attentive service. Breakfast could be better, but lunch and dinner were excellent. The coffee, unfortunately, was not good. Restaurants & food: 4 out of 5. And finally, the atmosphere. This is probably the best way I can describe the hotel: for the first time, I never got tired of simply staying at the resort. I actually felt like I hadn’t had enough of it by the time we left. For me, this hotel is all about a peaceful, stylish and sophisticated European holiday. Another very important point for me personally: there were no Russian tourists during our stay, which made the atmosphere even more comfortable for us. This was genuinely my best holiday in the last few years. I would absolutely come back and would confidently recommend Grecotel LUXME White Palace to others. I left feeling that five days simply weren’t enough — and that probably says more about the hotel than anything else.