Mare Blue Crete

Amazing experience so much for families as much as lone wolves too. The pools were really relaxing and the whole hotel was kept surprisingly clean during my stay! The staff members are incredibly kind and they make you feel hospitality in every way. Kisses to Maria in the logistics department!❤️❤️❤️

What a fantastic holiday we have had. The weather was great the food was excellent. Eat as much as you like and different meats every night. Chicken, Pork Beef even a hog roast and duck as well. Manos the life guide by the pool was so friendly and helpful and made the holiday for us. Location was perfect only a short drive by taxi to the nearest town only €15. Room was lovely air conditioned cleaned daily and quite spacious. This was a real treat for us and we hope to come back again.

Before travelling, I was quite worried after reading some of the reviews, but overall our experience was much better than I expected, although there are definitely a few things worth knowing before booking. The good The rooms are beautiful, spacious and well air-conditioned, and all of the staff we dealt with were friendly. We arrived at around 1am and there was some food available for late arrivals, although we were too tired and went straight to bed. The main buffet food is generally good. There isn't a massive amount of variety, particularly for children, but there was a different special meat available each evening. I was disappointed by the lack of fish options, especially being in Crete. The sea is absolutely lovely — incredibly clear, with fish swimming around you. Beach shoes are an absolute must though! The beach is very stony and the stones get extremely hot. Unless you have leather feet, you won't want to walk across them barefoot! We also caught the bus into Ierapetra, which is definitely worth doing. It cost €2.20 each on the bus and we got a taxi back to the hotel for €15. Entertainment and children This was probably our biggest disappointment. The evening entertainment was okay, but there is practically nothing aimed at English-speaking children. Everything is predominantly geared towards French and German families. We booked the hotel partly because of the children's entertainment, and had I known beforehand how little there was for English children, I probably would have booked somewhere else. We didn't use the kids' club for the same reason, as it was all French and German speaking. À la carte restaurant Unfortunately, the à la carte restaurant was disappointing and didn't really feel like an à la carte experience. There were no children's options at all, so we ended up having to take our children back into the main buffet to get them something to eat. Yes, our children can be picky, but having no children's menu whatsoever at a family hotel seems a strange decision. For adults, there were only around four meat options, one fish option and pasta. The starters/salad were self-service and practically cold. The food itself also seemed to be coming from the same kitchen as the main buffet, just plated and brought to your table. There wasn't really anything that you couldn't recreate yourself from the buffet, so it didn't feel particularly special. Drinks and water There isn't a huge amount of choice if, like me, you don't drink sugary or fizzy drinks. You can buy alternatives from the hotel shop though, and the prices aren't unreasonable considering you're in a hotel. The tap water is bearable but isn't really something you'd want to drink regularly, and bottled water isn't replaced daily in the room, which I think would be a worthwhile improvement. Housekeeping This was another area that could definitely be better. On Thursday our room wasn't cleaned or straightened at all. During our entire stay we also never received clean cups, spoons or replacement milk in the room. We had brought our own tea and coffee because of personal preference and bought milk from the shop, but there was nothing available to clean the cups with. We ended up having to use the hand towels, which obviously isn't ideal and left marks on the cups. There was also a shortage of beach towels on one of the days. A couple of other things worth knowing There are bugs around the main pool that make an incredibly loud noise. It's obviously part of being somewhere like Crete and not really something the hotel can control, but it's worth mentioning because the noise can be quite noticeable. Also, don't necessarily rely on being able to pay by card everywhere locally. One shop happily took card when we bought bus tickets, but on another occasion refused card completely and said cash only. Finally, be prepared for the transfer. Ours was closer to two hours, rather than the shorter times we had expected. Overall Despite some of the negatives, we did have a good holiday and the hotel itself is much nicer than some of the reviews had led me to expect. The rooms, friendly staff, main buffet and beautiful clear sea are all positives. The biggest disappointment for us was that the hotel is clearly much more geared towards French and German families than English-speaking families. If you're travelling without children, or your children aren't bothered about kids' clubs and entertainment, that may not matter at all. For us, however, children's entertainment was one of the reasons we chose the hotel, so had we known beforehand, we probably would have chosen somewhere else. Overall, a nice hotel with plenty of positives, but there are definitely areas where relatively small improvements — particularly housekeeping, children's food and entertainment — would make a big difference.

We had an amazing holiday at Mate Blue hotel Crete. Our room was clean and spacious and was cleaned everyday. The FRAM entertainments team were excellent- Nordine, Jade and Lynn were all friendly and made our holiday with all the various activities and evening parties - they are all brilliant! The food is excellent- big selection to choose from. All the bar staff were great. I would definitely recommend this hotel and we would love to return sometime. Well done to all the staff for creating such a friendly holiday vibe!

It’s the one of the best weeks in my life. Very positive people and atmosphere. Greek food was really delicious!☺️🇬🇷 Room was clean everyday!