TUI MAGIC LIFE Candia Maris

I just love this place. 24/7 bar, beautiful hotel right on the beach, plenty of sunbeds, the grounds are too large to worry about sun bed wars! Food fantastic, staff are wonderful and it really will become your happy place!

I stayed with my Husband and children aged 17 and 19. The hotel is spotlessly clean and right on the beach with lots of activities such as paddle, spinning, water aerobics. We had a garden room (new section) and a standard room. The garden room was spacious with outside seating. There are 3 pools - our favourite was the relaxing pool nearest the beach with large sunbeds and cushions. There’s plenty of sunbeds for everyone although my husband did still get up at 8am just to get pole position. The buffet food is very good with two à la carte restaurants. Our favourite was the Taverna but the staff at Flavour can’t do enough for you and really made a fuss of us as it was our anniversary. The staff make this hotel! Pavla was an excellent instructor with so much energy and a great personality. She really made our holiday! The entertainment team work so hard to ensure everyone has a good time from white parties to fire shows. They don’t stop! The entertainment was very good and caters for both German and English speaking guests. The guest services and Reception team were so helpful. Reception even called us when we’d left a few days later to arrange for the return of my Husband’s Apple Watch which he’d left in the hire car! The spa was very good and definitely worth a visit. Evangelia, the Manager is excellent and her team have healing hands!!! It was very relaxing. Overall, we had a great stay and would recommend the Candia Maris to a family with older children. Just a few comments for improvement but, not major: the pool nearest the pool bar could do with a bit of updating and would benefit from staying open just another hour as it closes at 6pm. The corridor to our room 184 was very sterile. I know there’s no natural light so maybe some artificial plants to break up the white walls. Finally, the reception area lets the hotel down a bit as it doesn’t give the greatest first impression. Maybe a central stylish seating area could be installed (as there’s space).

Staying here until 25 August 26. Not met the Tui Rep. Meeting didn’t happen because something had happened - what we don’t know, but not helpful even though another rep gave us an a quick chat but didn’t know the area. However, Guest Services are helpful and in particular Sophia has been incredible. Food is ok, but very repetitive and even for all inclusive - not to mention no crackers to go with the cheese! Partial sea view rooms? Need a telescope to see the sea. Housekeeping for rooms, well they clean all be it quick, but a nice tidy bed isn’t a quick duvet pull up. Public areas are always clean and tidy and the entertainment team do a fantastic job to keep everyone involved if they want to be. The beach is easy to access. Shame the lifeguards don’t take a walk now and then to make that it’s only hotel guests using the beds. A quick rake between the sunbeds to remove the sea debris would make the beach a much nicer place, but seems too much trouble, the 8am beach clean once a week isn’t enough for this. This review might sound negative, but we are having a good time. We hired a car for a day and went to the pink beach at Elafonisos, Heraklion twice and a sunset boat trip planned for this weekend before heading home. Second Greek island we’ve been to (Rhodes twice before). The world is a big place and now to decide where next to visit.,,

Beautiful clean hotel room spotless and hotel surroundings clean. Food great wide variety of choice available. Catering for all guests including pizza snack bar restaurants and taverna. Hotel has mainly German guests English speaking in the minority. Hotel staff are very friendly and helpful. Entertainment team were amazing the dance shows in the evening were always highly entertaining and professional. Shout out to the lovely Hannah who went out of her way to make herself known and was so friendly also Heloise and Katy who were lovely to chat to and spent time getting to chat with us. Also the rest of the dancers too who worked so hard to produce an entertaining energetic vibrant show most nights and also showing up to the after party to join in the dancing. Thanks to Roisin and her excellent choreography. Trips were great to Santorini and Spinalonga long days but worth it to see a bit more of Crete . Great holiday would possibly try a different hotel next time but only for the surrounding areas maybe in Elounda .

Staff: Majority of the staff were super friendly. We saw some comments saying they only care about the German guests but that is definitely not true. Special mention to two Giannis (one bar staff, one waiter) who were always super friendly. Room: We had a Dulux side sea view (room 387). Wasn't anything special to be honest but we didn't spend much time in the room. Air con was very good and had a ceiling fan too. Large balcony with chairs although balcony door didn't lock. Flat screen TV, kettle. Did have a connecting door into the room next to us but that can only be opened from inside the room so wasn't a problem but we did put a chair Infront just in case. Toilet paper does have to be put in the bin and not down the toilet which was a shock for me as it was my first time doing this but you get used to it quickly, just make sure you put the sign on your door for the cleaners to come in as they empty the bin daily. Shower was rubbish, small area of water coming out and kept leaking out of the bottom of the shower screen onto the floor creating a big puddle so we had to keep using towels to mop it up. Ammenities: Three big swimming pools were great and ball games and lilos were allowed. Usual issue with the sun loungers where people reserve them but don't use them most of the day. But the private beach has free sun loungers with parasol and these were never full. Sea was quite rough due to the wind so not any good for snorkeling but fun floating in the waves. The pool bar is sat in-between the two main pools and has self service soft drinks and beer. There is also a "sweet corner" where you can get waffles and self service ice cream. Was great to have proper entertainment in the amphitheatre - no bar here so we took drinks from the wanderbar over. Party area with a bar was also good for some music. Mini market on site is useful but expensive. There is a "late checkout room" on the bottom floor which is basically a big changing room with toilets, showers and changing area - suggest using this rather than paying €55 euros for a late check out to 3pm. Food: Best range of food from an all inclusive hotel we have been to. Massive variety of hot and cold for breakfast. Dinners were lovely with a wide variety of meats. We didn't eat in either of the special restaurants as the buffet was so good. The highlight was the self service pizza station in the afternoon and the burger van which does a variety of burgers and has french fries. We had this for lunch everyday as it was so good. Location: Not an awful lot around to walk to. Several souvenir/mini market shops if you walk 5-10 minutes either way from the hotel. Public bus stop right outside the hotel where you can get a 20 minutes bus into Herakleion - bus tickets sold at the onsite mini market. There is lots of entertainment in the hotel throughout the day so wasn't an issue and you could easily spend your whole time in the hotel without getting board. Other: Guests are mainly German but that did not matter to us as we are not the type of people to be trying to make friends on holiday. There were a small amount of British guests. They have Greek night on a Monday where the main buffet is closed and instead it is an outside BBQ and big tables are set up - Tip: if you don't want to sit with random people for dinner get there early (just before 7) and go into the under cover bit and there are tables set up for 2/3 people. I would highly recommend staying at this hotel.