Elounda Akti Olous — Hotel in Municipality of Agios Nikolaos

We just got back from a week in Elounda, and honestly, I'm already planning my return. The place is just lovely—the kind of charming, sun-soaked town where you feel instantly relaxed. For two girls traveling alone, it felt incredibly safe, which was a huge plus. The shops were friendly, the restaurants were great value, and the food was so tasty I'm pretty sure I came back a few pounds heavier (worth it). The weather was brilliant, a toasty high 20s, low 30s. Best of all, we were an hour from the airport with a private transfer, so no endless bus journey to kick off the holiday.||The hotel was wonderful from the moment we arrived, with a warm welcome at the reception. Our ground-floor room was clean and had a safe, though it wasn’t huge, it was certainly big enough for our needs. Our room had a lovely, private view over a small olive garden. It's worth noting that the hotel doesn't seem to have great views from any of the rooms unless you are at the very front. ||The bathroom was also a bit on the small side, the loo is wedged between the shower and the wall in a way that makes you wonder if it was designed by a contortionist. If you're not on the smaller side, you might need a shoehorn to get in and out, but the shower was fantastic. It had great pressure and lots of hot water, which was wonderful after a day out. ||Our breakfast was good, especially getting to eat out on the pontoon. They had all the usual suspects, including some hot food. The bacon and sausage were not the kind us Brits are used to, but they were a tasty imposter all the same. The real star of the show was the fresh orange squeezing machine. I half-expected Paddington Bear to pop out at any moment and start making marmalade. It was the best start to the day.||The hotel beach sunbed situation was a bit of an early-morning towel Olympics, with towels thrown down to reserve prime spots. We aren't really the "dawn raid" type, so we didn't bother. The rooftop pool was a fantastic spot for a dip, although the sunbeds there were also a hot commodity. ||We also loved the Sky Bar, a perfect spot for watching the sunset with a drink in hand. We were even lucky enough to catch a moon eclipse from there—a truly special memory. ||We actually ended up finding some brilliant secluded bays just a 15-minute walk from the hotel where we could escape the crowds and just chill.||For activities, we highly recommend the boat trip to Spinalonga Island—it's very interesting and you can find lots of other boat trips from the harbour. We also did the 7.5 km hike around the Spinalonga peninsula, which took us about three hours. It's a great walk with opportunities to find more secluded bays, but make sure you take plenty of water, as there are no places to refill on the route.||Overall, we had a fantastic trip and would highly recommend both the hotel and Elounda. Would...

Great hotel, Having just returned from a weeks stay, We found this hotel so peaceful and relaxing. The hotel staff were very polite and welcoming. Our room 104 was perfect with a balcony with two sun beds however, although the balcony had a sea view it was a bit over looked by other rooms from the front back and from above as the balcony had two sun beds it would definitely benefit from having a parasol for some privacy. The bed was a little uncomfortable for my liking but not so much I didn’t sleep. The sky bar was absolutely perfect, offering a wide range of food and drinks and the views were spectacular. The woman who works in the sky bar during the day was extremely pleasant and took the time to get know you and made the best cocktails. The rooftop pool area with sun beds was a very relaxing place to spend the day soaking up the sun. There was plenty of choice at breakfast and something for everyone’s taste and guests are able to sit out by the sea for breakfast. We could not fault the hotel and its staff at all. The blue sea restaurant had the perfect setting out over the water but unfortunately as we stayed half bored we did notice a difference in service from its staff between half bored guests and of that who were not. It’s was apparent that people paying for their food got a more friendly attitude from staff and took the time to charm the diners as opposed to half bored guests. On our first night at the restaurant we were seated at a table given our menus and felt like we’re valued guests but as soon as we stated we were half bored the menus were almost snatched out of our hands and given different menus and attitude from staff changed and was quite rude and made us feel rushed to order and leave all the time being very polite and making conversation with the people who were not half bored, it just seemed that we inferior to them. As a result of this we ended up going out for dinner at various other restaurants in the area and felt very welcomed. Also half bored guests are only given a two hour time slot to have dinner between 18:00 and 20:00. There was also a young man who was clearly in training at the restaurant who made every effort to interact with guests and always greeted us with a smile. He was clearly trying extremely hard but as we’re sitting at our table it became more and more apparent that no matter how hard he tried it wasn’t good enough, we felt so sorry for him. With the effort this young man was putting in he’d be an absolute asset to the restaurant. We gave the service 4 stars but of course the hotel staff were absolutely brilliant. Overall we’d be extremely happy to return to this hotel but on...

The site itself is wonderful. A nice quiet place we dreamt of. A lot of cosy restaurants with good food. The hotel is clean, can't complain about this, and the part we stayed in had been refurbished. This is the front part of the hotel. But another, the back part of the hotel, for no reason called "Akti Olous Beach" is shabby and the view is depressing. Future guests are not informed about that. The owners just say, "This is the same hotel". The beach is splendid, the sunbeds and parasols are free and available. For that part, the hotel meets the expectations. But the main problem was the food. I asked for B&B but my travel agency said that the hotel works only with HB. It was not HB! It was something awful. A surprise was waiting for us the first evening. There was no buffet for the dinner. They gave us what they wanted to. We could choose only from the TWO main courses. And the food was mostly inedible. We should have taken photos of those full dishes that the waitress took back to the kitchen after we’d "consumed" our dinner. The staff was friendly and one waiter advised us to choose from the menu and then they will subtract our 14 euros (the price we paid for two in advance) from the price. We did it once. It was all right. The next evening they subtracted only 7 euros because we’d ordered one dish (there was too much food for us). But nobody had informed us about that. They didn't apologize, they just took our 7 euros for good. It was appalling. So, we got on with our HB. Obviously, the chef pretends that he is a chef. He can't cook. A good chef is a great value. I had the impression that the hotel doesn't want to pay to a good chef. By the way, the breakfasts were also poor. Another surprise was a new rule that guests have to pay for washing beach towels. Our representative complained with no result. Thanks...