InterContinental Crete by IHG — Hotel in Municipality of Agios Nikolaos

The location Very good, one of the bests you can find in Agios Nikolaos. Next to the village center, a lot of bars and restaurants, grocery shops right next to the hotel entrance, a lot of car rental agencies (also motorcycles and bikes) The hotel is located on the shore of the mediterranean sea, in Mirabello Bay,.and have a wonderful view. The check-In Was very welcoming and fast (less than 5 minutes) Usually starting around 3 pm, and if you'll come earlier, you can sit in the spacious nice lobby, which includes comfortable sofas and a nice bar, with a good atmosphere and well design space. The service is very good. Bottom line, whatever we asked, we got. The room The room we ordered was very nice. Unfortunately, we got one on the first floor, right above the street located in front of the hotel, but it wasn't to noise and good anyway.In the room you can find all the facilities you need, start with very comfortable king-size bed, spacious shower and toilet (separately), closet with a lot of space for all your needs, nice spacious sitting area where you can and relax, and wonderful balcony with a little private swimming pool, a nice bed where you can lei and a table with chairs, and of course a stunning mediterranean sea view. The cleaning service is really good, at least twice a day, everything is clean and organized very well. At least once a day the cleaning service is leaving a nice tribute, like drinks, snacks and others. At the first evening we got a welcoming gift, a bottle of cold white wine with a plate of fresh fruits and a few tasty macaroons. The dining room Including indoor and outdoor areas, and also a nice bar. The complex is very spacious. During our stay we ate only breakfasts, and it was very good. The breakfasts are between 7 and 11 am.It offers very reach menu,the waiters are very nice and well serving, they're offering drinks and will welcomed special request regarding food or drink, without any extra charge. Important tip- Come between 8 and 9:30 am, because after that it becomes a little bit crowded. The facilities The hotel suggesting a few standard facilities, each one is nice and well maintained. The hotel offers two outdoor infinity swimming pools with a stunning view of the mediterranean sea and the island around. Important tip- come early to the pool to find yourself a nice spot with bed on the water, because after the good spots are already taken. Choose the roof top pool, it's much nicer, with fewer people, and better view. It includes a nice bar, toilets and a shower. If you want a shaded spot, you can also find it also, under a nice cymbal with comfortable chairs and tables.There is a lifeguard during the whole day, till the closing time (9 pm) The beach Right a cross the street, in front of the hotel, 30 second walk from the lobby.It well-organized, including beds, chears and parasols, not crowded and very peaceful. The gym Very recommended! The hotel offers a nice spacious gym with a few machines for running, cycling, strength and others. The space is very clean, well maintained and comfortable, including clean and fresh towels and mineral water. Important tip - Come early, between 7:30 and 8:00 am to catch the machines you want to start with. After 10:00 till the night the gym is quite empty. The Spa complex We got a couple full body moisturizing treatment. It was very relaxing, the two masseuses Marcela and Elena were quite good, professional and welcoming. They used a few kind of creams during the treatment.The service was really good, the spa is available in comfortable hours, and there is option to combine a few kinds of treatments. You can ask Irena that explained us very nicely about the options. Except the treatment, you can enjoy the indoor swimming pool and dry sauna. We didn't use that, but everything looks very well, designed, and clean. We didn't get any pictures, but the photos on the hotel website accurately describe the complex very well. Bottom line, it was good, relaxing, not very expensive and definitely recommended. Duration:45 min, Price:200€...

A real mixed bag - has alot of potential but unfortunately alot of work to be done. Check in, Xenia was brilliant! A welcome drink and paperwork was delivered promptly and we were asked to wait a few minutes so they could check us in and finalise the room details. After finishing our drinks, we headed to reception where we encounted our first problem where we had to do all of the paperwork again (Not Xenias fault, everything she'd provided was correct and infront of the receptionist). Frustrating but sure.

Being Platinum Ambassador status with IHG, you come to expect certain things from the hotels when you stay.

We had been upgraded on the room type (couldn't figure out which room type neither could the receptionist!) this is to be expected when you spend what we spend with IHG. We were assigned room 315. With a private "plunge pool". I was unimpressed to say the least, it might aswell be a fish tank, it's tiny, you can't sit in it as you have to sit on the floor (it's the same flooring as the balcony) and it's completely enclosed by the balcony so doesn't get the sun past 8am. Useless and left unused by us. The single chair on the balcony made the place look depressing.

The bed was comfy but the you have to make sure the AC is on as it has a habit of turning off and requires attention to turn back on.

The bathroom has no door apart from a non locking glass door to the loo, your partner can hear/smell/experience your motions with you. The shower is a disaster. They've put the rain fall shower head right against the wall so when you turn around part of your body is on the wall. (cold!!) The handheld shower has so much power it'll take your skin off. The shower was huge, but no shelf to put your things on, they had to go on the floor.

The lift situation was particularly frustrating, you press direction you want to travel and it selected both, you never know wether a lift is going up or down. More than once I visited the top and bottom floors and various inbetween before reaching my desired floor. There was often a wait of 10 minutes for the lift to come and atleast 2 of the lifts were out of service during our stay. Use the stairs.

The towel situation was embarrassing, they want you to take them from your room, rather than just supplying them at the pool/beach/painted rock. We asked 4 times at the pool, they said yes and they never came, there also isn't anywhere to get one yourself.

We had an upsetting and aggressive altercation with another guest who apparently had reserved his Sun lounger and left, the hotel towel was screwed up on the lounger, he came back some time later, got in my partners face and threw our things on the floor. The hotel had no security and unfortunately my partner didn't want to speak with the police, no hotel should put guests in this position. Witnessed by staff, no effort from them to assist. There were also no parasols on the 9th floor, you basically fry.

As Platinum Ambassador you get a GUARANTEED 4pm check out, it took 3 receptionists and 2 managers to sort this out. Even though it's on the welcome paperwork (it doesn't come with an * or depending on availability, it's a guarantee).

Shout our to Michalis on the 9th floor bar, that man knows what he's doing.

It would seem that InterContinental have tried to step into the leisure hotel game, but nobody within this hotel really knows what they're doing or how to handle premium guests. Everyone that is employed here has worked in hotels in the past, but still hasn't got a clue how one works. The prices they are charging are sky high and we got the same level of service from a 4 star the next town over. Everyone was friendly, but useless.

Every reason given for the problems was "we're a new hotel, we're finding our feet".

Disappointed and...

I stayed for 10 days with my husband and two children, aged 12 and 15. The hotel upgraded us so that we had two adjoining rooms with sea views. I used our private plunge pool every evening to cool off after coming back from dinner in the town. We slept very well despite being right next to the road as the room has blackout curtains and seemed to be well insulated from the street sounds below. The views from both the 5th and 9th floor pools are incredible and the staff who man the areas were very polite, friendly and helpful. It became apparent after one day that if you wanted to reserve a day bed or sun lounger you needed to get up early. I set my alarm on the days that my family wanted to spend by the pool and reserved a bed and one lounger at 6.30-7pm. I then watched the sunrise and stayed on the day bed until the family joined me. Other people were doing the same thing, or a version of, some reserving up to eight beds at a time and others placing a bag and towel on the beds and then not arriving to use them for well over two hours later. I saw a few people running to secure beds as soon as the people who were on them vacated them and others complaining to staff that people weren’t adhering to the ‘return to your bed in 1 hour’ rule (which plenty of people were ignoring) This created an atmosphere that felt a bit uncomfortable and sometimes downright farcical. I heard one person say “I was running and I touched it first” as she tagged a day bed to a man who also was waiting but wasn’t prepared to sprint for it! There are not enough beds for the amount of people who want them, when the hotel is full - as it was during our stay. I don’t know how the hotel can improve this situation unless they did enforce the current ‘rules’ but then turfing people off beds is probably not the look they are going for either. 😬 We spent a number of days walking to the local beaches. My favourite was Almyros Beach, which is walkable in 30 minutes by going through the town, past the municipal football pitch and keep going on the coast road (we google mapped it) The beach is long and sandy and has a freshwater river running into the right hand side. There are loungers for rent and a cafe and toilets. It does get busy though, but the children enjoyed it. On the walk back we discovered a small cove where we came back to and spent a very quiet morning snorkelling and just further on the coast path is Votsalo beach and cafe. This was a very popular spot for swimming and there is a ‘secret beach’ around the corner of the cafe that’s worth a look. Unfortunately, there is a lot of discarded rubbish almost everywhere we went. I spent a while collecting it from one of the beaches-lots of empty cans, cigarettes and even used nappies. I have not been to a seaside town in Crete before so I have nothing to compare it to but it was definitely widespread where we were. |We had breakfast every day at the hotel which was very good and varied. We then ate out in the town every night. After some patchy dinners in the restaurants by the lake, we ended up having two of our favourite meals at the local Taverna just to the right of the hotel, ‘Mesogeiako’. The staff and food here are lovely. Also, a very popular place is Karnagio’s - huge portions and a fun atmosphere but you do need to book as it gets really busy. |We enjoyed the split between exploring the local beaches and town and then having the luxury of the hotel and its amenities when we got back. The children were quite happy to stay in their room and on a couple of evenings my husband and I even managed a cocktail together on the rooftop bar. All in all, a...