Minos Imperial Luxury Beach Resort & Spa Milatos — Hotel in Municipality of Agios Nikolaos

Checking in: Please DO NOT ask me to convert my booking email in to a PDF, and email your reception when I get to the hotel.

Rooms/common areas: have seen better rooms in 4 and 3 star hotels. The shower was nigh unusable, and flooded the bathroom every time. Mini bar only has water, and some facilities to make coffee/tea for some reason. Maybe add a few different drinks? TV has the "information" about the restaurants/bars and other facilities, but all of the pages are just image slide shows, with no information at all, or a website under construction page. There are no information brochures about the resort, and you'll have to figure everything out yourself. Sun beds need painting, some of the chars and sofas in the common areas are badly worn.

Bars: To my knowledge, there was only 2 bars open while we were there, from the morning until around 5 PM on the beach, and 5PM onwards the bar in the lobby. 5 days out of the 7 were cold, windy, rainy and miserable. However, the only indoor bar was still not open until 5, even on the day when it was raining, and the outdoor bar was closed. Everyone was paying for all inclusive, and the only place to get a drink is open with no shelter. There is a cocktail menu at each bar, with 6-7 cocktails, but the indoor bar had double the cocktails, I don't think printing out a page with the extra drink would have costed them anything.

Service: In general friendly. Bar tenders are friendly. House keeping is daily. Reception was helpful (bar the checking in). The thing that just perplexes me is the lack of a uniform, or standard clothing that is expected from waiting staff. I mostly noticed this in the à la carte restaurants, please... serving in a 5 star hotel in a sweatshirt and trackies?!? Have SOME standard at least. Even if you get the staff white t-shirts with the logo of the hotel, just make it make sense. And please, if you have grounds keeping cutting the grass outside of the rooms, don't bloody do it at 9AM. I am paying to relax, I am so glad, I was already awake. (hundreds of) small stones were lobbed against the glass door by the petrol grass trimmer so hard, it chipped the glass... and that's at 9AM...

Food/restaurants: And the worst for last... and I am looking at this having experience in catering/hospitality and food hygiene. General issue in the buffet is the lack of labels on anything, and often the wrong label is next to food items. (for example chicken label next to pork) If anyone had an allergic reaction or food poisoning, how would you be able to tell what they had? Nothing is seasoned at all. Also, please, put some extra knives/forks out near the buffet, because if you are going for a second plate, you have to take the cutlery off another table. Breakfast: Same options every day. Cold cuts are EXTREMELY cheap for example square processed ham and salad cheese masquerading as feta (it's different). Jams/ spreads are a guesswork of what they are due to no labels. Juice is mixed incorrectly, orange juice was so thick, sour and sweet, it was nigh undrinkable (sorry to burst people's bubbles, juices are normally coming in as concentrates that you have to mix with water). Lunch/(Buffet) Dinner: "house wine" is kept in carafes, and never in anything else, makes me think they came from plastic jerry cans. Clams were uncleaned and gritty. à la carte restaurants: Went to the Cretan and Italian. Prices were on both menus for all items, even though it's all inclusive. Print new menus, it costs nothing. Cretan- Shrimp starter was inedible, uncleaned shrimps. Mains were okay, only 1 dessert option which was okay. Italian- We both ordered the fish main (I think was meant to be sea bass), fish were really small, makes me think not sea bass, also extremely overcooked. Fish was hard as boot leather. Vegetables were microwaved, potatoes were missing. I had to double check what the sauce was, as it tasted vile, it was meant to be hollandaise... It was dark, and tasted like it was made from chicken bullion and flour. Red wine was also served oxidised, dark...

Was a 4-star hotel maybe many years ago today, not so much. The room is beautiful. I'll start off with that. When initially had the 1 bed with private pool booked. We got a free upgrade to the 2 bed private pool room, which was great. Room was clean had ac and the pool was clean. Loved it and no complaints about the room besides the location it a pretty good walk to get anywhere. There are constant resort workers riding around on empty multi row golf carts . Sometimes, they would offer you a ride other times they would fly right past, so I don't know if you can ask for a ride or what......now to the service horrible the only one who was genuinely pleasant was the maid who cleaned our room the guy who initially drove us in the golf cart to our room the first time. He was actually the only one who wouldn't drive past back and forth with an empty golf cart while I was out walking in the heat with my 3 year old daughter and wife. The last person was the receptionist who gave us the upgrade for our room. Beside those peiple everyone else seemed like they hated thier life and we're overworked which they never failed to mention especially the older lady working one of the bars. I saw her go off on 2 people saying she was overworked and hadn't had a break in 12 hours. So because of that, she refused to refill the drinks and do anything unnecessary as her shift ended in 45 mins. Next, the food and restaurants. Smh. So the buffet trash the only good meal was breakfast which is hard to mess up. Unfortunately due to the restaurant setup was the only place you can eat consistently. All the restaurants require reservations, even the one that essentially serves bar food. Those restaurant run out of reservations quickly. There is an app for reservation but on day 2 of our 6 days trip everything was booked out we actually got 2 lunch reservations at the italian restaurant that was it. For those that made it this far I will tell you my experience trying to go to a restaurant without a reservation. So to remind we had the room with the private pool we stayed in the pool super long and around an hr before the lunch buffet ended, and my daughter passed out like a rock. My wife and me decided not to wake her up and I told her I'd walk to scope out the buffet 30 mins before it closed. When I went in it was scrap no meat and just rice and bread and fruit. Whole walking around I observed another guest come in loom around and ask the server if they were gonna refill anything. They said oh yea. Then sat around and looked at the sky. He asked again after a few minutes he said nah because they close soon. Interesting never heard that at a buffet. At that time, pulled up the schedule saw that the restaurant that serves bar food doesn't close for another 45 minutes. So, I decided to walk down there. When I arrived there was no one there it's a outside pool bar type setup. So arrived 49 minutes before it closed ask the bartender for the menu, and he gave me a snack one that started at 1500 which basically had salads and quick stuff. I pointed out that it wasn't 3pm yet, and he gave me the menu with burgers and etc. So looked at it and called my wife and called the bartender back over to order. Thats when he stated that only the servers can take orders. Which when I asked why, did you let me look at a menu at the bar without telling me that I got that I know suddenly don't speak English stare I said whatever so just order with a server and he said yea. From there since all the tables were empty, I went and sat at one and waited on a server. When one came up finally, he said do you have a reservation I said no then he said I can't take your order. At this point I'm pissed because I'm being given the run around and I remind you this is a grill place so think burgers and fries. Anyways at this point I'm pissed and ask the server about the manager for the first time. (I don't think they have one for the entire resort just fyi) he ask me for the time and says oh they are probably gone. I'm like what the heck!. To be...

This is essentially a lovely hotel. My room was modern and very clean. My room was 246, thank you to the lovely lady that kept my room so clean and tidy. Staff are friendly enough, some more helpful than others, but you get that everywhere. The views are amazing, being built on a hillside, you can get a view from any level, all beautiful. For the less mobile, this may be a bit of a problem as there are many steps and inclines thoughout this big resort. There are golf carts which staff can take you to your apt block/villa though, I don't know if this need to be pre-booked or not. There are several pools to choose from including an adults only pool, a kids slide pool etc. They are all well maintained. The sun beds are made of a wood base and a thick mattress type bed. They are very comfortable, although they do look bit 'well worn'. Pool towels are very easy to come by. Easy drop points for your used towels. You then get them replenished in your rooms. Your all inclusive drinks are your standard fair, only one choice of beer (lager). They are served in a small plastic cups, except if you go and have a drink in the Veranda Bar in the main building. Friendly enough bar staff too. Now the food. Its standard all inclusive fair. Very samey. Some very odd choices at times, like what I thought was grilled/seared beef, only to bite into eat and find that it was liver!. Also cuts like neck of lamb etc. Not cuts of meat that we see that much of nowadays in the UK. Also portion sizes are small when it cones to meat portions, although you can go back for more. Salad is fresh and tasty. Veg hit and miss, some fresh, some frozen ( which personally I cannot stand). There's a fish option available each day, and plenty of cheese. The fruit option for pudding is cut up fruit, laid out to dry out in the heat. Mainly apples, oranges and grapefruit, with occasional offerings of pineapple and kiwi. Taste varied. One person serving you your breakfast, lunch and dinner drinks, which was fine the week I was there, but on busier weeks I imagine there could be a bit of a wait for your drinks. The guy who serves you your drink in the main restaurant is so lovely and happy, always ready with a smile and very polite. The food I would only give 3 stars, this could certainly be better. Also you could really only get food at breakfast lunch and dinner. You could get snack food after 3pm down by the pyiot bar at the bottom of the resort. Ice cream was available from the main restaurant during meal times and at the pyiot bar. I don't know if you could get it at the kids pool area as I did not frequent it. My point being is that this is the worst all inclusive option regarding availability of food throught the day, and standard of available food I've come across. You cannot get a free drink on your all inclusive package between the hours of 11pm and breakfast the next morning. You can drink the bottled water available in you mini fridge in your room. Same with food, only available at certain limited times of the day without being charged for it. If you have a late arrival, be aware of this otherwise you will get charged for it. The hotel shops are very expensive. You are a captive audience really as the hotel is out in the middle of nowhere, which is nice on one hand, but on the other, it is not easy to get anywhere, there are no buses that come anywhere near the hotel and it's quite a hefty taxi ride to Sisi, which I've been told is lovely to wander around. There is a little fishing village/beach which is about a 20 minute walk away, there is a little tourist/supermarket which opens at 10 am, and another one further into the village which i have no idea what time it opens. There are several restaurants and beach bars there which are reasonably priced so if you get fed up of the food at the hotel, take a little walk down there. Ive been told the 'No Name' bar is good. Overall a good stay, hotel itself is nice, staff are friendly enough. The only things that let it down are the food and the all...