Miramare Resort & Spa — Hotel in Municipality of Agios Nikolaos

I'll start with the positives...||The hotel itself is lovely. Without exception we found the staff to be polite and friendly. The VIEWS from the place are both beautiful and exceptional. Whatever minor moans I will go on to later mention about the place, the view alone very nearly makes up for them. It is certainly one of the best I've ever experienced from a hotel.|The restaurant 'guy with the bald head' some have complained about, was always polite and friendly to our party of eight friends, and always ensured we had a big enough table set up so we could all sit together; and I thank him.||The negatives (in my humble view)...||The hotel site / complex is on many levels, requiring the visitor to negotiate many steps, slopes and stairs to get to the different pools, etc. - even when taking into account the couple of elevators in the main building. Most of these aforementioned steps, slopes and stairs are quite uneven underfoot and in most places there are no handrails to support yourself when negotiating them. (In fact - although I am not privy to all the details as I didn't witness the incident - one male visitor while we were there fell and broke his leg ending up in a plaster cast and walking on crutches!|The hotel DOES however offer a 'golf buggy type' service to ferry guests from outside the reception area to the top level via the complex's internal road / pathway system.||The on site mini market has a limited selection of goods and is VERY expensive.||Cleaning of our room wasn't great, though regular towel changes were fine. After taking a shower and walking across our room to the bed, we would ALWAYS find the soles of our feet to be black, meaning that the floor hadn't been swept or mopped.|The signal to the TV in the room was poor and mostly useless during the day. Late at night we could usual find a couple af channels showing programmes in English - watchable, although the picture and sound kept breaking up. This wasn't too much of a problem as we don't usually go on holiday to foreign climes to watch TV! lol||Our biggest problem was we paid for a 'All Inclusive PLUS' stay. It's what Jet2 promised us and charged us for. And it wasn't! |WE did enjoy three meals per day from the restaurant with several choices of meals. The food was generally ok, but mostly tepid and lukewarm rather than hot. They even had a microwave there inviting guests to use it to heat their food if they preferred it hot! This is not acceptable in my humble opinion. We paid three and a half thousand pounds per couple for this 10 day stay, and the very least we expected was for our food to be hot!!||As part of our package, we we told a full range of local and international drinks would be available to us. They were...but only if we paid extra for them. |For example: they had nine different whiskies on the menu - all the same price - but we were only allowed one particular brand all inclusive. All the rest - despite being the same price - had to be paid extra for. The same with the beers; all, give or take, the same price, but we could only choose from two without incurring extra charge! Similar was evident throughout the drinks menu. I just don't understand why the restrictions were in place - especially in view of our 'All Inclusive PLUS' status.||The hotel DID give us the opportunity to upgrade to 'All Inclusive PREMIUM' directly with them at another 30 Euros per person / per day, but that didn't make much difference to the package we already had except we would've apparently got a free SPA treatment thrown in. As my daughter owns her own SPA / Beauty business, that was of no interest to us. It would've just been nice to have what we had THOUGHT we were booking and paying for in the first place! Also, whatever all inclusive drinks we could have finished at 11pm. If you wanted to carry on after that you had to pay for them!!||Speaking of the SPA, only one of our members used it for a massage (which admittedly she said was very good!), but on enquiring she was told that the gym / steam rooms / indoor pool etc. that we had been promised was available to us as guests, was ONLY open to us IF we booked and paid extra for SPA treatment first!! We never tested this, but that what she was told by one of the girls working in the SPA. If this is important to you, check the facts before booking.||The pools were very COLD at all times, despite the weather being in the mid-30's each day! It wasn't too bad once you were in the water and acclimatised to it.||The evening entertainment on the outside terrace bar - the only entertainment the hotel offers - was frankly, pretty dire! Evenings saw us 'enjoying' a pretty average piano player / singer who to be honest we, and most people we spoke to, found irritating. The standard of play and vocals were, I'm sorry to stay, pretty poor - especially the stuff sung in English. As you would expect, the Greek tunes they played and sang were much better, but sadly they were few and far between. We ended up venturing into town most evenings (an 8 Euro taxi ride) to an Irish Bar where the karaoke was to generally a higher standard of musical entertainment than that at the hotel! To be honest, I feel that for a hotel of this size, cost and stature, more effort should be put into laying on some decent evening entertainment for guests. There was also NO day time entertainment or activities on site, on in / around the pools - which I found unusual.||So in summing up, I enjoyed the hotel, the staff, and it's absolutely wonderful views - but I just feel it would take very little effort and money to 'tweak' the things that I (and many other guests I spoke to there) feel need 'tweaking' - all as mentioned above. It would then be the perfect location and holiday.||Sadly, as it is, I personally don't feel I'd stay...

Just checked out of the Miramere resort and Spa Crete after a fantastic holiday. Hotel was perfect, views stunning. Reception staff were really friendly, helpful, always very quick to respond to request.

RESTURANT: We stayed premium all inclusive with Tui and always found the buffet sufficient.Food was varied and tasty even our very fussy teens always found something to eat. There is a section where the chef cooked up fresh food such as, fish pork chicken,kebabs omlettes etc. The resturant staff were friendly you were shown to a table rather than choosing your own but just request a different table if it doesn't suit. The resturant has a full sea view with an outdoor eating area. Despite the hotel being busy we never had to for the resturant.

POOL AND POOL BARS : Were fantastic. There is a choice of 3 outdoor pools and 1 indoor pool all were very clean with plenty of beds and each pool offered stunning sea views. Despite there being a few kids it was always very tranquil. The 2 top pools have bars and served food and drink. The food at the main middle pool was very nice and most on the menu included in the all inc. Pool bar staff were very friendly.

HOTEL GROUNDS: Were immaculate with stunning views wherever you were. It is on a steep hill but the people moaning about this in other reviews did know before booking (it is well highlighted in brochures and the internet). We stayed at the very top of the hill which was well worth it because we had all round absolutely stunning sea and mountain views from all areas. If you take the lift In reception (which always worked whilst we were there) to level 4 then you can walk the small inclined up to the pools and higher rooms. The hardstest incline is from the road to reception but halfway up this Hill is a lower entrance to the hotel then you take the lift to reception and higher areas .All the areas of the hotel have stunning views.

ROOMS: We stayed in a 1 bed suit (656) and this was lovely. We arrived at 3am and there was a bottle of water, wine and a plate of batclave waiting for us. The view was stunning(best we have ever had). The beds and pillows were really comfortably we had a sitting room with a sofa bed, a pull out bed for our kids, a safe, big wardrobe with plenty of space and drawers and a safe(decent size) Our room had twin beds together, big wardrobe, dressing table, TV a large balcony with 2 sun loungers table an 2 chairs. Bathroom had a bath and over bath shower .

Overall lovely, comfortable rooms with the fridge stocked every day with mini spirits water and pop. Our flight home wasnt until 00.40 and we needed to check out at 11am but we were given a room on the morning we checked out because we were all inc, the room was ours until we checked out at 6pm

SPA: We had a free massage on the all inc for 3 of us. The girl on the spa reception Constantina was lovely. She was very friendly and accommodating agreeing to letting our 14 year old have a half hour massage. She gave us advice on places to visit. Amy the masseur was lovely and made you feel welcome and relaxed. The massage itself was 50 mins and very good.

AREA: About 25 mins walk to the main center but via the sea front is lovely walk with shops and bars along the way and a lovely small harbour of bars about 10 min walk. The area directly outside hotel is a lovely pebble beach and 3 bars and a shop.

NEGATIVES: Were the lack of entertainment for both adults and kids with only a piano playing In the bar and a cretin night on Wed which was an extra charge. We didn't see any kids entertainment but not sure if there was any or not, we just didn't see it . Would recommend putting another pool table as there is only 1 table which was hogged for hours at a time by the same people our son got to play once at night the whole holiday so he got bored at night. Also perhaps a small games room for the kids with machines and air hockey, table football, table tennis, would...

On arrival at the Miramare resort and Spa early hours of the morning, we were greeted well as a large family by the reception staff. We were told to leave our things and go to the restaurant where food had been prepared for us! Great we thought, on entering the restaurant we were greeted by a member of staff who made us feel like an inconvenience to them, asking us to eat quickly and go to bed! I get the fact that he may have been tired and so were we however it made us feel really uncomfortable choking down food what was just warmed through. What a start...|The next morning we woke our room was lovely with no issues to report there. We met for breakfast which was the usual style buffet with good selection of choice. We then went to the pool area looking at our map the only children's pool was right up high in the hotel and this is a trek up lots of stairs etc so if you have mobility issues this hotel is not for you. On arrival to the pool, it was in a very unkempt state. The hotel had been experiencing heavy winds for the previous as we found out from another couple and today was no exception. The sun loungers are in desperate need of replacing as a lot are broken. The side tables were still covered in spilled drinks and empty cups from the previous day. The children entered the pool around 9.15am to be screamed at by staff to get out and not allowed until 10am, not sure why this rule is as there are no lifeguards anyway. The pool cleaning commenced after people were in the pool again not very hygienic. The week was just fraught with one issue after another. The maître de was very rude on our first evening meal to the restaurant, asking us how many in party and then flinging his arms in the air, again we are an inconvenience! Reception staff were giving out keys to the gym at 5am in the morning yet this was not supposed to be open until 10 as there are rooms above which led to sleep deprivation for some of our family with small children. Water on the table is another confusing process, have a glass each is fine and free, want a bottle to share between you all comes at a cost of 6e's. This was a child free place holiday but this hotel certainly doe not cater for children with only one meal choice lunch and dinner for them. Very little entertainment unless you want to pay extra. The Cretan night was an additional 20e's each. The magician show on the second night seemed a good choice, however he arrived and quickly disappeared, must have been part of the act as no one saw him after that!. Most nights are very low key, so if you like entertainment then definitely head into town. We did speak to the rep who sorted and dealt with our issues swiftly. |If you book all inclusive then just be prepared to pay extra. On a positive note the poolside staff and snack bar was amazing and the food so much more supreme to the main restaurant, but obviously you pay for this. I would certainly visit Crete again the people are lovely, the weather, the views etc. I don't thin the Miramare report and Spa was for us and Tui should definitely not be promoting this with child...