NIKO Seaside Resort Crete - MGallery Hotel Collection — Hotel in Municipality of Agios Nikolaos

We’re a couple in our 30s from London and stayed at Niko Seaside Resort for a week. The hotel sells itself as a luxury 5*, but in reality it falls well short of that.

The Good

The view: From the rooftop (9th floor) and 5th floor pools, the panoramic sea view is genuinely breathtaking. It’s the only thing that feels truly five-star.

The town: Agios Nikolaos itself is wonderful. Around the lake and harbour there are great restaurants, buzzing bars, and lovely boat trips from the local port. If we came again, we’d skip half-board and eat out every time.

The weather: Exceptional throughout our stay—sunny, a little windy, but ideal for exploring.

The Not-So-Good

Rooms & balconies:

Our “sea view” room overlooked two trees and a scuba diving sign, not the expansive ocean view advertised in the marketing photos. After three days of complaints, we were moved to a better view, but even then every balcony in the hotel lacks privacy.

Balconies are north-facing, so you get almost no sun—even in high summer. And because the main road runs directly below, you’re dealing with constant traffic noise, plus chatter and smells from the creperie right underneath. If you want to sit outside, expect the sweet smell of crepes mixed with exhaust fumes and voices from 7am until midnight.

The first 2 levels of rooms are on floors 1-2 then the next level 3-4 and so on. In our opinion the best rooms are on floor 4 as the floors 5-8 that all include a plunge pool get zero privacy as those eating breakfast/dinner or using the pool on floor 5 will get a view of everything you do or up your shorts if you use the plunge pool. We didnt see the balcony pools used once. This being said I am sure the views were lovely from these.

Pools & sunbeds: The two pools (5th and 9th floor) look fantastic in photos, but in reality you can rarely use them. Unless you’re reserving a sunbed before 8am, you won’t get a spot.

Room: The open-plan shower has no fan, so the whole room steams up unless you keep the balcony doors open. The lighting system is a confusing array of preset “moods” that make it frustrating just to get a normal bright light. It feels like style over function. Toilet paper to bed sheets are budget.

Food & Dining

Breakfast runs until 11am in theory, but from 10:30 no fresh food is replaced. Dinner is worse: it supposedly runs until 10:00pm, but in practice the hot dishes are cleared away around 9:30.

Proteins like chicken, fish, or meat vanish quickly, and staff simply don’t replace them. If you arrive even slightly late, the best dishes are gone.

Buffet labelling is very poor. If you have intolerances or allergies, you’ll spend all your time asking what dishes are—which is worrying, because staff didn’t always inspire confidence with their answers.

Twice we even had to queue to be seated at the buffet, which is bizarre when it’s already included in the package.

Facilities

Gym: Tiny—around 3m x 3m. Equipment includes one treadmill, two bikes, and a few sandbags instead of proper weights. Two people can just about do a floor workout at the same time. Definitely not worthy of a hotel calling itself five-star.

Wellness: If bad weather strikes (rare in Crete), and you want to use the sauna, it costs an extra €25. Again, surprising for a hotel in this price bracket.

Service & Atmosphere

Staff are a mixed bag. A few were warm and professional, but many were indifferent or simply didn’t smile. Any request—from asking about food to querying our room—felt like we were inconveniencing them, not the other way around.

The hotel is popular with a mix of European guests, many of whom smoked regularly. If you dislike being surrounded by smoke, this is not the hotel for you.

Overall

Niko Seaside Resort is not a five-star hotel. It’s a stylish property with incredible views but limited comfort, poor service consistency, and food that doesn’t measure up. If you’re looking for genuine five-star hospitality, you’ll be disappointed. If you just want a base with a rooftop pool and don’t mind noise, smoke, or a lack of privacy, it may...

The hotel itself is nice enough, but there is a general lack of attention to detail across too many aspects to be considered a great stay. Also, as an adults only hotel, there is hardly any interaction between anyone, which makes for a bit of a dull stay. It swiftly becomes, "eat, sleep, repeat."

If you are unlucky enough to arrive when the hotel is full, and you have a standard room, you may end up with a side room. These are described as having ''courtyard views'' - but in fact, they simply stare directly into a construction site. Unless you are a bed-ridden patient, these rooms are not something you would want to spend a week's holiday in, as there is no balcony (only a juliette balony), and only 1 chair. At least provide 2 chairs for a couple!

Thanks to great staff, we were upgraded the next day to a Junior courtyard suite, (which had 4 chairs and plenty of space both inside and on the balcony - more than enough for 2 people!). Easy to spend a week in this type of room, you can sit and have an evening drink, do a morning yoga, relax or even enjoy a movie. Of course we were satisfied with this upgrade, however if we had paid full price for this suite, we would be a little disappointed. The plunge pool we did not even use, as it is in the dark and only receives 1 -2 hrs of sun a day. It is very cold in the pools and the pool lights or jets did not work. The 2 curtains installed over the very beautiful bi-fold doors are installed back to front, so you cannot have them open just a little - its all or nothing - and you are VERY overlooked by passersby, staff, and a highrise of balconies opposite you that can see right into the bedroom area.

Despite these things, the lighting is good, shower excellent (although no ventillation or extraction in bathrooms or toilet), beds & pillows very comfortable with 2 pillow styles offered . The only down side on the beds, was our suite had twin beds, with no option of putting the beds together, so it felt a bit weird as a married couple to sleep with a huge gap between us.

We opted for the Gourmet Half Board package and wished we had only gone with the Bed and Breakfast package. The breakfast is incredible - definitely up there with the best - and so generous to include local sparkling wine you can help yourself to if you're inclined to indulge! The staff in the restaurant are incredible, so professional, they never missed a beat. The dinners leave a lot to be desired, as they don't have any authenticity. One of the night's we were there, pork souvlaki and chips was on the menu which finally got us excited, but it was a 'restaurant' version of the real thing, and so underwhelming. There is so much good Cretan food available everywhere in Crete, don't limit yourself to standard dinners here. The desserts are also quite repetitive and overly sugared and coloured. It was also just annoying that even local wines were so hugely inflated. A carafe of wonderful local wine from every other establishment nearby was never any more than 8euro for 50cl. We paid 20 euros for 2 glasses of standard white wine - from Macedonia! The cheapest on the menu. Why not celebrate the produce of Crete?

The pool area on the 5th floor is lovely, gets sun till about 3pm. The private beach jetty area is also fantastic, with a lady coming to offer drinks every 30mins or so. You can try scuba diving here too for just 50 or 60 euros. There is plenty of little fish to snorkel and enjoy, no coral of course, but nice enough and great for open water swimming.

The gym is simply 2 rooms on the ground floor behind reception. Each room has some really high tech equipment in it, but alas, you are just in another small hotel room.

In fact, there is not even a list of activities or local attractions given in the room. It would have been great to see the hotel encourage guests to really experience Crete! It would seem they are more interested in you spending every moment there.

All in all a nice stay, but would be better to stay for maybe 1 or 2 nights after a long gorge hike, on the...

A very good modern hotel. Within 10 minutes walk of the town centre. Rooms are fresh and new, open shower. We had an sea view room with a plunge pool and it was excellent. Air conditioning worked well. The showers had clarins shampoo etc. Large flat screen TV, super comfortable huge bed. We had a great view of the sea and it really is worth stretching the extra per night. Only downside was limited wardrobe space for the two of us as I had to double hang my shirts and give my partner the extra space. And also the stupid curtains this is the second hotel I've stayed in with this ridiculous curtain and lighting system there is zero wrong with pulling curtains! Maid service was excellent everyday.

There are two pools, we preferred the quieter shallower 9th floor pool with the little chill out shaded beds. Pool beds do fill up fast and are limited on the 5th floor, usually by 9am 5th floor and we noticed later morning for the 9th. Everyone reserves beds and there's just no other way round it here. The private beach out the front I believe is shared with the intercontinental hotel next door so expect children there. Lots of beds and the water is crystal clear for snorkeling! It is shale and stone so take beach footwear with you.

We did bed and breakfast as there is so much choice in Agios Nikolaos. Only a few off days on the buffet for me but the service was excellent and plenty of choice from hot to cold and excellent coffee. We also enjoyed the lunch menu for pool snacks, worth sharing as the portions are enough. Didn't stay around in the evening to try anything else.

The drinks menus are good if a little expensive 12-14eur for a cocktail which was slightly more than we paid out down in the centre but they were well made.

Things others have mentioned in their reviews: Lifts, yes there are two lifts I waited no more than 2 minutes the whole week to get about.

The rooms in the middle with plunge pools dont look out onto anything but do get quite a bit of sun in the day and have beds.

The suns gone from most of the loungers at 5pm in mid July. Beach loungers on the pier have endless sun.

You do need to get up early and get a bed if you want to chill at the pool all day.

Although 5* there could be some improvements as I did feel occasionally there was something lacking.

Firstly we had a late flight and wanted to extend our room. Initially we were told we could keep the room till 2pm without a charge and to come back another day to arrange. When I returned I was told 11am and there would be a charge of 200 euros to keep it till 5pm. I have stayed at a few 5* hotels and the most I have ever paid is 70 euros/dollars or been moved rooms. I've seen this charge vary for a few people. It was annoying as we didnt Initially arrive till 11pm the first day. They did however let us keep the room till 1pm and a good tip is to book the shower spa room for free at the end of the day. We went out for lunch and had a beach afternoon then used the spa shower before travelling. I really think this charge needs looking at as its obscene compared to other hotels.

I also found a few of the staff didnt seem too thrilled to be working there and did find the service to be a little lacking in places, overall it was very good though but an occasional smile and how are you wouldn't be too much to ask!

Lastly our plunge pool didnt get cleaned, it was dirty the whole week and im not sure it even worked correctly with the jets. I asked but nothing was done which I was disappointed about.

Overall:

Hotel 5* and modern, great rooms (other than the curtains) clean and the bed is one of the best I've slept in

Location 5* great for town, nice little beach and never felt unsafe once in the area.

Breakfast and lunch 4* could do with a little more improvement on the hot breakfast side. Lunch great.

Service 4* so very nearly 5* just needs a bit of staff training on communication and a few bits sorting and this will be an amazing hotel!

Overall we had a great week here and would definitely return if we came back to...