Mare Garden — Hotel in Municipality of Apokoronas

We have been to Crete many times and know what to expect from a relaxing, reasonably priced getaway. On paper, Mare Gardens seemed to tick those boxes and while there were some positives, there were far too many negatives for us to consider ever coming back.||The Pool & Bar Area - The pool area itself is pleasant and looks inviting at first glance, but we never once saw it being cleaned during our stay. There was sand at the bottom of the pool when we arrived and it was still there when we left. Behind two of the sunbeds, algae was clearly growing on the platforms in the water, not a great sign. The pool bar is modern and stylish, but I was honestly shocked that it doesn’t open until 10:30am. The “snack bar menu” is practically non-existent. Instead, two trays of snacks (usually watermelon, melon, or sandwiches) are put out and left covered all day, the options were that poor, we never even tried them. The drinks were a major disappointment. There are just four cocktails to choose from, spirits are very limited, and many require an extra charge despite us being on what we believed to be “all-inclusive”. Drinks are served in flimsy plastic cups more suited to kids’ juice. Don’t even think about asking for ice as we were told there’s one ice machine for the entire hotel, which is split into three separate buildings around 200–300 yards apart. Over the course of a week, the total amount I drank probably added up to a single 2L bottle of Fanta. Without a doubt, this was the poorest “all-inclusive” experience we’ve ever had.|The Food & Restaurant - This was possibly the strangest and most disappointing part of the stay. The main restaurant isn’t even on-site, you have to walk a few minutes down the road to what looks like an old taverna the hotel has converted. It serves both accommodation buildings, which means it’s crowded and under-equipped. There’s usually just one small coffee machine for everyone, so expect to wait 5–10 minutes just to get a cup. On multiple occasions, there were no coffee cups or plates available at all, and we had to wait for more to be brought out.|Cutlery is literally laid out on a random table. Hot plates barely keep the food warm and are all plugged into extension cables trailing across the tables. Flies were constantly landing on the food, and the overall quality was far below what you’d expect from a place calling itself a 4-star hotel. I actually felt bad for the staff, who seemed to be doing their best but must be dealing with complaints every day.|The Rooms - While the décor is fairly modern, the rooms are poorly thought out and uncomfortable. The beds are rock solid and I don’t mean they’re a bit firm, I mean super uncomfortable. Our room was right next to the indoor pool, so there was constant noise, when people walked in to the building there voices echoed and as you can imagine it was even more irritating when children were jumping in the indoor pool usually noticed in the early evening. There was also a persistent smell of eggs, likely from drainage issues.|Our room didn’t have a proper mirror except in the bathroom, and there were no sockets near it, making it nearly impossible to get ready. As two women sharing a room, this was really frustrating. We raised the issue but nothing was done.|The bathroom was another low point, it flooded every time we used the shower. There was no squeegee to push the water away, so the floor stayed wet, leaving the toilet bin and brush holder sitting in water. There was no toilet roll holder, so the roll just sat on top of the bin. No towel hooks or rails either, so you had nowhere to hang a towel while showering. It feels like they focused on a trendy boho look without considering how a guest would actually use the space it needed the room and bathroom to function for a comfortable stay. Oh and the balcony, pretty much unusable it was that small. ||The Location & Area - The only real positive, the location itself is nice. The beach is beautiful, and the area is charming with a small square and plenty of tavernas. There aren’t many bars or places to drink beyond that, but it’s a peaceful spot. We liked Splendid bar as they did great cocktails and were very attentive and played good music, I’d happily return to the area for a short stay. Unfortunately, I would not return to Mare Gardens until they seriously improve their facilities, food,...

When we finally arrived after 12 hours of travelling, we walked inside our hotel. We walked for a very long time until another tourist came up to us to tell us you don't even check in here. They then kindly walked us all the way down to another hotel for us to check in. We were then also informed that the resturant also isn't inside the hotel either, it is on a completely different street. It states on the website that this hotel has an 'on-site resturant' which it clearly does not.

It states on the website that the rooms are 'sound proof' which they are most certainly not. Every single day and night we have been woken up constantly by people talking, people shouting, people walking, absolutely everything. We have not had one single night of full interrupted sleep.

The main reason why we paid extra and booked this hotel is because it is an adults only hotel. On multiple occasions there have been children and under 18's around the pool area and the hotel has never done anything about it, including when I emailed them and informed them, they just dismissed me. There have been children around the pool bar area day and night. The resturant has also had children in it because when I spoke to a manager i was informed that the resturant was for all hotels to use. If that is the case, how in the world can this hotel possibly be adults only! I can't imagine we are the only ones who have book this hotel and paid all the extra so we can have an adults only hotel which was supposed to be quiet and peaceful!

The worst part about the holiday is the food. We normally just eat anything but never in my life have I seen food more disgusting. Every single day, no matter what time the food has been stone cold and stale. Not one time was the food even luke warm. The eggs have always been very slimy. The mashed potato? Watery, stone cold and inedible. We have had to eat out almost every day due to have disgusting the food has been. I emailed the hotel to inform them of this and they stated they will speak to the chefs and every day since we turned up to try to food, to find nothing has been changed. I have never seen anything so disgusting before and to call it a 4 star hotel is outrageous.

The all inclusive drinks programme? The smallest selection I have ever seen. If we knew this before hand we would have done self catering as the selection is very limited and awful.

The WiFi the hotel comes with, it is barely usable, absolutely rubbish.

The pool side bar doesn't really serve 'snacks' it serves warm salad wraps that are sat in the sun that need chucking but they put them there as some idiot will eat them.

It is not a sandy beach by our hotel at all. It is a stone beach.

24 hour security, this is a line. Not once have I seen a single person.

24 hour reception, yet they will sit their and ignore you completely.

Chapel? Doesn't have one on site at all. It is down a few different streets, absolutely nothing to do with the hotel.

'Garden' yet another lie.

The room definitely does not come with a telephone, but it does come with a rusty bathroom that looks disgusting and holes in the walls.

It does come with a couple of tiny toiletries but they do not get stocked.

There is also definitely no room service available either.

No wet floor signs get put down once the cleaners have mopped any floors so I fell over twice and cut my leg open and my partner also fell over.

I really don't understand how this is a gorgeous 4 star hotel at all.

On a positive note-

The rooms were lovely and clean. Cleaned daily, house keepers were lovely. Towels changed. You get some cute slippers too.

Staff are so friendly and happy. It's so nice going somewhere that has lovely staff members. They were very helpful.

The view from the pool is stunning. Gorgeous mountin view and sea view. Great for photos.

Lots to do in the area, definitely worth renting a car. We visited so many places in the area and spent a full day just exploring Crete.

Lots of room in the resturant area, however it is outdoors so for breakfast and tea...

Me and my partner arrived back from our holiday last week and we did enjoy our stay. I cannot thank housekeeping enough, they made sure our room was cleaned and up to a great standard everyday. |The restaurant isn’t in the hotel, it is next to it which is a 2 minute walk (not bad at all). The food was repetitive but it wasn’t bad. There was a lot of option for each sitting and the workers in there were amazing, making sure all food was topped up when it was running low. The waitresses and waiters work so so hard to constantly turn tables for new guests and making sure everything is clean. The only thing I would say is that they need proper air conditioning in the food area.|The hotel itself is lovely but unfortunately we will not be returning due to the issues we were faced with. |When we first arrived to reception (when we eventually found it), the receptionist asked for our booking details and for us to email screenshots of our booking to an email provided, the fact they didn’t have our booking on their system was worrying in itself. Once we emailed our booking, they then went on to say our room was not ready even though it says check in at 3pm which is the time we arrived, they told us to sit and wait and they would call us when it was ready. Half an hour goes by and we still don’t hear anything. More people to come to check in and all their rooms are ready. I then approach the desk again to ask if the room was ready and one of the ‘new’ receptionists seemed to find it funny and laughed as I was talking to them. Just wow. The woman then said our room was ready and we were shown to our room. |The room was a good enough space but the balcony was tiny and it overlooked the pool area so no privacy at all. We had to keep the curtains closed for a lot of the time which was a nightmare on the first few days as the lights stopped working. We were sat in darkness for the first 3 days. I went to reception ask about the lights, again for the same receptionist to laugh and no apology for the lights. The response was ‘yes we know, we’ve had a lot of people telling us. There’s a problem with the system’. |Me and my partner avoided reception as much as we could. They are not helpful in the slightest and just to be laughed at was just awful. I didn’t pay all that money to be laughed at. |It’s a shame we had a bad experience with reception as the hotel itself has so much potential but they just don’t seem to care and they’re not at all apologetic.|The pool area is so dirty. The pool has a layer of suncream on the top of it (which you could see). My bikini turned green from the pool. We know another couple went to reception to complain about the pool in which they responded with that it is cleaned daily. We were there for 10 days and the pool was cleaned once, that is not daily. |We went to the beach and it was beautiful, it’s a 5 minute walk from the hotel and the sea was actually cleaner than the hotel pool. So many bars and restaurants along the beach too which were lovely.|Definitely read all of the reviews before coming...