Arina Beach Resort — Hotel in Municipality of Chersonissos

It was a rather mixed experience. Overall, the hotel is good, but there is room for improvement. Some issues are very much out of their control, like the relative smallness of the pool and lack of a separate entertainment area. But other issues are very much fixable, especially where health and safety are concerned.|||My first impressions were underwhelming, with an unimpressive lobby which isn’t air-conditioned. But the welcome at Reception was excellent. Having arrived on a Tuesday, the food in the buffet restaurant was poor, and the entertainment was very loud and shouty (the pirate act). We went to bed that night wondering what we’d let ourselves in for. ||We soon found out that the buffet restaurant was the best one in the hotel, just not on Tuesday, the Mexican theme night. The Avra a la carte restaurant was very poor indeed. We tried it once and were very disappointed with the choice and quality of the food, indifferent service and complete lack of atmosphere. The Asian restaurant split opinions in our group of four. We ate there twice. I really liked it, but the other three didn’t. I’ve never been to a multi-restaurant all-inclusive resort where the buffet was the best on offer. But it was very good, with a terrific fish choice and an excellent Greek themed night.|||Unfortunately, the entertainment remained dreadful. Always too loud and mostly poor quality. Because of the lack of space at the resort, there was no escaping the noise. The hotel is crying out for an evening quiet spot. The pool bar offers slight respite, but you can never escape the noise. The wine on offer at the bars and restaurants is practically undrinkable. You can pay extra for better quality, but only in the a la carte restaurants where it’s expensive for what it is. I don’t understand why they can’t offer a decent quality wine at the bars. |||The hotel is under the landing path into Heraklion airport and it’s a quite busy route, although not overnight. The planes are fairly loud but due to the hotel’s proximity to the airport the noise only lasts about 30 seconds. It is interesting watching them at relatively close proximity though.|||The pool was nice, but it’s too small for the size of the hotel. It’s also quite cold. The beach is great, and the sea was warmer than the pool while we were there. It was very windy though, and sometimes the sea was very rough. There aren’t enough sunbeds around the main pool but, again, there’s not enough space to play with, which isn’t the hotel’s fault. This does, though, lead to sunbed hogging from about 8am. The main pool can also be very noisy, with the Animation team leading activities to booming music throughout the day. There are other pools including a quiet adult pool, which I couldn’t use as it only has vertical steps into the water and, due to foot problems, I can only use graduated steps. Despite some drawbacks, I did enjoy the main pool.|||Now to my real concern – standards of health and safety….|||Firstly, the bedroom furniture. There’s a long double shelf in the room and on our third day the end section collapsed under minimum pressure. It’s heavy stuff and came down like a pack of cards. It was quickly fixed, and Ariadni from the management team was very efficient in dealing with this and providing us with some lovely gifts to make amends.|||Secondly, in the Asian restaurant, my hand was scalded by a build-up of steam from a soup cauldron. It turned out that the thermostat had been turned up to the highest setting. Additionally, there were no signs warning guests to exercise caution with any similar appliances in any of the restaurants. |||Thirdly, one set of stairs that we used regularly to access the buffet restaurant is unsafe. These stairs link the lift at level Minus One to that restaurant. It’s poorly lit and the handrail is coming away from the wall at the top of the stairs. Again, avoidable and inexcusable.|||Finally, the excessive speed of the buggy drivers is dangerous. The buggies are used to move guests and their luggage around the site or to move supplies. We observed some buggies being driven recklessly. At one point our group of four had to take evasive action to avoid one buggy on the seafront whose driver had no intention of slowing down.|||As for our bedroom, we had a penthouse sea view room. Apart from the shelving issue we were quite satisfied. The bed was comfortable without being luxurious. The pillows weren’t great. But the bathroom was good, with a rain shower. The view was outstanding. It’s worth paying the extra for the view alone. But if we were booking again we’d definitely pay more to get a seafront bungalow with private pool. These are larger private pools than you see at most hotels but, importantly, they have dedicated sun loungers in private gardens which avoid the scramble for a decent place in the sun! Our bedroom didn’t have enough hanging space. It had a small wardrobe and nowhere to hang larger towels of the complimentary bath robes. |||The WiFi reaches most of the resort, but you need to keep aware at the edges of the resort (beach/snack bar) that it hasn’t faded. Importantly, the WiFi speed is exceptionally slow. It took 5 minutes to download a 52-minute Netflix episode. Download everything you need before you go! |||Finally, some staff were absolutely brilliant. In particular, Madu was a superstar. She seemed to be everywhere at once. Always efficient, and with the most endearing smile. The staff in the main bar always seemed miserable, but those in the pool bar were absolutely brilliant! In particular, Stellios and Andonis are two of the best bar staff I’ve ever encountered on holiday. Finally, my highest praise is for Angela, our housekeeper. She is the best housekeeper I’ve ever known on holiday, so efficient and so friendly. |||Overall, the hotel offers fair value for the penthouse room we had but lacks the luxury you’d expect from a 5. I don’t know who decides the star grading hotels are able to market themselves as, but I’d consider this to be about 3.5. It was a good holiday, but I wouldn’t return, but there again I wouldn’t put anyone else off from...

One of the worst hotels i have ever stayed in, and I am not exaggerating. I am writing this review because I genuinely can’t believe how, at the time of writing, it has a 4,8 average on tripadvisor. I am trying to save the next people thinking about booking this. ||||Do not and i repeat do not come here. ||UNLESS you are a family with small children and you enjoy being in a super chaotic atmosphere full of a thousand other screaming children. Your children will enjoy it that’s for sure but it will your worst nightmare. The hotel feels overcrowded at whole times, the buffet is yes big but it is so overwhelming. The only place you could relax here is in your private room, no chance of doing it anywhere else.||||The hotel service is awful in all its aspects. I will give you a couple examples:||||-they told us at the reception they had “upgraded us”. We had booked two superior rooms with sea view, they gave us “family room with garden view”. The rooms were much older, had a terrible views, and had many more beds that we needed and so there was left zero space. We went back to the reception to tell them as soon as we saw the so called upgraded rooms and, mind you, they got mad and irritated us. We were “causing them problems” and they made us run to leave the rooms. Of course they didn’t help moving the luggages, why would they in a 5 star hotel right?. In the end we got the rooms we booked and, at least, they were much better.||||-The sunbeds are never cleaned throughout the day and you can clearly see how dirty they are. The beach is claustrophobic and the water is full of algae. Definitely don’t book this because of the beach. Also if you booked a room with a private pool, don’t evert think of having privacy, you won’t.||It’s just big pools barely separated for each room.||||-They tell you you have to reserve a table for the asian and a la carte restaurant. Right, you get there and the staff starts complaining with you about how bad the reception deals with the reservations and makes a mess with the restaurant staff, allowing more reservations that they should. And this happened at both restaurants on different nights. At the a la carte restaurant, they only let us sit because we insisted we had a reservation. Of course that means that the restaurants you have to book have an awful service and, if you’re lucky, there’s one waiter in the whole room. ||||-About the food: mid at its best. We were so excited for the asian restaurant but the quality is just bad. The tuna sashimi was barely edible and so were many other things. I had one good seabass and piece of lamb and that was it. Reeeeally skip this if you’re looking for good food.||||-The whole hotel is just managed so badly. They have an “adults only” pool and one for 12+ people BUT they were full of kids, not even being silent, they were diving and screaming all the time. And also, to whoever designed the hotel, how could you put the supposed adults only pool right next to the one with the little waterpark and call it “relax pool” what could be relaxing about that?||||-The day of the check out, they knocked at our door at 11:00 sharp. I was helping my sister close her suitcase and I kindly asked them for five more minutes. She denied me those 5 minutes and told us to talk to the reception if we wanted an extension. I was asking for 5 minutes but no, after this awful stay, I couldn’t even have that. ||||-The whole staff was just rude to us and don’t expect to feel welcomed here. I understand that they are probably acting nervous and irritated like this because of the poor management by the hotel but it’s not nowhere okay to have this kind of service at a 5 star hotel. Which they are not, not even close. ||||I am only sad they never ask you of the stay has been because I would have told them this is the worst service I have ever had. I would consider this a 3 star hotel at best. And I have been at really awful and really amazing hotel all over the world. This, I will remember for life. Trust me, I travel very often with my family throughout the year and we’re used to having to compromise and don’t always expect a perfect service or hotel, but this was outrageous. I will tell everyone I know that is coming to Crete to avoid this hotel...

We recently returned from 10 days at the Arina Beach resort in Crete and had a wonderful time. We travelled as a couple for reference.||The Good:|- The hotel is absolutely IMMACULATE, i've seriously never been to a cleaner hotel in any country. The staff are meticulous with their cleaning and are very attentitve to any mess/spillages/etc.||- The staff are excellent, specifically the bar staff at the beach front bar, and the bar staff at the main indoor bar. They will sort any drinks they can think of, and are very quick to hand out shots to keep the party going.||- The room was lovely, we had a fantastic view (eventually, more on that later) and again it was kept very clean. The shower was excellent. I wasn't 100% sold on the pillows but that is personal preference.||- The sunbeds are incredibly comfortable||- The food was generally of a very high quality. We tried all 3 restaurants (buffet, Asian, and the other one i forget the name of) and the day snack bar. ||-- Buffet - Each lunch time i constructed a gyro's and it was absolutely sensational, i just had to ask the man behind the counter for a full pitta and he was happy to oblige. I tried pretty much everything over the course of the holiday and it was pretty much all excellent, the tomatoes in partilcar are unreal compared to what you can get in the UK|-- Asian - You have to book the Asian restaurant (which was very easy to do). It's all self service, not a la carte, but there is an array of chinese dishes and a selection of japanese sushi/sashimi. We ate here 3 times as we love sushi, but i'm not sure it would be for everyone. You also get an INSANE view of the sunset.|-- 3rd restauarnt - This is half a la carte, half self service, you help yourself to starters and dessert and order your main course with a waiter. My advice to the hotel would be to make this 100% a la carte as having it half and half leaves it in a weird spot. The main courses were fantastic, the starter buffet was underwhelming, we didn't really try much dessert the whole holiday across any of the restaurants. ||The Bad:|- We had booked a sea view room prior to arrival and when we arrived (at 3am due to a delayed flight) we realised the balcony could not see any of the sea, only the front car park and entrance to the reception (room 1011.) We asked for a new room the following morning and they said there was nothing they could do until the following day. The next day they showed me round a new room (1318) which was much better and we moved there. Bit annoying to spend 2 of your nights in the wrong room, but it was quickly resolved by the reception team. I would heavily advise asking for a room on the second floor at minimum, as the ones below seem a fair bit worse view. ||The Misc:|- We had no problem getting sunbeds each morning as we favoured the less popular section on the grass at the top of the main pool. We tended to go down about 10:00am and always got 2 sunbeds. All the sunbeds around the main pool were always taken at this point, so you will have to get up earlier than that to get one of those. As usuaul ~50% were just reserved by 2 hotel blue towels that people had plonked downwith any people nowhere to be seen, despite signs saying you couldnt reserve beds. I would advise the hotel to be stricter on this personally, but it did not impact us at all.||- We are an early 30's couple from the UK and came here knowing this was a family resort. Normally we find by planning our holidays in schooltime (in the UK) that we avoid the vast majorty of families with children when we're on holiday, and get a bit more peace and quiet/adult conversations. This wasn't the case here becuase there was an eclectic mix of nationalities and it was not predominantly UK travellers (which i'm sure some were happy about!) When we were there it was predominantly families with young children and not many couples like us. Not a bad thing, as the children were largely well behaved, and during the day there is a very child-focused side of the resort with slides and a childrens pool, but 100% something to consider if you're like us!||Would happily stay here again, and would give 4.5...