Creta Maris Resort — Hotel in Municipality of Chersonissos

Just returned from our first stay at the Creta Maris resort, and had a wonderful time. This is a wonderful resort, and while there are some small things that could be improved, I still think this deserves 5 stars.||I wanted to leave a detailed review, as I find these so useful when searching for holidays, so hopefully people reading this find the same.||Check in||My husband, 8 year old daughter and I, arrived at Creta Maris, for 3am on a Sunday morning, for an 8 night stay. We were immediately helped with our bags, and went through the simple check in process. I’d already checked in online, so this was super easy. We had booked via TUI a “deluxe double room with inland view and balcony or terrace”, which is pretty much the most basic room they do, I believe.||The room||The room was ok, lots of storage, also lots of amenities such as a nice large TV, hairdryer, sewing kit, shoe horn, dressing gowns and loads more. The AC worked really well, black out curtains were fab and the beds were extremely comfortable (albeit the king beds are just 2 single beds pushed together - but I liked it). ||However, I will say, the room was a little tired. Upon arriving, I initially thought the bath was dirty, but it was actually just tatty with some scrapes and discolouration. The room could use some fresh paint - but overall, it was a decent room. The shower was also decent, but the shower guard didn’t cover far enough meaning water got on the floor. ||I did have one big disappointment, and that was the location of the balcony. We were right above the dumpsters… which was disappointing at first. But it also meant we had a lovely view of the mountains, so in the end we accepted we can’t have it all. ||Overall the room was pretty good. Importantly, the mini bar came with quite a few drinks, and then was topped up with water only for the rest of the week. I think, as a 5 star, this should be topped up more often. ||The main hotel building||The reception area sure has a wow factor! It is stunning and leads straight out to a bar which has an incredible view of the pool and the ocean. There are some shops in the main building too, these were pricey but specifically the mini market was very useful for small things we needed. ||My room was in the main building and was very convenient. The main buffet restaurant is in the main building, and is technically on the ground floor (which oddly is floor -1, because reception is at 0). The main pool is right outside of the main building as well. ||The grounds ||Every inch of this resort is stunning. I walked around all over the place, and it was just beautiful wherever you went. The gardens are kept perfectly manicured. The resort is huge.. BUT contrary to what I’d read, we didn’t struggle walking it (we are all able bodied with no push chair). As it’s so huge, the resort seems peaceful, even though we were there during peak school holiday time. ||It took us 10 minutes, with an 8 year old, to walk from the main pool/beach area, to the water park. ||The Enomy Restaurant (main buffet)||We didn’t eat at the buffet much (apart from breakfast). It’s good, and will suit most children and adults. The selection was huge. Dinner was better than lunch, and lunch was better than breakfast. ||I found the morning service in the buffet challenging. It was difficult to get tea/coffee/water, as staff have to deliver you these and they were always super busy. This would be much improved by having self serve tea/coffee, and more self serve water available. ||The A la carte restaurants||To book one of these, you need to wake up at 8am, and use the app to book a table for the following night. It’s super easy to do, but a bit annoying waking up at 8 to do it. Still… it’s worth doing. You can visit each restaurant once per week of your stay, I believe and you absolutely need to experience them! ||These restaurants were incredible. I ate at most of them… and as a foodie, I was hugely impressed! I had some of the best food of my life from these. ||In order of my favourite:||Mademi - this was incredible. Fine dining style, in the most stunning location imaginable.|Arismari - Also fine dining style and a close second. The location is basically on the beach, and you can enjoy dinner while watching the sun set. |Platia - This was more family/wholsome food, and was very tasty. |Pithos - beautiful location with Mountain views. Food was great, but was outshone by the others.||Drinks||As everyone says, all of the many bars at this resort make the best cocktails. They are very good and the bar staff are well trained. The all inclusive includes everything except certain brands of stuff. They even offer a good selection of alcohol free drinks.||My only negative point is that the queues can get pretty long. And I am somewhat surprised that there are no self serve facilities in the day - not even for water that I could see. Other resorts I’ve been to, you get access to fill your own water, cola, beer and even wine from the taps. This would drastically reduce the queues. I think this is one thing that would improve the experience the most. ||Smoking ||I do not smoke, but I do vape. I found it very confusing to understand where I was allowed to vape. I played it safe and only ever vaped at tables where there were ash trays, but these would often move - so I wasn’t clear on where smoking areas were. I’ve seen reviews complain about people smoking near kids, which I thankfully didn’t see, but this might be because it’s unclear. The resort largely seems non smoking, so if you are worried about children being near smoke, I wouldn’t. There were very few smokers anyway. ||The Pools & sunbeds||The pools are all fantastic - but most, if not all, are unheated. No problem for us, but if you’re going out of season this could be a problem. ||The main pool is beautiful and as you’d expect the sunbeds get taken up quickly. What I will say though, is that there are deck chairs, beds and benches that are all equally great and free up regularly throughout the day. A bit like a carpark- if you hang around for a while you’ll get a spot. ||The water park is the furthest from the main pool and is great. Took us 10 minutes to walk there, but it is a hilly walk. It gets busy but you could often get a sunbed especially if you wait around for a little while. ||The best pool in my opinion is the one by the Kourites bar - near the water park. It is much quieter, has Bali beds, is much easier to get a bed, and the bar was my favourite. This bar also served Crepes, waffles and ice creams, and seemed to have more stuff to do nearby (table tennis, pool, arcade etc). The pool itself felt a bit colder than others, but was the most fun. I treated this like our central point, as much of the evening entertainment is also near there too. ||The entertainment||The kids disco is more like a toddler disco, pretty boring for anyone over 6. And the entertainment in the evening was not the best I’ve seen. One night, they did do a proper DJ set which was excellent, and more like a proper disco that the kids loved. I’d love to have seen this more often. ||The Staff||The staff were excellent, and always very helpful. I saw some reviews complaining about being bombarded by the spa and photography sales people. But, we actually decided to do the photography session, and it was the best decision we made. The photos were as good as my wedding pics. Buying the photos is expensive, but also not crazy, by comparison to other similar photography services. ||The beach ||The local beach is nicer than it looks in the photos i saw. The seas were pretty rough when i went, but loads of fun. The water was perfectly clear and really beautiful - there are some rocks so water shoes will help. ||Hersonissos||The local area is nice, but it is definitely worth venturing out. We rented a car, and drove through the mountains to another city for the day. It was excellent, and the main road that runs from east to west, is so smooth that all vehicles sound electric. ||Kids Club||This was excellent. I was able to book my daughter in, in advance of the holiday. Some sessions require swimwear or certain outdoor wear so please check this in advance. ||The kids club staff were amazing, 10/10, and all ages seemed to enjoy the time there. It was well organised, safe and fun for them all. ||Summary||This resort is probably one of the best in Crete and almost certainly one of the best in the local area. Like I said, there are some possible improvements but not enough to take the score down from a 5 star. ||Possible improvements:||A touch up/refurbishment on the rooms|Easier access to water during the day.|Self serve drinks (Tea/Coffee/water/cola) throughout the day.|More organisation at breakfast buffet|Better evening entertainment to create a slightly more...

This was our fourth year in a row staying at the hotel for our summer holiday. It’s perfect for what we want - amazing food, beautiful beach and wonderful ambience. ||We appreciate that the hotel values loyalty. This year and last year we have been invited to a cocktail for frequent guests, which is a great chance to meet the management. The hotel consistently listens to guest feedback and every year makes improvements. Even small things, like adding Nespresso machines to the rooms, improving kids menu options in the a-la carte restaurants, and adding a new salad bar by the beach, all these details are improvements suggested by the guests, and it’s wonderful to know that the hotel management listens.||The restaurants are amazing - five a la carte options for dinners, combined with the two buffet restaurants that always have plentiful food, whether you come at the start of the meal time, or the end. There’s no fighting for food at Creta Maris! The beach is fantastic - a lot of loungers available, unfortunately it’s a public beach so people still are allowed to smoke, but we noticed that less people smoke every year. Overall, at this hotel you never have a problem to find somewhere to sit and relax.||We like to recognise some people that helped make our stay special:||Enomy - Katerina & Katerina who helped start our day right every day; and generally we noticed the restaurant a lot calmer than last year under the new restaurant captain, Paola.||Pithos - Theofanis, Maria & Kalliopi make this a wonderful experience, it’s our overall favourite restaurant (although it’s a very difficult choice as all are amazing)!||Platia - Christina was very kind and gracious in explaining the new ‘tapas’ concept this year; and making sure we had plenty of everything. It was also lovely to see one of the Katerinas from Enomy at Platia during our dinner there.||Alatsi - Lefteris always makes our experience here amazing; it was great to be able to take our daughter this year, now that children are allowed on certain days.||Arismari - it was a much improved dinner experience than in previous years, thanks Dimitra!||Nami Wine Cellar - world class wine tasting experience with Giannis. We’ll be back for more. Inspired us to choose a bottle of Lyrarakis when we went to Mademi.||Adama & Vegera - the whole teams are exceptional. Lovely cocktails, especially liked the 50 year celebration one.||Ani and the team from guest services are so warm and enthusiastic, we always felt they wanted to help and nothing was ever any trouble. Ani personally made a lot of effort to help us find something locally.||Christos from the Aperol Spritz bar was warm and friendly every day. Very attentive to us, even though a lot of the time we were just going for cups of water!||Eleni who leads the restaurant reservations team was exceptional, once again, guiding us with anything we needed and always having a big smile (despite her job is not an easy one!).||The new kids menus are much improved in all of the a la carte restaurants. We were always able to find something suitable and portion sizes were good. Everything is so good, but we know the hotel always likes to keep improving so we offer a couple of suggestions:||⁃ It would be great to make Vegera bar non-smoking. It’s frustrating to be there with kids during the day and have people around smoking. Generally, it feels odd to see relatively much more smoking at the hotel than we are used to in the UK, and we understand it’s a difficult balance as some guests do like to smoke. However, unfortunately smoking impacts on others through no choice of their own and we’d really love it if the hotel could find a way to have more non-smoking areas, particularly given it’s a family friendly resort.||- The kids club disco should have more variety in songs played, rather than repeating exactly the same songs in the same order each time.||We thank the hotel for another wonderful 10 days! We fully expect to be back next year, as there is simply nowhere else that gives us what we...

I have recently returned from a week’s stay, where we stayed in an adult deluxe room. I cannot say enough how wonderful this hotel is. The best we have ever stayed in. Initially we were not happy with our room (it overlooked the noisy main road and a tree with loud cicadas) however reception was so helpful in getting us a better room which was miles better.

The adult only areas are excellent, well done to the hotel for including this this year. The adult pool is quiet, and there is a wonderful security guard that guards the pool and beach and watches out for children, promptly telling anyone that should not be around this area to go away, the lifeguards do the same. We felt very safe in the hotel. The Sima bar has lots of choices in terms of drinks and the barmen were very friendly and organised, I never had to wait long for a drink. You can also get sandwiches, fruit or salad throughout the day. And a short walk to the food arcade, you can get fruit, smoothies or salads.

The food in the main buffet is truly wonderful. The best all inclusive food I have ever had. There was so much choice, and all the food was fresh and delicious. We also ate at the smaller lunch buffet by the main pool, which was also nice. We didn’t book any of the other restaurants as the main buffet was just spectacular. Every night is a different theme, so the dishes are different. The adult only area in the main restaurant was again nice and quiet from the children, and we never had to wait for a table. The staff again were so friendly and prompt in taking drink orders or clearing away plates.

On an evening we went to the adult only cocktail bar, again great to not be around kids. The ladies there were excellent at sending people away with kids. Loved the cocktails there and the views were gorgeous.

Our room was cleaned daily, no problems here. Had everything you wanted in the room like toiletries, kettle, bat robes, slippers, good tv you could link youtube to, wifi excellent around the hotel also.

The hotel grounds are truly gorgeous and well maintained. I went for walks all around the complex to explore, and it’s huge. Walked up to the Terra building with the other pools and waterpark, and the buildings look like a little village. Also the hotel is close to shops and the main strip, so the location is great.

In terms of sun beds, yes people do put towels down early. But what is frustrating is that the towels are on the beds and nobody ever arrives. They should be removed by staff but they never were. If you walked around you probably could find a bed somewhere either on the beach or around the smaller pools.

I liked the beach and the water was lovely. By the lifeguard tower there is easier access into the water as it’s sandy. I would say that the steps to the beach by the Sima bar could be better as it’s not easy for people with walking difficulties.

Some improvements:

More signs at the adult only areas.

More hand rails to get into the adult only pool.

Air con in the adult only area of the buffet.

Make Ice cream/ sorbet available near the big pool or adult pool, I’m sure you could serve it in one of the food arcades.

Better cleaning of the beach and around the adult only pool.

Better locks on the toilet doors around the hotel, not all work.

The late departure facilities need looking at. One dark shower room is not enough.

More evening entertainment.

Designated smoking areas.

Welcome drinks or snacks for late arrivals.

Overall though, we had the best holiday. The improvements are just suggestions on how this hotel could be even better. We loved the adult only areas and would totally recommend it for people without kids who want a bit of peace and quiet. The hotel is beautiful, a massive complex which did not seem busy as everything was so spread out. All the staff every where are friendly and accommodating. The food is amazing and the drinks were lovely too. You really could not ask for more. We would certainly return, thank you...