Esperides Resort Crete, The Authentic Experience — Hotel in Municipality of Chersonissos

We stayed in a room of the category “Luxury Duplex Suite with One Bedroom.”

The layout of the room does not match the name of the category — this is not an apartment with a separate bedroom. To increase the usable space, part of the room was divided into two levels. To achieve this, the floor in that part was lowered, and the kitchen and bathroom were placed below (like in a bunker), while a small “bedroom” was built above them.

Because of the lowered floor, a staircase was constructed, and with my height of 180 cm, I had to bend down to get into the lower part. Once I forgot and hit my head hard, injuring myself. To fix this design flaw, it would be enough to change the angle or add some padding.

The “bedroom” area is so small that on one side there’s only about 20 cm between the bed and the wall — you can only pass sideways, and when you walk past the TV, your shoulder brushes against it. There is no door to the “bedroom.”

The biggest problem and disappointment was the lack of a sea view. Instead, the window overlooks the construction site of another hotel building. In the photos — there’s a sea view and everything looks great, but in reality, just outside the window there are steel bars, scaffolding, construction workers, and noise. The builders start working at 7 a.m.

There are no mosquito screens, so you have to hunt mosquitoes every night. We reported this issue to the staff — they provided us with a mosquito repellent device, but it didn’t work at all; the mosquitoes flew around ignoring it. Apparently, nobody told them they weren’t supposed to fly when the device was on.

One blanket for two people is very uncomfortable — people have different body temperatures! If one person is hot and the other cold, sharing one blanket is not pleasant.

The towels were old, with some even having holes.

Instead of bedside lamps, there were cheap wall sconces with exposed bulbs. If you turn on the light, it shines throughout the entire room and disturbs the other person trying to sleep.

In the kitchen, there was no dishwashing liquid or sponge. So even though the room had a kitchen and a sink, there was no way to wash the dishes properly — we had to rinse a coffee cup by hand before using it for tea.

The refrigerator had no shelves or compartments on the door, so if you open a bottle of wine — don’t throw away the cork — you’ll have to store it lying down.

There was no ventilation in the bathroom, which caused mold.

The lack of hot water was the cherry on top. We had no hot water for a whole day. As “compensation,” we received a printed note from the reception and a plate of unappetizing sweets — leftovers from the breakfast buffet.

The liquid soap dispenser was broken, though it was repaired on the fourth day.

At breakfast, they serve instant coffee but claim it’s filter coffee — dishonest. During breakfast or dinner, you can’t make tea yourself; you have to ask the waiter, which is inconvenient. Probably done to encourage guests to order extra drinks from the menu for an additional charge. And what was truly surprising — during breakfast, you can’t pour yourself a glass of plain water — only fruit-infused water. If you ask the waiter, they will bring you regular water.

The entire hotel territory is 99% built up. It’s a dense, multi-level complex. In my opinion, the hotel owners aimed to make as much profit as possible from a relatively small piece of land. Nearby, there are many places where the rooms are spaced apart, giving guests privacy, a view, and a real area to walk around. This approach may be profitable, but it completely deprives guests of any sense of space or openness.

The sea is quite far, and the nearest beaches are small and overcrowded. This wasn’t a problem for us since we had a rental car and went to more comfortable beaches.

The food is delicious, and the restaurant service is good. This was the best part of our stay at this hotel. The staff were very polite...

We stayed in a room of the category “Luxury Duplex Suite with One Bedroom.”||The layout of the room does not match the name of the category — this is not an apartment with a separate bedroom. To increase the usable space, part of the room was divided into two levels. To achieve this, the floor in that part was lowered, and the kitchen and bathroom were placed below (like in a bunker), while a small “bedroom” was built above them.||Because of the lowered floor, a staircase was constructed, and with my height of 180 cm, I had to bend down to get into the lower part. Once I forgot and hit my head hard, injuring myself. To fix this design flaw, it would be enough to change the angle or add some padding.||The “bedroom” area is so small that on one side there’s only about 20 cm between the bed and the wall — you can only pass sideways, and when you walk past the TV, your shoulder brushes against it. There is no door to the “bedroom.”||The biggest problem and disappointment was the lack of a sea view. Instead, the window overlooks the construction site of another hotel building. In the photos — there’s a sea view and everything looks great, but in reality, just outside the window there are steel bars, scaffolding, construction workers, and noise. The builders start working at 7 a.m.||There are no mosquito screens, so you have to hunt mosquitoes every night. We reported this issue to the staff — they provided us with a mosquito repellent device, but it didn’t work at all; the mosquitoes flew around ignoring it. Apparently, nobody told them they weren’t supposed to fly when the device was on.||One blanket for two people is very uncomfortable — people have different body temperatures! If one person is hot and the other cold, sharing one blanket is not pleasant.||The towels were old, with some even having holes.||Instead of bedside lamps, there were cheap wall sconces with exposed bulbs. If you turn on the light, it shines throughout the entire room and disturbs the other person trying to sleep.||In the kitchen, there was no dishwashing liquid or sponge. So even though the room had a kitchen and a sink, there was no way to wash the dishes properly — we had to rinse a coffee cup by hand before using it for tea.||The refrigerator had no shelves or compartments on the door, so if you open a bottle of wine — don’t throw away the cork — you’ll have to store it lying down.||There was no ventilation in the bathroom, which caused mold.||The lack of hot water was the cherry on top. We had no hot water for a whole day. As “compensation,” we received a printed note from the reception and a plate of unappetizing sweets — leftovers from the breakfast buffet.||The liquid soap dispenser was broken, though it was repaired on the fourth day.||At breakfast, they serve instant coffee but claim it’s filter coffee — dishonest.|During breakfast or dinner, you can’t make tea yourself; you have to ask the waiter, which is inconvenient. Probably done to encourage guests to order extra drinks from the menu for an additional charge.|And what was truly surprising — during breakfast, you can’t pour yourself a glass of plain water — only fruit-infused water. If you ask the waiter, they will bring you regular water.||The entire hotel territory is 99% built up.|It’s a dense, multi-level complex.|In my opinion, the hotel owners aimed to make as much profit as possible from a relatively small piece of land. Nearby, there are many places where the rooms are spaced apart, giving guests privacy, a view, and a real area to walk around.|This approach may be profitable, but it completely deprives guests of any sense of space or openness.||The sea is quite far, and the nearest beaches are small and overcrowded. This wasn’t a problem for us since we had a rental car and went to more...

Before I go into the negatives of our experience I just want to credit how fantastic and accommodating the staff at this resort was. Super polite, welcoming and could not do enough for you. ||The hotel is very aesthetically pleasing, very modern and colourful however I would not say it’s worth the money unfortunately.||We made the mistake of booking all inclusive. I tend to always book all inclusive just to be on the safe side and know I don’t have to mess about etc. I have an eating disorder and my partner doesn’t drink alcohol. However when looking through the photos of reviews and the resorts photos the food looked fantastic. Main reason I booked really because I noticed food I would eat and thought I wouldn’t have a problem. However the “nice looking food” in the photos isn’t included in the all inclusive, that’s the food you have to pay separate for. On the all inclusive it was selected things only which wasn’t mentioned when I booked it. It was shown on a menu at the resort what was included and what was not. There was one draft beer, one gin, three cocktails max on the all inclusive and the alcoholic free beer has to be paid for. ||Even though the hotel is beautiful, we definitely wouldn’t not have booked this hotel if we had known this was the case. The all inclusive consisted of three buffets in the day (quite similar everyday). Speaking to other couples who went all inclusive said the same thing to us, it’s not the all inclusive experience you normally get at hotels. If that’s the case that’s fine as everywhere does it different but would have appreciated it being stated because like I said we would have avoided this hotel for personal reasons. The information on the booking I found to very misleading. ||Another thing I would point out is that the day we arrived, we got there at near enough midnight so missed that full day. The last day for checkout is 11 o’clock however our flight wasn’t till late on at night so once you hit checkout time, the all inclusive stopped for us as well. We were grateful enough that the hotel allowed us to have lunch as we mentioned we didn’t get anything out of our first day. For someone who wouldn’t have said anything, that would have meant they only got 5 days of all inclusive when in reality they’ve pains for 7. ||We were informed by locals and regular visitors that our mistake was booking all inclusive as there’s so many restaurants around to try. We were struggling to find food on the buffet we liked/ wasn’t repetitive so we decided to cut our losses and eat out. We felt stuck because of how much we paid for all inclusive and felt disappointed with what we got for that but didn’t want to eat the same stuff all the time therefore spent most of our spending money out. ||There was an al a carte meal on them but they failed to mention to us we only had 3 days to chose from in that week so we went to book it but told we’d missed it because it’s only on set days. Fair enough but might be handy to inform guests that information. ||There was also a lack of entertainment I would say at the hotel, you don’t see visitors stick around on the nigh but this is possibly because there is so much to do out. ||The location of this hotel is fab, so much to do around and the people are incredibly friendly. Would want to go back to the same area but would choose a different hotel next time and go either self catering or half board and use the money I would have spent in all...