Kahlua Hotel & Suites — Hotel in Municipality of Chersonissos

Firstly, I should say that before our holiday we noticed there were very few recent Trip Advisor reviews of Kahlua Boutique Hotel. At the end of our stay, we mentioned this at the reception desk and were told some hotel guests review the adjoining restaurant (Kahlua Beach Bar) instead. There may be some points about the hotel included amongst those reviews.||||Location - probably the best bit. Breakfast literally right next to the sea felt idyllic (surprisingly some people still chose to eat inside). Kahlua Boutique Hotel is conveniently placed in the middle of a long row of restaurants and bars running right along the sea front (with a marina at one end). It was the end of the season so there wasn’t much entertainment anyway (could have done with a pub quiz … the nearby Irish bar is missing a trick) - although we did enjoy some Greek dancing in one of the restaurants. Inland and running parallel to the seafront is a road filled with souvenir shops (including some called 'Cannabis Shop'!), clothes shops, a few more eating/drinking places and supermarkets etc. It’s not too far from Heraklion airport (about 30 mins drive). For those who don’t mind walking up hill (alternatively you could pay for a taxi), I thoroughly recommend a 15-minute evening stroll up to Koutouloufari where the restaurants and bars are quaint, more traditionally Greek and less touristy than on the sea-front. It's well worth a visit - just for the atmosphere really - although we also enjoyed a great meal at The Alchemist there. Just along from Koutouloufari - and also worth a visit - are Piskopiano (where we were entertained by some live Greek music in one of the restaurants) and Old Hersonissos (with a particularly nice little bag shop run by a delightful elderly lady who makes the bags herself). We also caught a bus (very cheaply) to Malia - another popular resort … just to see if we were missing anything. We weren’t - Hersonissos is much prettier.||||Room - ours was in the new part of the hotel (across the road from the reception area and right next to the pool). Clean, bright and modern. I will mention a few negatives - but none of these really bothered us: 1) no wardrobe (just hanging space - with insufficient hangers so we asked for more) 2) no cupboards or shelves - although there were a few surfaces to put things on 3) Hairdryer badly positioned (too far away from the mirror to use both at the same time. If this is an issue, I would say take your own hairdryer). 4) It was great to have a fridge but the interior was badly designed so things tended to fall out 5) We obtained a key for the safe from reception but initially weren’t told that the instructions on the safe (regarding using a code) no longer apply. There is a knack to opening and shutting the safe door - turning the key one way while turning the dial the other. 6) Other reviews have mentioned noise as being a major issue but as our visit was in October, I assume the resort wasn’t as lively as it is in the summer. I don’t like air conditioning so we had our balcony window/door open (with meshed sliding shutter pulled across to keep out mosquitoes) and I must admit that - even though we were in the quieter part of the hotel (i.e. not overlooking the sea) we could still hear a booming bass sound lasting until around 4am. (Shutting the door would obviously have muffled this a lot). The bed was fine and shower etc. all really good. Nice towelling bathrobes provided.||||Food and Drink - we booked B&B. Breakfasts were fantastic and included pretty much everything you could imagine - hot and cold (fried eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, chips, a selection of fruits, ham, cheese, cucumber, croissants, biscuits, cereals, milk including a choice of non-dairy alternatives, muffins, halva etc. etc). Bizarrely the cold food selection even included a bowl of Turkish Delight! The one thing they didn’t do (which I have enjoyed on previous holidays) was cooking food in front of the guests, so the omelettes weren’t made to order (they were sitting around in ‘hot’ containers) and there were no crepes. I can understand why some people would complain that the ‘hot’ food was lukewarm but again, this wasn’t an issue for me. Obviously, I can’t comment on half board but I will say the one evening meal we had at Kahlua Beach bar (exactly the same spot as where breakfast is eaten - but different lighting changes the atmosphere) was very tasty … and better quality than many of the meals we were served in other seafront restaurants. (Only complaint is I didn't like the menu being on a tablet). Food and cocktails aren’t cheap at Kahlua - but that was true of most places (one exception being a little bar called Pietra Snack Bar - a minute’s walk from the hotel and on the corner across the main street. The lady here - Liza - is slightly crazy, very entertaining and cocktails are excellent value). Cocktails in Crete don’t tend to be elaborately decorated as they are in other countries. I sometimes paid around £10 for one with no fresh fruit or other embellishments. The alcohol content seemed reasonable though. (A Mai Tai I ordered in a bar named the White Lion was memorably strong … although I definitely don’t recommend that particular English pub for food. My octopus meal was so bad I had to send it back - and the chicken tikka masala which replaced it wasn’t much better. For a change from Greek food, Wasabi Sushi and Noodles bar is good).||||Hotel staff - Excellent. Extremely pleasant and helpful. Can't fault any of them.||||Other hotel facilities - the pool is small but that wasn’t a problem in October as hardly anyone went in it (too cold for me). The sunbeds are comfortable but many were in the shade for long periods due to the position of the buildings cutting out some of the sunlight. Fortunately, our balcony was sunny so we sat out there instead. There’s a table-tennis table next to the sunbeds and bats and balls are free of charge. I booked a massage (full body) which cost more than £60. It was in the next hotel (presumably because there are too few customers in October to justify keeping both massage places open). Nice girl and a pleasant experience but I felt it was overpriced.||||Other - I'd say the majority of Kahlua Boutique Hotel guests weren't British. There were quite a few Dutch and a mixture of other nationalities. Plenty of Brits in the resort generally though and the locals spoke good English. Weather - always warm but sometimes cloudy. One day (in 11) of showery rain. The showers are heavy but don't last long and there was some sunshine in between. We only went on one day trip - but it was worth it. A ‘jeep safari’ which included (at an extra cost) the Caves of Zeus (steep walk up - OK if you’re averagely fit and healthy ... and then steep steps down within the cave itself. You don't spend long inside but we felt it was worth the effort to see the impressive stalactites and stalagmites), an olive oil factory, cheese factory, sheep-milking and cutting, a traditional Greek lunch and various other stops. ||||We've been told that the south of this island is prettier than the north. However for the price we paid with On The Beach, our holiday was excellent value for money and I would thoroughly recommend this hotel. (All the negative points I've made were very minor issues as far as I'm concerned which is why I've still given a...

As a group of 4 parents & 3 teens age 17 we spent 4 nights at this beautifully located hotel. Our junior suite was a beautiful, corner room with two balconies directly overlooking the sea, very clean, with generally kind & helpful staff who explained the beach towel policy - 10 euro deposit, allows you a clean beach towel every day, 10e refund when you return your towel at end of stay. If you are in a suite, you also get to use a very comfortable beach sun bed without extra charge. Our friends were also given a better room at no extra cost, when they explained they were not happy with the first split level room offered. ||||The hotel location was excellent for a holiday with teens - lots of shops, ice cream parlours, restaurants, bars with football screens including McDonalds within a short distance of the hotel. ||||Hotel Cooked Buffet Breakfast was adequate & included a choice of almond & soya milk, cooked eggs, baked beans, pastries, fruit, salad with a few different items offered different on each day. ||||On the beach, the beach bed & a la carte service was prompt, reasonably priced & efficient from a very hard working young lady & man called Phillip.||||The three biggest negatives were a)the loud music from the sea front played from around midnight until about 4 a m - bring noise reduction headphones or ear plugs or choose a room well away from the sea front with a side sea view b) the hotel policy of not allowing half board guests to choose outside tables for breakfast or evening meal even when there are tables free - as they reserve the best tables for a la Carte guests - the breakfast area is a bit cramped & dismal unless you are lucky enough to grab one of two nicer larger tables nearer to the sea. Due to the positioning of a large plant pot it was impossible for us to move tables together to sit as a group of 7 & we had to squash up around one smaller table- yet there were 2 larger tables with stunning sea views a few feet away which would easily have accommodated us - had the policy allowed half board guests this privilege!! C) the half board set menu is great for meat & fish eaters but a bit repetitive & limited for vegetarians e g risotto or pasta as main course - that having been said - the mushroom risotto was delicious, the starters of beetroot falafels or tzatziki were good, as was the Greek salad, cous cous salad & portion sizes of fresh fruit dessert were very generous. On day 4 - when I explained this was my 3 rd risotto (due to limited vegetarian main choices) - the waitress also produced two extra side dishes of bean salad & quinoa. ||||All in all, this is a lovely hotel, but, if you have a sea view room, make sure you bring noise reduction headphones & your own choice of music unless you too party every night until 4 a m!! ||||Photo below: - the tables empty waiting for a la carte guests a) at breakfast b) at sunset - so sad, as us half board guests were not allowed to eat at these tables; even when I complained & asked if our group of 7 could reserve the larger table, I was told this was not possible due to hotel policy & we would have to eat 3 of us on one table & 4 on another. ||||Please, hotel management, change this policy to allow all your guests to fully enjoy the...

The best hotel I have ever stayed in. It was our first-time visiting Greece and I have never been met with such a great service before. The breakfast was lovely and with variation. They even had local candy, cakes etc. that any tourist must try! The hotel is located right between the main shopping street which is several kilometers long in both directions. If you walk the other way, you are right at the beach with all the restaurants you would want to visit. The facilities are great and in an extremely high standard. There is a fridge, amazing beds that are lovely to sleep in, wardrobe, bathroom accessories for example shower gel, shampoo, soap and sewing kit. Everything in this hotel was extremely clean, it was outstanding. The floors on the balcony were even washed every morning. The same counts for the pool area. Everything was cleaned everyday if not several times a day. By the pool you could enjoy their luxury sun beds, table tennis or lounge chairs. The hotel collaborates with a Mexican restaurant which serves food, drinks, and snacks by the pool with delivery. Here you get a discount if you live at this hotel as well. The hotel also has discounts in their supermarket right by the hotel. The hotel also offers spa and massage; however, we did not try this. You can borrow towels for the beach or the pool in the reception for a deposit of 10 euro. This hotel was outstanding, my partner and I really enjoyed it. I will recommend it to anyone I know, and I will definitely come back soon. The staff spoke perfect english and were all so helpful. A special thanks to a brunette girl who was sitting in the reception during the day and who was in the resturant in the morning. We stayed...