Mitsis Rinela — Hotel in Municipality of Chersonissos

Didn't get off to a good start at all. Arrived in the early hours of the morning due to Air traffic control strikes in Greece. I had messaged the hotel in advance to warn of our later arrival, as had our travel agent. Despite the queue for check in, there was just one person on reception who was taking 15 minutes or more to check in each family. When it came our turn, we were very distressed to be told the the hotel didn't have us down as arriving until the following day! This was contradicted by the dates on all of our paperwork and our travel agent who we had on the phone via their emergency contact number. We were told that the hotel was full and that we must wait in reception for the rest of the queue to be checked in before he'd see if he could find us a room! It was now after 2am and we took rest on the foyer seating, not ideal with a weary child. More taxis and busses arrived with further guests who were seen to first, until at around 4am we were allocated a small room, not the Family swim up suite we'd paid for. I think it was 4.30am - 5am before we were in bed! Such a bad start to the holiday and it was hard to see how the holiday could be saved. After breakfast we went and spoke to reception, who thankfully arranged for us to move to the room we'd paid for. The reason was apparently that the previous occupants of our room had been allowed to keep hold of the room later. I'd have preferred not to have been lied to at 2am and just been given a small room for my family to sleep until everything could have been sorted out the next day. The guy on reception was utterly hopeless, but in his defence, he could have done with some additional support or a manager available by phone. A few days later we we given a complimentary spa treatment as an apology, which was appreciated. Our travel agent also gave us compensation, but I feel the mistake was very much for the hotel to take ownership of, not our agent.||Room: Our room, a Swim up Family Suite, was excellent and met with our expectations. Very clean and well appointed. There was a mini bar that was restocked daily. Nice to be positioned by the pool, but sadly the water was far too cold to actually swim in, indeed some guests had brought wet suits with them, which is probably a good idea.||Food: Good and terrible. The a-la-carte options were generally good and I was glad to have booked all 5 in advance via the hotel app. The Italian was by far the best, the Greek restaurant strangely was the poorest, with a beef stew so tough and chewy it was inedible and Red Mullet that I'm fairly sure was frozen fillet and actually Sea Bass, not Red Mullet.|The buffet was sadly not good at all. Very limited options that were beige, bland, tepid and repetitive. The salad bar was mostly recycled items from previous services, which is fine, but quality was so poor. A mussel salad was full of broken shells that stuck in my teeth and cut my mouth. Very uninspiring and also incredibly busy. We have been to in excess of 15 all inclusive resorts over the years and I think this is the poorest buffet we've experienced.|The pizza, BBQ and crepe stations near the pool and beach were all good and meant the buffet could be avoided for lunch.|Drink: Wine was reasonably good by all-inclusive standards. Service in the lounge bar quite slow and you will see people order 2 drinks at once for this reason. The other bars have good service but a limited range of drinks that are served in reusable plastic.||Entertainment: Some music in the bar and a show in the theatre bar most nights, but we didn't really watch it ourselves.||Location: The beach is really nice and a major selling point for the hotel. Chrystal clear sea which is shallow and safe for swimming. The local town has a few shops but little else to offer. The hotel is a short 15 minute transfer from the airport which is great. There were aeroplanes flying in over the hotel, but infrequent and didn't concern us.||Gym: Looks to be a new addition this season. We'd have used this for sure, but it's not on the hotel map and wasn't mentioned to us. Found it on the last day unfortunately.||Spa: We enjoyed the spa and had a good massage. There was an offer of 24% off if you book within 24 hours of arrival. They could do with a sauna and jacuzzi, as there isn't one.||Service: Taking our check in issues aside, all staff were friendly and helpful. Service often a little disorganised or slow, but this might be as it's the start of the season and their getting up to speed with the job.||Overall:|Positives: The rooms, friendly staff and the beach.|Negatives: the check in and food issues mentioned.|There seem to be a lot of recent 5* reviews from new accounts with 1 contribution that make me suspicious that they have been left by hotel staff or AI bots?|Would we ever return? No sadly not, how could we after what happened to us? We might consider the Mitsis group for other locations.|If you can avoid the issues we had and can book the restaurants in advance then I'm sure you'll have a great...

First of all, I would like to say the 3 stars I am giving this hotel is more realistically a 3.5. However, I wish to highlight some things that need to be considered when booking this hotel.

In a lot of other reviews and social media posts these are overlooked by people, perhaps because this is above the standard they are used to, but for anyone who wants a proper 5 star all inclusive, this place does need some tweaking.

I’ll start with the positives:

Room: The room itself was fantastic, recently renovated and gives a lovely classy Greek feel for guests. The bed is very comfortable and the shower equally terrific.

Cleaning of Room: This is done daily and always to a high standard, the cleaning team here do an excellent job with the rooms. The staff equally treat your belongings with respect which is always a nice touch.

Pizza Station: I’ll come onto the negatives but arguably this saved the food, a nice wood fired Pizza oven that ended up being our lunch every day. Would recommend this part for most of your lunches.

Pool and Beach: Both areas have great wooden sun-beds and are extremely comfortable, you do realistically have to reserve pool beds in the morning, otherwise by about 10am most are gone and you’ll have to go to the beach. Equally, the service around the pool is very attentive and saves you going up to order.

Veranda Sunset and Cocktails: This is a great place to spend anytime between 7pm-9/10pm, you get a great view of the sunset, typically Greek sunsets are beautiful, and the cocktails are top tier, would recommend the negroni and margarita if they are your usual tipple.

Now for the negatives:

General Food: We were really disappointed by the overall quality of the food, the buffet was below par, often serving the same food over and over again each night. We never had the chance to have any proper Greek food I.e, Halloumi or proper Greek gyros, both absent (the Greek pitta on the beach is served with a burger which just felt wrong). The individual restaurants are equally not great, the Greek taverna was awful, if we had paid for this I’d be requesting a refund. The Italian was below par. The steak restaurant probably the best of the lot, but still a way off what I would consider a great meal. Admittedly, we like our food, so this may not be an issue for all, but I think they can do a lot better here.

Consistency of decor: Whilst the rooms are clearly newly renovated, the interior of the main buffet feels outdated, it feels like you are in a different hotel. We never stayed longer than 20 minutes in the buffet as the outside areas are a lot nicer (see veranda positive feedback). For us, a great hotel retains consistency throughout, and the Mitsis Rinela is just not representative of that currently.

Creperie: There is a creperie by the pool, which does serve good food. That said there are some things that don’t make sense here. The ice cream parlour is also in the same section, and due to the time it takes to make a crepe, you can queue for 30 mins to get an ice cream, I feel they need a better system here. We were also refused sprinkles on our ice cream as it was in a cone not a cup.. yet we could walk into the buffet after and get sprinkles anyway.. just no sense to this.

Wine: Avoid the wine, unfortunately they only serve local wine and it’s pretty woeful (we are not wine people at all, but like a nice Provence rose or New Zealand white wine, which were lacking).

Families: There are a lot of families with children, whilst this doesn’t bother us, sometimes the kids need to be better supervised. The hotel needs to enforce this a bit better, for example the pizza station was full of young kids not capable of taking pizza without dropping it on the floor, sometimes the apparatus being used for the pizza was also dropped by the kids, not the most hygienic.

Room service charge: They charge us 10 euros for room service delivery, feels a tad distasteful.

Overall, we had a great time, but we feel there’s a lot of improvements needed, hope this...

I always say the biggest asset of the Mitsis is its employees. In Mitsis Rinela, the General Manager build an extraordinary team of inspiring and dedicated people who show the world-famous Greek hospitality at its best. Special mentions: Zoi from the Gym – the best classes ever with the nicest coach ever. Maria the Head of Bars in the Hotel – top-notch professional, a true inspiration for its colleagues: Anna Maria, Christine etc... Maria the Nutrition Specialist, Maria from the Customer Relations... George, Georgis, Rado, Eleni... I apologise for others whose names I forgot. You are the best and make Rinela what it is. Thank you very much for everything.

HOTEL: the site is compact in comparison with Royal Mare and Spa. In high season it feels packed, especially the main pool. The resulting issues with the central pool are thus be awaited. Thus, if possible, get a room with a private or shared pool. It will be less crowded, you will have better-positioned sunbeds and the water will be cleaner.

ROOMS: ours was satisfactory with a bathroom big enough. The housekeeping was reliable. The minibar filled on a daily basis. The walls were sound-proof enough. If issues with the air-conditioning occurred – it was fixed in a reasonable delay.

BEACH: best of all Mitsis on Crete. Big enough, sandy, clean.

FOOD: The food in main restaurant was of sufficient quality and quantity although it could be felt the savings had to be made in comparison with previous years in other Mitsis hotels I have visited. One huge issue for me personally in Rinela was the amount of salt in certain dishes. The piece of advice to the chefs there: there is a salt jar on every table in the restaurant – salt the food just a bit – and if someone needs more – it can be easily solved at the table.

THE THEMATIC RESTAURANTS: hard to get there, but if you manage to do it, it is interesting enough. The staff working in the thematic restaurants is excellent and I send a lots of love back to them: Eleni, Rado etc. Bravo!

THE GYM: in fact, an improvised shed in front of the hotel. The biggest disappointment for me as I spent most of my vacations in gyms. Total disaster in comparison with Mitsis Royal. However: thanks to Zoi and her colleagues, who literally saved the day for most of the fitness freaks every day, it was great after all. Yoga classes, Whole Body Work Out Classes, Tabata etc... I tried and participated in most of them and am motivated to continue in some training routines even after I came back from our vacation. The biggest respect to the Gym Staff – if you do not earn the employee of the month – I do not know who else should! ALERT: according to the staff at the reception as from 2026 season, there should be a brand new gym in Rinela.

HOTEL LOCATION: it is so close to the airport you get there in 20 mins. Considering the torture of travelling from/to the Heraklion Airport to other Mitsis hotels, this is a huge advantage. Also, in front of the hotel, there is a bus stop to take trips to Heraklion, Agios Nicolaos and other places of interest.

SHOPS IN THE HOTEL and AROUND: the usual staple with the usual pricing. Still, in comparison with the bankrupted Radisson Blue, a miracle.

THE SERVICES: organise a club membership with Mitsis and you will get a lots of perks. There is a doctor coming on site but we thx God did not have to use her/his services. Close to the hotel, I have seen clinics, dental clinics etc.

TO SUM IT UP: One of the best Mitsis we have been to. If you come in low season, get a room with a pool and good neighbours in adjacent rooms and do not have to be in gym every morning, it is a dream vacation worth every penny.

SPECIAL MENTION: the SPA: it is another company who runs it for Mitsis – but the people working there are the best. Olya and all of you: you are angels. Literally. Patient with men who keep forgetting their appointments, explaining all the different massages and beauty treatments and giving the best massages ever. You...