Aquila Atlantis Hotel — Hotel in Municipality of Heraklion

Dear future guests of this hotel, let me just quickly tell you how the situation is in this hotel before you decide to book here something:

You get the free bottled water just for the first day, an just for the first day, the other days well..we had to buy water from ourselves every day. Don’t think you will get bathroom products (we had to buy that as well), I asked 2x at the reception, the answer was always “No” (as someone who works in hotel business in 5* hotel, the first answer for every question is never “NO”.. optional: you say let me check and I will call you or something like that - dear hotel management: please pay some workshops for yours co-workers, their behavior in a 5* hotel in not updated). As shown in pictures and videos you get all-in-one shampoo-conditioner-Hand soaps-feet soap etc. The hair-dryer is from the 12th century, so if you do have thick and big hair (like me), you will probably need more than 1 hours to dry it. I asked for the better up-to-date hair-dryer on the reception- guess the answer.. it was “NO” of course..

About hotel: I think this hotel had 5* like 10 years ago, but not today. I posted pictures from the room I booked on Booking.com (business room with city view- the bathroom i booked can’t be recognized in the one I got) and the pictures from the room I got at the end: horror. I think they use the SAME perfectly photoshopped in high-glamour pictures for EVERY room. Please update your pictures on Booking-site and don’t fool people around just to sell your rooms. The pool on the rooftop is really small-you can fit 7 people inside and it will be crowded. Nothing is up-to-date or modern, everything is old. They don’t have a bar on the rooftop pool-if you’re thirsty or hungry, there is a phone and you can call the reception and order something.

About service: The workers haven’t greeted me not once, they do greet, but just if you greet them first (I repeat myself again: it’s a 5* hotel). Something like that is extremely unprofessional and rude. All questions and conversations I got was before the breakfast: “good morning, which room you are in?” Some other girls right next to our table got the full program from the staff: “hi how are you? Did you slept well? What are you seeing today? Do you need some restaurant recommendations?“ etc.. so the staff chooses if they are going to be polite or not (in a 5* hotel).

Facit: I’m disappointed in everything here. It’s not worth the money I paid. The goal of every traveler is to have the best time wherever he goes, and the goal of every hotel should be to make the staying worth remembering. You get an paper (which I also posted) where it explains what’s everything that is missing in the room, mostly because of covid situation (for example: I’ve been in 5 cities along the Italy coast 2 weeks ago, the covid-situation hit them harder As you all know, but the hotels I’ve stayed in, were perfect and really tried hard to make it an effort), so you guys don’t need excuses like COVID-situation, you just need to handle everything better. I’m disappointed in everything here and about this hotel. Staying for 3 more days and can’t wait to pack my luggage and leave this “wanna be 5* hotel”.

I hope you will learn something from this and make it better and not just write me some answer like “we’re soooo sorry bla bla bla we will improve in the future bla bla bla”.

Best wishes and...

The hotel is beautifully decorated as it appears recently renovated. The bar area is comfortable and a great place to have a drink before going out, with a vast wine and drinks choice. We found staff friendly and helpful. Our room was cleaned daily to a high standard with fresh towels, and the bed was always made neatly. The rooftop pool area is a real sun trap and relaxing. The rooftop pool itself is slightly on the small side however this was expected staying in a hotel so central within the town as space is minimal. The location is perfect within a 5 minute stroll to the vast choices of bars and restaurants within Heraklion. There is a covered pool on the ground floor which was quite tranquil.

There are however a few reasons for only a 3 star review. Our room did not have a balcony and overlooked essentially concrete rooftops to the side of the building. Throughout the booking process the photos implied even the most basic rooms had a balcony at the front of the building. Even now our booking email confirmation shows a photo of a beautiful room with a large balcony. This wouldn’t have been an issue with us if it wasn’t made more transparent what our room included.

A (very) small bottle of water is €2 from the minibar, of which there are only 2 bottles. These are replaced daily, of course more can be requested. However, there is a mini market a 2 minute walk and we found 1L cold bottles for 50 cents. For 30 degree weather I found the lack of water available within the rooms staggering for a 5 star hotel.

We did not choose all inclusive and it was made clear we could not sit within or order from the bar area during breakfast, lunch and dinner times, despite the restaurant being over the other side of the lobby. Even trying to order a cup of tea in the morning from the bar was a no-go, the only other option being room service. There appears to be no separation between the restaurant and bar. Even as I write this review we have politely been asked to sit in the outside terrace away from the bar area due to lunch being served.

Occasionally at night it was quite noisy outside. Leaving a window open over night was not an option, as mentioned our room was at the side of the hotel and ran parallel with quite a busy one way street. Even in the early hours of the morning there were mopeds driving past, adding to the sound of the ferry port made it occasionally uncomfortable to sleep.

If you wish to have refreshments around the rooftop pool area, a service phone is available and they’re brought up to you. We had no issue with the service, however there is a vast amount of unused tiled space on the roof which slightly makes me wonder why there is no bar area on the roof? We spent several hours around the rooftop pool during our stay and the phone was constantly being used. It just seems strange not to have a bar area on the roof where there are up to 15-20 people.

Overall, we have been happy with our stay here and it is recommended. As mentioned the staff have been helpful and friendly but I think it’s important to point out some bug bears that in my opinion wouldn’t make this a...

It’s a great hotel and definitely worth the 5*. We arrived late December for Christmas and new year but there were not many guests. Especially in the evening the restaurant was almost empty as well as the bar. Understandable because the center has a lot of restaurants but we booked half board and it was very good. Great breakfast buffet with everything you can think of. For elaboration contact me. The dinner was served in the same restaurant which seems small to the amount of rooms they have but as said we were almost alone. Nevertheless everything is delicious and the portions are very big. Beverages are pricey but you are in a great hotel so don’t expect cheap. Personnel is great and friendly all over the day. Nothing is too much. Especially Maria and her elderly male colleague whose name I didn’t get; we had the pleasure to get acquainted the first week with them and we constantly got serviced by. And although we almost never saw the chef he deserves compliments also for his dishes in the morning and evening. Room cleaning was every day thoroughly and we got often new bedding and towels if we wanted to. We spent two weeks here what is a little long as Heraklion is nice and lots of shops etc but not for such a long time. While all tourist villages were closed down the city was extremely busy. Every cafe or terrace was occupied to the fullest until January 3rd. Seems that locals are not only there but also people from Athens come over for Christmas and New Year. Because we know people over here we came in December but summers will be better although the weather was still very good compared with The Netherlands. I can certainly recommend this hotel to anybody including families and we have been in many around the villages etc. Certainly keep this hotel in mind when coming back to Crete. Everything is just around the corner including the port, the center, restaurants and supermarkets.

Only minor thing is that dinner is served in a hurry. If you have completed one course the other is there in a few minutes and you can’t let it go cold. We told them to wait a bit but a few minutes later it is asked again; probably their way of eating. And I think that most of the time during the year everything is buffet and now it was a la carte. Just a little tip for the hotel ; doesn’t...