Aquila Rithymna Beach — Hotel in Municipality of Rethymnon

We are a family of 4, two adults and two boys ages 5 and 9. We booked 12 nights at Aquila Rithymna in August 25 and already am looking to book again for next year. ||Location|The only downside is the hotel is over 2 hours from the airport, which, after a 4 hour flight and with young children is pretty arduous, however it is worth it. The hotel is right on the beach, having its own private beach, and is within walking distance to plenty of shops, bars, and restaurants. It is a short bus ride or taxi journey into the old town and port which are beautiful and have more shops, restaurants and bars with little quaint streets. |Turtles nest on the beach at the hotel and there is a turtle charity that holds information mornings/evenings which is interesting for both adults and children. We were lucky enough to see them opening a turtles nest which was fascinating. |We hired a car so we could explore the island, I hadn’t taken trainers or decent walking shoes for any of us though which was a mistake. There are some amazing beaches but access is rocky/steep steps, so walking in flip flops isn’t ideal. I’d take trainers, and water shoes next time we go. ||Cleanliness |The hotel is spotlessly clean, room cleaning is great and there are people constantly going around the pool and waterpark areas, sweeping the floor, wiping surfaces and picking up rubbish ||Staff|The staff are exceptional. Nothing is too much trouble, they are helpful and polite and go out of their way to make your holiday special. They genuinely seem to enjoy their jobs too. The animation team are really friendly and make people aware of activities on offer, without constantly being in your face or pushing you into getting involved. ||Kids club/entertainment|My kids never go to kids club but I saw lots of other kids really enjoying it. There is a huge variety of activities and a large dedicated area for the kids club, which is located close to the family rooms.the kids club has its own evening entertainment too with things like Magic shows and also had a cinema night. |There is evening entertainment and, as the hotel is so large, you can choose to watch the entertainment or have a quiet drink in another area. The light show was fantastic and we were just sorry we only got to watch it once. ||Pools/waterpark|There are a variety of pools although we only went to the main pool and the waterpark. The main pool has a shallow area for little ones, a few bridges you can swim under/walk over, and a variety of depths for diving etc. there are plenty of sun loungers and security remove any belongings that have been left for over 30 minutes so there are no sunbed wars. The only downside of this is that I left my things one day to go to swap over childcare with my partner who was sitting with our 5 year old in the room, I ended up being 45 minutes and came back to all my things having been removed and nobody could tell me where they were. I found them in the end but it was frustrating having to walk back and forth to reception until someone could tell me where they were. |The waterpark has a variety of slides as well as a separate section for little ones and a few splash things too. There is a bar at the waterpark that serves drinks and pizza. |There are plenty of chairs and loungers and people don’t tend to stay all day so there are always people leaving and beds becoming available. ||Food|My son has a NUT ALLERGY which always makes going on holiday nerve wracking, however i didn’t need to worry about him accidentally eating nuts at all on this holiday. The chef walked around the half board buffet with us and told us what to avoid and, as there was a risk of cross contamination with the deserts, they made my son his own desert every evening. In some places we’ve been made to feel like he is an inconvenience however we did not feel like that once at Aquila Rythmia. |The food is really varied and you don’t feel like it’s the same thing every night. There are other restaurants to eat at as well as the buffet, we only had lunch a couple of times at the others as we hired a car so occasionally went out for dinner too. ||Rooms|We had a family room which had a king size bed in one bedroom and two singles in the other, a spacious balcony and decent bathroom. There is plenty of storage with wardrobes, cupboards, drawers which helped to keep the room tidy with the masses of stuff we take on holiday! ||Overall|We had a brilliant holiday and would definitely come back. I would recommend it both for families as well as for couples...

We booked for 7 nights at the hotel via Tui. Flights, transfers were all great.|Upon arrival at the hotel on 24th October, we were welcomed by the friendly staff and were impressed with the cleanliness of the hotel. Once checked in, we went to our room and the suitcases arrived shortly after. |We had a room in the main building, floor 3, overlooking the beach, with 2 balconies. The room was bright, clean and tidy, albeit slightly dated, and a little small for a family of 3 sharing (2 adults, 1 child). The 3 beds were all pushed together with little floor space....but we were only there to sleep, so it was fine.||Being late in the season, we loved the fact it wasn't busy, but disappointed that it felt they were literally closing down the hotel around us! We were excited to try the Italian restaurant, but it was only open 1 night, which we were able to book for before it closed. So for the remainder of our stay, we only had the main restaurant buffet (breakfast and dinner - we were half board) and then brasserie to choose from. Even the beach bar was closed after the first day we arrived. |We cannot fault the food; it was delicious and a great variety provided for us adults. However, my 10 year old son, struggled with the evening food choices and spent the week eating mostly chips, plain pasta, rice, plain chicken nuggets, broccoli (when it was available) and his weight in feta cheese! One evening we were told a kids themed buffet would be available at 8:30pm. Which is too late for my son to eat, so we just had to make do (we went for dinner at 7pm each evening).||We had very negative experience one evening at dinner. Myself, my husband, our son (10 year old boy, with ADHD), my sister and her husband were sat enjoying our meal when a German lady came over abruptly speaking to us in German (which we did not understand) and pointing her finger at my son. Thankfully, he had his earphones in so was completely unaware of what was happening. When we said we didn't understand, she resorted to English and told us that she didn't approve of my son using his earphones and watching his tablet whilst eating his dinner, and instead should be taking in his surroundings. We had to explain that he has a disability and actually he finds this surroundings overwhelming and in order to enjoy his dinner with us, he asked to use the headphones and tablet to allow him focus. Not that we should need to explain ourselves. She was incredibly rude and judged us without knowing the situation. She left the table and then swapped places with her husband so she could sit with her back to us. We were shocked! We observed her watching and rolling her eyes at all the other children in the restaurant who were either on their phone, using their parents phone to watch or play something, even those doing some colouring in. It made me so angry. This was obviously not the hotels problem, but just want people (who may also have people in their party with hidden disabilities ) to be aware that this happens. ||Anyway, the bar and restaurant staff were lovely and I wish i'd taken down some names to call a couple of specific people out who really were amazing. There was one guy who worked in the bar, who was so lovely and helpful, suggesting cocktails and being very attentive. ||The hotel grounds are lovely to walk around and there is a lovely selection of pools to choose from. The only thing for anyone considering going in October, be warned - the pools are freezing!! I mean they literally take your breath away if you're brave enough to get in. And the indoor pool isn't much warmer (20c). The best pool we found, was actually the smaller pool, round the back, away from the beach and the main areas. We often had this whole area to ourselves and it had quick access to the spa area, indoor pool and toilets. So always plenty of sunbeds available. |The beach is beautiful but no good for swimming - far too rough and unsafe, so the red flags were out all the time and lifeguard on duty except for the last couple of days. If you want to swim in the sea and do some snorkeling, I recommend doing a trip to the south side of the Island and go to Preveli Beach. ||All in all, we had a lovely week away, and it was lovely to enjoy the place whilst it was quiet and not so busy, but it would have been a much nicer experience if the hotel wasn't being closed down around us. We paid for 5 stars and expected to have the various restaurants etc available to us, but...

Don't get the hype. This is my first hotel on Crete and I don't really have anything to compare it with on the island, but as far as hotels go, this is not really a 5-star experience. We had half board and it was enough at the end of 2024 season, as Premium all inclusive seemed like a really bad deal given the price/service ratio. All inclusive gives you access to some nice cocktails and indeed branded alcohol drinks, but the choice is limited and most of the stuff costs money even for AI folks - just for a reduced price of like 20-25%. If you want Heineken beer, for example, you gotta pay. Someone needs to inform the hotel management what Premium all inclusive means. cough Turkey cough. The supermarket is just across the street and you can get good beer and wine from there. Alternatively, there are a number of bars that serve cocktails for ~€5-10 very close. The main restaurant was awarded the Golden Fork, is by all means great and is probably the only 5-star thing about this hotel. The buffet is fantastic and I seriously doubt that anyone would find trouble finding something they like. It is, however, not without its flaws. The restaurant doesn't provide any drinks for free, except the sludge that they call coffee in the morning. Even for water you have to pay and everything costs like you would expect at a restaurant of this calibre - €5-6 for a bottle of water for two, €5 for a 250ml soft drink and €5 for a pot of coffee. They don't serve tea - only hot water and Lipton tea bags - yes, you heard it right. The rooms: we had a "sea view" room in the main building. The sea view was more like a side-sea view and there are so many things like the bungalows and palm trees that obscure the view, so you could only see the upper half of the sea if that makes sense and only from the left-hand side. The main view was a view of one of the hotel's courtyards and I was explained at the reception that this was indeed a sea view experience. I was a bit disappointed, because I am used to sea views that actually have a beach front view of the sea. The room was small, had only two electric outlets next to the TV stand, none at the nightstands and none in the bathroom. The bathroom had only a bath which doubles as a shower, no bidet or hygienic shower, limited toiletries, the toilet seat and the lid do not have a tumbler and crash when you close them. The room also didn't have slippers and beach towels, and I had to ask the staff several times to address this issue. You would think that towels and slippers wouldn't be a big deal for a 5-star hotel even if the guest was inattentive and couldn't locate them (which we were, the problem is that they were not there despite the staff insisting otherwise). The safe was free, but is a key-based safe. Like, seriously? I don't have enough things to track at this hotel, I also have to take care of the physical key? The room is 3 stars at best and is overshadowed by any 4 star hotel in Asia. The staff for the most part were very nice, from waiters to receptionists. The territory is big, green and has direct access to the beach. In fact, the hotel is like a small city in itself, being a large complex with its own supermarket, church, amenities etc.. The beach is very nice as far as beaches on Crete go. Tons of sunbeds. Free spa with two steam saunas, a hammam and a salt cave, and paid massage service. But everything closes too damn early (about 6pm). It gets quite boring after sunset. Great wifi. The hotel's restaurants require prior reservation which can be done via the dedicated hotel app. It is a bit complicated in the beginning, but I got the hang of it quickly. The only issue is that it forces you to plan ahead and I don't like to do that. Sometimes you just want to show up when you want or are able to if you are away somewhere for the day. To be fair, we were late to the Italian Restaurant, because we were lost on Crete and the waiter said it was not a big deal so they let us in, thankfully. There are a lot things this hotel does right, but too many...