Hungry Barista

Review of Creta Maris Hotel

We had an enjoyable holiday. Would we go back or r...

We had an enjoyable holiday. Would we go back or recommend? Probably not.
1.The Staff: Excellent. Almost all the staff have friendly smiling faces and when we faced them with any issue they were able to offer a solution, with a smile. This makes a huge difference for any hotel guest and credit to the management for maintaining this level of quality service from almost everyone working in the hotel.
2. Pools, Beaches, Main Lobby: Excellent. Well kept, clean and generally very pleasant places to be.
3. Bars: Excellent. Good service from hard working staff. The main bar is close to the lobby and has a lovely balcony overlooking the main pool with quality wooden chairs and tables which are very comfortable.
4 . The drinks: Good generally but the wines are really disappointing, simple, most basic house wines. You wouldn't be expecting much more than that in an all-inclusive system. There are higher end wines (and drinks) available to purchase.
5. Beach: Very good. Coarse sand and clear blue sea. Beach sunbeds uncomfortable. Remember to bring your blue towel from your room as you cannot get towels at the pools, beach or gym. You can exchange wet towels for fresh ones in the main pool. Annoying on the first day but you appreciate how sensible this system is.
6. Sports and gym: passable. My son who is 15 used all the sports facilities including tennis, football, basketball. He enjoyed them. For me all the facilities were vey basic. Ok for recreation with the family but nothing more.
5. The rooms: Ok. Clean and basic. Bed not very comfortable. Shower in the bathtub wasn't great. All rooms are not equal. My advice would be don't have high expectations.
7. The food: Ok. Everyone will find something they can eat but its a massive resort catering for over a thousand people. Kids really enjoyed it. I can't say it gave me much joy. No fresh seafood. Fish was available but quite honestly they shouldn't bother serving it as it was terrible. Also no lamb dishes were found in the main dining restaurants either at lunch or dinner. Very disappointing! We did find lamb and fish available in the speciality restaurants that you need to book in the evening.
8. The restaurants: Poor. The main restaurant is really unpleasant. Stuck inside a huge indoor room filled with loads of people and buffet food. Not my idea of a holiday at all. Asides the main restaurant there are 5 or 6 of these alternative "thematic" restaurants that run a reservation system for dinner. The rule is not more than once in each of the thematic restaurants per week. Two of these such restaurants offered a pleasant enough dining experience although the food was still nothing special. The smaller, cosier feel, coupled with the a-la-carte menu provided a welcome break but as its still in the all-inclusive system there's no lingering over a long meal late into the evening. For lunch and breakfast there are two huge buffet restaurants - not very pleasant although the staff are fantastic. There is a smaller buffet restaurant open for lunch and breakfast (in the evening it becomes one of the thematic dinner restaurants) with a small outdoor eating area. This was a more pleasant option for breakfast and lunch versus the main masses indoor buffets. Special mention to the team at the Pithos restaurant who went out of their way to accommodate us. They worked as a great team and another good example of the quality of the people working in the resort.
Overall we had a good holiday and if not for the restaurants, would possibly consider returning.