Let's start by saying it was not atypical of other Greek hotels that we have seen, and, indeed, stayed in. From a distance the hotel was impressive but the approach, along the long "un-adopted" road, was disappointing. The roadside was strewn with rubbish, discarded household goods, and in the heat of the day, had a very unpleasant, pungent smell. The hotel is utilitarian in its build, unattractive but practical. Inside it is a confusion of colour and a design disaster. The walls were painted green, blue, and orange (need I say more), but even this looked as if the roller had been passed over the walls once–what had been missed was left.
The bedroom was adequate with extremely comfortable twin beds and plenty of pillows (something which often seems to be lacking in budget hotels) and the bathroom was adequate. Room service was less than adequate. Although the bedding and towels were clean and replaced on alternate days, room service was not too efficient with the bathroom "litter". Not to put too fine a point on it the toilet paper, which has to be placed in a bathroom litterbin (it cannot be flushed in Greek hotels) was not emptied daily. This we did not find acceptable.
The room had air conditioning and a security safe (both available for an additional weekly charge).
The bedroom veranda was compact, but we made little use of it, as it overlooked the drive and one of Crete’s main highways. Indeed, from the balcony, it felt like you could virtually touch the cars and lorries as they thundered down this busy main road.
Breakfast at the hotel was basic and repetitive (cereal, bread, eggs, cheese, and ham), always laid out in exactly the same way-who said variety was the spice of life? But there was plenty of it and it was always fresh. The problem was that it was clearly budget food–the butter was inedible, the jam lacking in taste, and the ham clearly reconstituted. On the positive side, the bread was very tasty with cheese and there was nothing wrong with the hard-boiled eggs. They were hard and boiled!
The Hotel is about 25 minutes to Heraklion Airport; handy for transfers, but on the main flight path-it's amazing how many flights there are into Crete on a daily basis. The other advantage is that the hotel was easily accessed by road, and I’ve already mentioned how close the highway was to the hotel! We were concerned that all this traffic would keep us awake at night, but we soon became accustomed the intermittent drone and slept extremely well.
To be positive, the hotel had a great area at the back for sun worshippers, and the pool and the area around it was superb and well maintained. It was surrounded by olive trees and was a real haven away from the traffic noises. There were loads sun beds of a reasonable quality and enough parasols to go around.