Grecotel Amirandes

We spend as a family a fantastic time in Amirandes. It is a splendid hotel with wonderful architecture. Just Beautiful. The restaurant (even main) have perfect views on the sea and the food is delicious. Good variation and high quality at the main buffet. We only had the chance to try out one of the other dinner restaurant, blue Monkey. it was a fantastic evening to seat outside so close to the sea.. We loved it and the food was great. We can highly recommend it also with kids. The kidsclub is sweet and offering nice activities for them. The staff is really nice and my kids liked Orsi a lot. So thank you to her. Also it is so nice that the kids could have a free lunch everyday and snacks at the kidsclub. The only thing me missed was a heated pool in the shade for the very little ones. For our 7 month baby there was so Chance to swim. That was unfortunate because the temperature in October were great. In general the temperatur of the pools was quite cold. The staff in general (pool, beach, rooms, Spa and of course restaurant) was amazing. Tried everything to make you stay as nice as possible and that is so important. Everybody was smiling and helpful and that at the end of the season... BRAVO. When we arrived we had a very nice surprise to a room upgrade with a private pool. Our kids were so exited. Fantastic room with even a little gym. They loved it and the pool was great. The room was really nice but could also benefit from a little refurbishment. But apparently this is anyway planned. In short we can highly recommend this hotel for a holiday with/ without kids and we will come back.

This Grecotel chain is the best hotels chain in the world from my experience. We arrived to the hotel and it was exceptional, better looking then the pictures. My wife is pregnant and as a result we were upgraded by the hotel manager Maria from a regular room to a vila with a private pool that is basically a dream come true. We were never charged for our kids meals (lunch and evening). And service is just perfect. Thank you so much! We will certainly be back soon!

My wife booked a holiday for my 30th birthday as a surprise and took us to this resort in Heraklion. We travelled with our 20-month old son as well as my wife being 7 months pregnant (yes a brave move)! We had a sea view family room which was very comfortable. We were metres away from the sea/beach which made a lovely way to wake up daily. The rooms are well equipped although there are only 1-2 English speaking TV channels, both news. The resort itself looks stunning and is idyllic. However in its current form it really isn’t as family friendly as you’d believe from the photos/reviews of their “kids club” etc. The bad points we encountered (which we brought to the attention of the general manager): - not a single pool is heated, EVEN the kids paddling pool. they are literally ICE cold even in 29 degree heat. Not many people were swimming throughout our 6 day stay. For us this was the most disappointing as we didn’t go for a swim once—it was torture. Apparently the hotel doesn’t have the infrastructure to heat the water. The indoor pool they said “can be heated” but it takes 3-4 hours. We checked back after 4 hours and it was still ice cold too. - steps EVERYWHERE. If you are taking a young family with a stroller, the resort really isn’t cut out for that. There are step-free routes we discovered to the main breakfast area/reception/restaurants but you are required to take a huge detour and one elevator. Again, not ideal. - the kids club was very mediocre. There are literally a couple of swings and a sandpit. If you’ve ever been to a real resort with kids activities you will be shocked to see how basic this area is. If the weather is windy you won’t be able to go to the beach. Which is why it’s imperative that the indoor amenities like the pool, or even the outdoor ones are heated. We encountered 2 days of heavy winds preventing us from using the beach and we were confined to our room as there was simply nothing to do for our young family. Sadly we had to resort to letting our son binge on the iPad...every parents last resort! The staff are very friendly and accommodating albeit extremely slow in their service. On 3 separate occasions I had to chase room service as we waited for our baby milk to be warmed. We were kindly given a free meal at one of their restaurants once we raised the above complaints. We still had a nice time but we accommodated a lot of the bad points above and overlooked them, so as not to sour our special trip. That’s not what you expect when you pay a lot of money for a 5* hotel. Restaurants served great food and a good choice at breakfast. Hotel is clean as you’d expect. Many other hotel guests who we would chat to by the kids pool (note, not INSIDE the pool) would also share their disbelief as “what we are paying vs what we are getting.” This further reinforced that it’s not just us being over critical. I wouldn’t stay here again nor would I recommend this resort for anyone with a young family. In its current setup it’s best setup for a romantic getaway for couples—which is what I think they should reposition and rebrand themselves as until they address the above!