The Island - Adults Only

“Room Tax a Con - Tui 5*”

Return visit - as nice as the hotel is, the Greek room tax is a total con - on our first visit via Tui the Hotel was a 4* rating and we paid room tax accordingly. Now the hotel rating has been made to a 5*........ it appears to charge the top rate tax of 10 euros per room / per night. ???!!!!!!!

“Beautiful food and relaxing vibe”

Lovely relaxing hotel. The interior decor is modern and well designed. The numerous pools is a bonus and we loved the main pool with the dj (it wasn’t intrusive and added a great vibe - people of all ages were enjoying it). The bali beds were great for sunbathing. The food and drinks were excell... more

Lovely relaxing hotel. The interior decor is modern and well designed. The numerous pools is a bonus and we loved the main pool with the dj (it wasn’t intrusive and added a great vibe - people of all ages were enjoying it). The bali beds were great for sunbathing. The food and drinks were excellent - the main pool bar was lovely for cocktails in the evening often with music/dj playing. Lunch from the pool bar was excellent and huge portions (value for money). Breakfast was a slight let down in that is was often chaotic and too small an area (where the food is served), dishes were empty and you had to wait often. However the quality of the food and the efficiency of the staff made up for it in the main. The area was great for exploring Crete - Kato Gouves was a bit quiet and not really worth the walk so we preferred bars and restaurants on the beach front (turning left out of the hotel beach door) or straight out of the main entrance. Try Medusa and Mylos Taverna restaurants - delicious! Bus to Heraklion and Hersonissos at top of the road. Only downside was the rooms - as others have reviewed, the rooms could be more modern and need refurbishing. We couldn’t use our terrace as it was facing trees and bushes and mosquitos were rife. Would pay for an upgraded room if staying again. Overall a great stay and would recommend.

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“Not a 5 star hotel- much to improve”

Firstly I want to start off by saying that this is not a 5 star hotel. I say this for a multitude of reasons, however I will start off with the good points. Pros - Multiple swimming pools where there are usually sun beds free - A good variety of food at meal times with a different theme every ni... more

Firstly I want to start off by saying that this is not a 5 star hotel. I say this for a multitude of reasons, however I will start off with the good points. Pros - Multiple swimming pools where there are usually sun beds free - A good variety of food at meal times with a different theme every night- Mexican, Greek, Asian, mediterranean, Italian, French etc - Great location with lots of restaurants around the hotel if you fancy eating out Now onto the bad points - The dress code- the hotel state that they have a dinner dress code where men should wear trousers. However, this is not enforced and frankly seems like a ridiculous requirement when it is 30 degrees. Yet, one morning at breakfast I felt completely targeted by one of the members of staff at the restaurant. No comments were made when entering the restaurant yet upon leaving I was pulled aside and asked to cover up for breakfast tomorrow as ‘this is a restaurant’. I instantly felt extremely embarrassed, but later I felt mostly anger as I was wearing a bikini with a kaftan over the top (the same as many other guests who were not pulled aside). I was increasingly angered throughout my stay as I noticed other guests wearing completely sheer outfits to dinner as well as one of their own staff wearing a sheer top. Further, someone was even wearing pyjamas to breakfast. Let me clarify this is not something that bothers me however, I feel that if staff are to enforce a seemingly non-existent dress code they should do this fairly and not target someone who is young and considered an easy target. - My boyfriend and I are both in our early twenties and we instantly felt that we were treated differently, with less respect than other older guests by the staff. There were limited niceties used when communicating with us, yet with other guests there were many smiles and laughs. We were never rude to staff and always smiled and communicated nicely yet this was rarely returned - We arrived at the hotel after midnight due to a late flight, we were kindly shown to our room with our cases being taken for us. When we entered our room it was boiling hot, the air-conditioning did not effectively cool down the room and we knew we would not be able to sleep here and would ruin our holiday. We returned to reception with out bags to request a room change and the demeanour of the staff instantly changed. They were cold and rude to us, with our request seeming to be extremely inconvenient for them. We were told that the air conditioning was the same in every room, we likely would have believed this if we had not read in previous reviews that staff are known to lie about this. We insisted on a room change and eventually were granted this. The porter was no longer friendly to us and did not take our bags when showing us to our new room. This is a very large hotel and we were left dragging our bags through the entire site as our room was now right at the back. The porter walked far ahead of us and didn’t even check we were following him. This instantly put a sour taste in our mouths and was not a good first impression of the hotel at all. Luckily this new room had much better air conditioning than the previous room- I would encourage anyone to insist on a change - The restaurant- staff show you to your table at meal times therefore at peak times you are sometime left queueing for a table. This is only for a few minutes yet can be frustrating. It is also worth noting that despite our half board basis we still had to pay for all drinks at dinner including water. At breakfast water and juice are included therefore I think it would be nice to provide this at dinner times to avoid unnecessary waste and feeling taken advantage of - With your stay, you are allowed one meal at the taverna. This is a set (very limited) menu that was not to our taste so we did not try this. It would be nice to have some more options - The music around the main pool was awful. As young people we thought some of the previous reviews may be overreacting but THEY ARE NOT. It is completely random music that is very difficult to block out. It is also extremely loud which ruins the relaxing vibe of the place. We preferred the relaxing pool where it was much quieter.

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