Elounda Beach Hotel and Villas

This was our 2nd visit to this place. Has the wow factor of a 5 star resort and spa. As it was towards the end of season it wasn't as good as last year in Sept and the sister hotel was closed which limited the choice of menu as a result. Nonetheless it has great ambience and beautiful grounds all lit up at night. The beach is a 5 min walk and the town of Elounda is about 1 mile away. The waiters work extremely hard and always give guests a hearty welcome and the breakfast offers a very wide range of foods. All in all a nice place but don't leave it to end of October.

We stayed at this hotel for a nine day late summer break in October, with our 6 month & 3 yr old. I found it to have been a great choice. We chose the hotel after it was recommended by a colleague and a Greek neighbour. When seeing it was a member of The Leading Hotels of the World we were confident it would be a great hotel. In October the weather was still warm and the sea was still warm enough to swim very comfortably in. The hotel was not full at this time either which meant the beach was never at full capacity and restaurants all had availability every night. The service from all the staff was fantastic. They had amazing memories and could somehow remember, without being told, which room we were staying in at reception and at the concierge, even at the beach. The waitress in a restaurant even remembered which three flavour ice creams my daughters chose from the night before! The beach was fantastic, very little waves, crystal clear water, shower facilities that were similar shower facilities to the hotel rooms, buttons on sunbed parasols for refreshments, a guy who would come to set up the bed and provide beach towels. Complimentary bottled water was provided to your bed. Finally the staff at the beach bar, especially Sofia, were always so kind to our 6month old baby, making him laugh and even looking after him a bit when he was getting a bit grumpy! Our 3 year old daughter, who was a bit shy at the kids club to begin with, loved going there. They frequently would play in the corner on the beach - fishing, building sand castles etc. She could join in the activities and come and go as she liked. The lady who ran it was so warm and welcoming to all the children. They did stone painting, decorating their kids club t-shirts etc. This was fantastic for when we needed to pack and have a break. I was initially worried a kids club might mean they had a set inflexible day, that we dropped her off and picked her up from, but this was not the case. The restaurants were all of a great standard especially Dionysios, Blue Lagoon and Argonaut. The taverna to our taste was quite heavy food for the hot weather. A drink at Veghera with the sunset and moonlight sky were also great before or after dinner. Coming to this hotel without half board would be a mistake in my opinion, as you would pay well over double the price without it. Menus are available online. All the staff were extremely attentive and anticipated what they could do to help without being asked. For example when hearing of our flight departure time offered a few extra hours in our room complimentary. They also unloaded and loaded our car to and from our hotel room. Only negatives were that in our room (deluxe hotel suite) the bed was an electrically moving bed with a foam mattress. Both myself and my wife found the mattress uncomfortable and it hampered our sleep. The reception had a mattress topper added which helped. The only other problem for a family with a crawling baby was a gap on all the balconies, at crawling height for a baby, which if a baby crawled through, would lead to certain death. This meant we couldn’t leave our patio doors open or allow our baby to roam freely on the balcony. I would strongly recommend to the hotel that families with crawling children are not offered these rooms without this gap being blocked. Other than that the hotel was an excellent choice.