Esperides Resort Crete, the Authentic Experience

This will be our third time returning to your hotel. The hotel is clean modern. The staff have always been professional and kind. Good variety of choice for breakfast, we haven’t had lunch or evening meal at the hotel, the village has many wonderful restaurants Food around the pool is of great standard. I’m curious to what beach you take people too, we normally walk to Stalis sun beds for a family of four is about 20 euros Taxis both ways 24 euro , although this isn’t the closest beach.

As below we also received notification from jet 2 about charge for shuttle bus and sauna steam room . This is supposed to be a 5 star hotel which people are paying a lot of money to go to . These services should be included in price (as advertised when we booked ). Very disappointing . Will not be paying for shuttle bus or sauna .

We are due to travel in July and just been notified from Jet2 that the hotel now want to charge us 30 euros for 2 people to use the shuttle bus down to the beach, we are a family of 4 so 60 euros for 10 days 600 euros.. totally unacceptable, just been on the phone to Jet2 to complain, please if you are travelling to this hotel with Jet2 ring and complain. We are waiting for a call back from Jet2 management. I will NOT be paying this. To have the hotel to change this at the start of the season when previously it was free and advertised as such is appalling , to think customers are just going to except this is shameful.

Location is perfect, hotel staff are incredible, stunning well kept apartments with unbelievable views! I could go on and on! 100% would go again. Fantastic! Thank you 😊 The pool at the top of the resort is great. Tranquil, great atmosphere and such an eclectic mix of travellers from all over the world. We had some great conversations and memories made.

Having had the misfortune to stay in this apparent 5 star accommodation last July I have only now got round to writing a review on this hotel. Be careful with the room that you book, there is a good chance it will look nothing like the brochure. In our case we were given a corner room with no space around the bed, and you were unable to open the wardrobe door as it was so close to the bed. The arrogant woman on reception was more than willing to give you the room that you thought you booked, after you provide them with an additional 750 Euros for the week. The arrogance of these people was breath-taking and on speaking to other guests it was clear that it seems there is a policy of getting disgruntled guests to upgrade their rooms that are not shown in the brochure, at an additional cost of course. We stayed on a half board basis, but this was also a mistake. The food is less than basic and bland in comparison to what is available in the village at the local restaurants. As for the “5 star accommodation and luxurious resort”, this is a complete misrepresentation. Apparently, a few years back they had awarded themselves 6 stars. This is a good 3 star hotel and no more than this. Please don’t tell the management this as they get completely offended when you say this to them, although it is funny to see their expressions. The upside of the holiday was we get to eat in lots of nice restaurants in the village and the people in there were fantastic. You have to travel from the hotel to the beach, which is also lovely, but please if you don’t want to be disappointed with your expensive accommodation and your looking for a 5 star hotel, please stay clear of this place.

Second year staying at this beautiful hotel set in the most beautiful village of Koutoulafari. This year we choose a family deluxe inland view room (601) the Room was spacious and clean on arrival. States sky chancels in rooms but again second yr running we could only get sky news! With children it’s good to be able to pop a movie on at night. But nothing available. We had good WiFi which was a god send as we could pop a movie on these. I found the standard of cleanliness in the hotel in general wasn’t as good as last year. We had daily maid service but on several days the bed was pulled up and a quick brush! With cosine crisp crumbs left after maid had been, few long hairs in bathroom that I cleaned up after she left. Last yr our room was spotless the maid was amazing 10/10 this yr I would give them 6/10. The pool surrounding area beds tables and floor wasn’t cleaned in the 10 days we stayed! This wasn’t ideal considering the sun cream and sweaty people using them! Luckily we used the same beds so we knew who had been on them the day before. Around the pool staff were amazing friendly and came round daily with a watermelon snack, although saying this on day 10 we were offered a cooling rose water towel, this should have been giving out every day not just as the hotel got busier. We choose half board but opted for lunch rather than dinner. Breakfast was good plenty to choose from, I found lunch a little repetitive, would have loved some bread and cheese and meats out. Drinks are a little on the expensive side in the bar area. Staff always ready to help and friendly. Love the hotel but from last year too this year I found some standards had slipped and would question the 5 star rating. I came home not sure if I would stay again due to the price I paid for the holiday I’m just not sure it was worth it.

Pros Friendly staff Great food Uncrowded pool Spotlessly clean Nice seating areas Cons Annex rooms are not relaxing at all! Staff back and fore all day long! As the pool area is tiny they have to practically step on your lounger to get through (to a storage cupboard maybe??) Annex pool not heated (advertised as heated) Stupid tiny balcony that you have to climb through a window to get onto! Bar prices expensive

We stayed here for two weeks in a Jacuzzi room. We were lucky with our allocated room as we had a good degree of privacy and an open outlook. We noted many rooms had little or no privacy and even the large suites were overlooked. There are many steps in the complex and some steep climbs which could make life difficult for the elderly or those with limited mobility. The meals are all buffet style which we prefer but the buffet area is small and when busy it is very difficult as you feel pressured just to pick something and get out. The breakfast was very good but we found the dinner selection was poor, the starters and sweets were good but the quality of the mains could be vastly improved. Staff in the restaurant worked very hard and we would like to thank them for their daily smiles and warmth. The restaurant at times was extremely busy and we had to wait for a table quite often. The housekeeping was excellent, clean bedding every other day and clean towels every day. We feel the resort is better suited to families and as we are an older couple perhaps not for us.

We had a week here in October half term to chill and recharge after a busy and stressful holiday in Egypt, 2 adults and 2 kids (11 & 9). The good… The hotel is well presented, in a nice location overlooking a bay, 3 minute walk into town for restaurants and a few shops. 20 minutes walk down a bill hill to the beach and to lots more shops and restaurants. They did a small late arrival buffet which was nice, and good quality. Rooms we’re fairly spacious and clean. Main bed was comfy. The pull out beds for the kids weren’t bad. We had a hot tub room with sea view. View was fantastic. Hot tub was worth the extra money, though they ask you to keep it at 36 degrees maximum. The restaurant was great, food was really varied and of good quality. Service was good and you rarely had to wait for a table. We were half board and we swapped between lunch and dinner depending on our plans. Views over the bay were beautiful. Pools were heated, one of the main reasons for picking Espirides. There were always sun beds available, and they were pretty good with the no reserving beds policy. The only disappointment was that there was only one pool for everyone with kids. When I booked, it looked as though there were multiple. Most of the pictures are of private pools. There was one adult pool that typically had no more than 6 guests at any time. Then a similar size pool with the rest of the hotels guests and all kids, so maybe 50+ and a bit too crowded as it’s quite small. Great if you can use the adult pool! Pool towels were provided. Staff were friendly, and reception helped with some printing and scanning for me. 2 medium bottles of water were added to the room each day. Juice and tea / coffee were served as part of breakfast. The not so good… We usually stay directly on the beach, but as they were running a beach bus, and we fancied walking out for dinner, we thought we’d try this and split our time between the pool and beach. We used the service on day 2 only to be told it was the last run and was being cancelled due to end of season, which was disappointing. We were rarely given towels for the rooms hot tub (cleaner took them away without replacing them) so had to go to the pool to collect them - occasionally straight from the tub… Annoying, but not significant! Being in the hills, the sun goes quite early in winter, and earlier at the hotel than the beach because of the hills. Half of the pool lounging area is in complete shade by 2-3pm. They give you one key card to ensure you can’t run any electric whilst not in the room. 4 of us, only 2 drinking glasses. Every time we got extra, they were gone the following day! 4 people, 4 glasses please! One of the blinds was 1ft too short, so the room was bright in the morning. We put suitcases in front of it which helped! The open air gym was in the centre of the hotel, and happened to be directly below our room. Kids are obviously not supposed to use the equipment, but because of a lack of much evening