Bars and pool bar staff were fantastic,very friendly service and joined in the experience of a fun time.

We tended to have a drink in the Veranda bar most evenings after dinner, and Christina was a joy.

but they are great quality and well worth the money (and less expensive than at a nearby bar and restaurant).

Very good location close to all the bars and restaurants on the strip.

Outside the hotel there are many bars and restaurants right on the doorstep.

The bar by the pool made a variety of amazing cocktails and we had lunch twice as well which was tasty.

A few nice restaurants locally, all within walking distance a couple of bars also, some with live music some that show sports.

Theres a few restaurants and bars just outside the hotel , no need for walking far or if you want to go to Gouves main town its €7 in a taxi or if you want more action Hersonnisis is a busy spot and €17 in a taxi.

The pools, bar and grounds were pretty, and with the beach 20m away over the road, it was a really nice setting.

Oh yeah and the entertainment in the hotel is boring best just going out to one of the cocktail bars the atmosphere is so much better.

Rooms are immaculately cleaned every day, Veranda and Stone Bar staff are very friendly and attentive and the food here is great.

Thankyou to all the staff who made our stay one to remember we loved it here the only disappointment for me was the Monday night rnb night being cancelled due to the dj being a no show and not being able to pay for drinks at the bar there and then

Numerous excellent bars and restaurants nearby many overlooking the beach. Lunches by the pool were very nice (one between two was more than enough!)

but would recommend going out of the hotel a few nights for a change of scene, and there are some very nice bars and restaurants within a short walk.

The men and women at the restaurant, at the bar and the great staff at the Spa Bathhouse: your smiles and genuine kindness brightened up our days.

The The Island Hotel is near these landmarks: Aquaworld Aquarium & Reptile Rescue Centre, Stalis Beach, Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Milatos Cave, Poseidon Diving Club, Ligaria Beach, Star Beach, Zervas Beach, Castello del Molo (Koules), Archaeological Museum of Archanes, Minoan Peak Sanctuary, Kretasurf - Water Sports Crete, Cave Of Zeus, Milatos Beach, Agia Pelagia Beach, Althaea, The Whisky Bar, Acqua Plus Water Park, Crete Safari, Winery Stilianou, The Natural History Museum of Crete, Panagia Beach, Psaromoura Beach, Petra Beach, Surf in Crete, Lychnostatis Open Air Museum, Amarillis Stable, Lyrarakis Winery, Mononaftis Beach, Gournes Beach, Labyrinth Theme Park, Slainte Irish Bar, Cathedral of St. Minas, Happy Train Sissi, Winery Sinadinakis, Ancient Apollonia, Panagias Keras Church, Rebekka store, Starbeach Bungy Jump, Themis Beach Bar, Cretan Thematic Park, Historical Museum of Crete, Sissi Mini Golf, ELA Quad Safari, Roman Archaeological Remains, Supermarket Dictamos, Koronekes, Sailingtrips Zuiderzee, Agios Titos Church, Peggy Gordon's Irish Bar, Quad Safari Peninsula, Irish House, Morosini Fountain (Lion's Fountain), Josef, Stay Wet Diving Center, Cycling Creta, Cretan Tennis Academy, Old Venetian Harbor of Heraklion, Idols Art, Blue Water Club RENT A BOAT, Fantasia Yachting, Evexia Spa, I Archana, Douloufakis Winery, Luxurious Furs, Horse Riding, Stefanos Bar, Domaine Paterianakis, Excursion Expert Agia Pelagia, Buggy Safari Motoxperience, Diver's Club Crete, HayTours, Loggia, Kera Bar, Seahorse Rent a Boat, Maria Sanoudaki Ceramic - Art Studio, Cretan Flavor, Kera Kardiotissa Monastery, Jewel Art, Katharo Plataeu, Whisper Music Cocktail Bar, Sunset Bar, Arion Stables, Passion, MYSTIC CRETAN ROAD TRIP, Crete Boats, Scalarea Estate (Boutari Winery Crete), Cretan Family, Hersonissos Cruises, Church and the Museum of St. Aikaterini, Ekklisia Analipsi, Heraklion Diving Center, Nemo Cafe Bar, Argo Rent Boats Yachts & Watersports, Solo  Brewery, Nail me up, The Crete Golf Club, Discovery Dive Centre, Vasiliki Agios Markos Municipal Art Gallery, HOTEL KASTRO, Aura Fashion Shop, Church of Agios Mathaios Sinaites, Paliokastro, Mystic Cretan Road Trip, Hatzis Leather, Palm Beach Club Restaurant, Vassiliki's Votanopoleio (Botanical Store), Scubakreta, AQUADIVE unique scuba experience, New York Beach Club Hersonissos, Star Beach, Diamantakis Winery, Y.O.L.O.

The pool bar is a good spot for lunch and after dinner drinks,

The bar men do an amazing job bringing you your drinks/food to you on your sunbed.

Yes the pools are nice and the beach and views over the sea were good. Downside is:
1.)

The hotel is unusual composition of scattered small buildings grouped around a pool, right in the beach, simplistic naturalistic design and incredibly comfortable and clean.

The beach is sandy (not pebbles) and is probably one of the best I've been to.

The breakfast was just right, enough selection of food and the view was stunning every morning looking out onto the beach.

Good access to the beach directly over the road with free loungers for hotel guests.

Lovely beach across the road with free sun beds .. on site shop good value for money .

The 3 large pools serving different needs are surrounded by Bali beds and umbrellas a plenty and with the beach as a back drop you can’t ask for anything more.

Wouldn’t recommend going to The Island Restaurant up the road on the beach front either staff was disgusting in there and the food was gross.

The dining area is right beside the beach, eating dinner while the sun sets was gorgeous.

The convenient door to the beach meant you could be on the beach in minutes

The views from the hotel restaurant to the beach are breathtaking!

Beautiful hotel, excellent beachfront location with free sun beds on own beach.

Hotel is very clean, 3 lovely pools, nice size gym and fantastic location right opposite a pleasant sandy beach.

The private beach just across the road from the hotel is a lovely bonus.

The hotel and rooms are spotlessly clean, the staff are incredibly friendly and helpful, and best of all it’s a few steps across a quiet road to a gorgeous beach.

Pros / +: Lots of food choice at the hotel, staff are excellent (especially Eni at the main pool), love the DJ beets around the pool on some days, great small private beach, great location €30 taxi to airport.

It’s been so relaxing, we loved the day beds, chilling by the pool and heading to the beach in 1 min to have a dip.

We had B&B package, and the breakfasts were excellent.

The food was delicious, the staff were super friendly, and I loved every minute of our time there.

but the breakfasts and the lunches we had were a delight.

but there’s always a choice even after breakfast time.

however, after the Island Hotel's buffet I am completely converted - the food was amazing and different every day; the breakfasts were rich and with a wide variety of choice.

There is a restaurnt open in between morning and evening buffets, (Stone restaurant).

The staff were friendly every morning walking to breakfast and arriving.

Breakfast was fine, plenty of choice for everybody and cooked fresh.

Other than that, the buffet food was nice (not more than that) and the Wi-Fi was no good, disconnecting half of the time.

Breakfast and lunch options were fabulous and plenty to choose from.

Breakfast was good with plenty of choice.

When we booked, we booked as bed and breakfast as we are vegan and unsure how the hotel catered for it.

We had breakfast and dinner included with our room.

We stayed on a half board basis and were especially impressed with the buffet breakfast which had everything you could imagine.

* Buffet style breakfast and dinner in the hotel, good choice

We ate in the buffet  the food was delicious.

The breakfast was outstanding with lots of choice and nice view across towards  the sea.

Breakfast also great, and the fresh cook pastries, pancakes and croissants were lovely.

You have to wait to be taken to a table, which can cause a queue and you don’t get to choose where you are seated.

We arrived late on our first night and there was a sandwich waiting for us which was white bread with a slice of cheese and ham, disappointing as a first impression,

Was very busy always queues to get into restaurant most nights.

but this sometimes led to queues, and it could be irritating having to go in one line for toast and another for butter.

People were queuing up not knowing what they were going to see until the staff lifted EVERY lid along the way.

There is no social distancing at breakfast and long queues to get in.

Routinely, also, queuing was the norm for breakfast and dinner.

Also the amount of people waiting to get into the dinner area was a bit off putting.

The dining hall is chaotic with queues to be seated??

They also tried to book three couples in at once, wich unfortunately meant a lot of waiting around.

No shaver point, so now even your electric toothbrush is queuing  for the only power point.

The only problem is dinner/lunch is manic with no one managing to queue and running out of food. !

The serving area is quite cramped for the number of people using it, which meant small queues,

There was no such thing as an orderly queue so trying to get your food and back to your table without being knocked was a nightmare.

but there's always a looong queue to get an omelette, and a looong queue to get a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Some of the food wasn't to our taste and we were waiting for our main plates to be cleared up for about half an hour.

We found over the 10 days we picked out better times to eat as it could be busy and as it’s help yourself people weren’t so polite and queuing seems to have gone out the window.

We also realised early on that you either dined early or had to queue.

There are more outside tables than inside tables at the restaurant and this caused queues on the one occasion that outside tables were not in favour because of the weather conditions.

The hotel chefs and their team were very efficient in keeping the food replenished and hot.

apart from that side of it the hotel Is fab and the food  was excellent every day .

Stone Restaurant - 
Great for drinks and snacks during the day.

The staff, the services and the food - superlative.

Gouves itself is nice, lots of little restaurants along the front.

We ventured outside every evening to try all the different restaurants.

The location was pretty good - lots of small bars and restaurants from 1 to 20 mins walk away.

Great hotel for relaxing ,close to airport .Hotel & grounds are kept immaculate .. 
food was of a good standard with good service .

we payed the hotel extra to move up to half board and the food was beautiful with many options every evening.

There is a beautiful Greek Orthodox chapel,  a range of places to eat and relax and a mini market with prices comparable to the those on the adjoining strip.

We had asked about a voucher for the restaurant

And during the night we generally sleep with open windows, and we have been very surprised that the noise from the street or from the Island Restaurant nearby is not too loud.

I have seen many comments about the open view into the bathrooms and the hotel is being marked down because of this, there is a blind that can be pulled down to make it private.

We closed the roller blind, so no problem.

There was a door on the loo and a pull down blind

The bathroom is minute with a roller blind between it and the room.

The opening could be covered by a flimsy roller blind on the bedroom side.

There are only eight sun loungers around the pool and the leafy palms and bricks behind the water curtain make it spa like and serene.

Only grump here is that there is no door to the bathroom, only a blind that pulls down behind the bathroom sink for modesty's sake.

I can see why some people may take issue with the bathrooms (you can lower a blind for more privacy),

although a pull down blind is provided for privacy,but I can imagine this being slightly embarrassing for young couples maybe on their first holiday together.

but no curtains or covers on the sides if you're looking for some shadow, but both the on-site shop and the supermarkets sell beach towels and sarongs/wraps, as well as pins that are perfect for hanging them - I suspect the topic has come up before.

Only one thing was we had a bath with hand held shower which was a bit difficult as no shower screen or curtain and no wall connection for shower which meant we had to hold it ourself and water sprayed all over floor!

but that was it noticed a blind you could pull down for a bit of privacy on the 2nd day , but anyway wasn't that much of a big deal after .

although our block of rooms suffered poor air conditioning with doors and windows being left open to try to increase air flow, not possible to do this at night as little biting insects have a nibble if you do!

This could  be solved or helped a little by putting a shower curtain up instead of half a glass screen which let out most of the water.

The sea view room was slightly larger and if booking one of these rooms, we would recommend the second floor as they have balconies and are not at eye level with the guests using the pool, which means curtains do not need to be drawn most of the day for privacy.

When you want to get back you go to the ticket window and ask for Gouves bus stop 15.

but if you aren't comfortable with this don't let it put you off as there is a blind that you can pull down to cover the bathroom while you are in there and there is also a frosted glass door to the toilet.

There isn't a door for the bathing area just a blind to give privacy so you need to be very comfortable with your room mate to avoid embarrassment.

The Island Hotel

window

queue

restaurant

beach

but Everywhere so dirty common areas and the room really very very dirty, everything is rusty and the level of manutention is so poor.

They finally sent someone over, and the person said that the toilet was fixed,

After lunch we had gone back to the room, i showered, was just about to get dressed and there was a sudden knock on the door.

We had to report a leak in our room ceiling twice to reception

Service and attitude of staff are horrendous, food is sub par at best, booked all inclusive to be told we can't use the a la Cartes as we booked 2 nights, despite paying for all inclusive, bathroom drain smelt of sewage, facilities around pool area not all working, complained to manager who couldn't care less about our issues, partner ill after night 1 potentially dodgy seafood in buffet restaurant.

Our bathroom wasn’t cleaned for the entire 11 night stay, we had to fight to get clean towels provided.

The jacuzzi itself has all rotten wood around it and the sunbeds were absolutely filthy.

Un fortunately there was no walk in shower and this was asked for 2 weeks before leaving the UK.

- some parts of the hotel are really rusty so you have to be very carefull not to get injured
- the quality of the food is deplorable and insuficient especially at breakfast
- at certain locations the waiter told us there is no more food left
- THERE IS AN ACUTE LACK OF CLEANLINESS ALL OVER THE PLACE
- some parts of the hotel were very rusty so its not safe for families with children
- certain areas are unlit during night
- frontdesk personelle and quality manager very unpolite

The shower in our room flooded the whole bathroom each time we showered, my daughter fell on last day straight on her back, we were lucky this was the only incident.

(Breadcrumbs on the floor, mirrors were dirty).

Many problems with my stay:
Ants in master bathroom
AC stopped in the middle of the night in master bedroom
Door not closing between master and adjacent room
Large glass with see-through curtains between master and adjacent room.

however only 1 was open most days, with the LIFEGUARD serving alone… another huge health and safety issue…

The cleanliness was horrendous, with months worth of mould on the shower head and sheets were only changed on the 4th day of our stay (after complaining at reception the bed was only being made- not changed).

It will never happen 

The Room 

Extremely low standard like cheap hostels,  dirty, unhygienic, the previous guests’ hair everywhere & dust, shower has never seen the proper cleaning, chipped and in a very bad state furniture, floor, etc
Please see some pictures.

30 minute wait for a half filled plastic cup of lager, plastic cups for g&t at reception bar 10 o clock at night , had to keep reminding reception our room had not been cleaned no clean towels no water in fridge bed not made, wi fi didn’t work , sink broke, bins not emptied, and worst of all the mattress was stained and absolutely disgusting!!!

The bathroom extractor is still not working after 3 days.

The reception is flooded all hours of the day with complaints from other guests and you can tell this has worn thin with the reception staff who give little to no help and come across extremely rude.

He said we didn't need a shower as we had a bath!!

The days it was cleaned, I don't think the toilet was done or sheets changed.

And please shower with shoes :) because god knows what is on the floor!!

the private beach with crystal clear waters is great for snorkeling, so head to the onsite shop and get yourself a snorkel mask.

If you walk  45-60 mins into sissi again you will not be disappointed with a selection of bars and restaurants set around a central harbour

We never had an issue with getting beach towels either, they was always available at the payout bar.

There are many pools in each area of the resort and a sandy beach.

Many pools and a beautiful private beach.

On first impression the hotel is set in a lovely location with a lovely little cove

(Recommend Nisos and pleasure beach for meals).

Many pools and a beautiful sandy beach with plenty of sunbeds.

It was difficult to find where the clean beach towels were kept!

The resort itself is good, the pools are adequate, the private beach is nice, and when you look around it is actually quite a nice place to be.

Beach is lovely and there are many sunbeds around.

He went to our room (with us) and within 30 seconds, agreed it was not suitable and immediately took us to another room that ticked all of the boxes and was closer to the beach (bonus).

A variety of different cuisine good location with amazing beaches around .

Overall this resort has SO much potential because it has a lovely beach and lots of pool areas

Each morning when cleaners come and They would leave us fresh beach towels for next day, the last 3 days we didn’t get these and had to try and locate ourselves.

The only danger was the array of cakes and desserts which were far too tempting and delicious to resist.

The food was delicious especially the premium menus at the Italian restaurant.

What I also appreciated was the friendliness of Giorgios the portier , Violeta at the bar and all the stuff at the buffet  restaurant and spa and Payot bar ( everyone in general ).

Plentiful selection for all and a beautiful view.

but freshly cooked omelettes were delicious.

though for either breakfast and dinner or lunch and dinner.

Great restaurants with variety of delicious food.

The food is fantastic and there is plenty to choose from the buffet.

The food was delicious, especially in Ariadni.

The food is delicious and service is amazing.

although the al a carte restaurants were no better than the main buffet.

She’s great at making conversation and makes the most delicious cocktails.

but they are all ‘fully booked’ meaning you have to use the buffet every day.

The que for pancakes was always so long, they had two hot plates at station

She started screaming at us, and dropped the phone.

She then tells me that check out is at 11 and that they had been trying to call me all day and were searching around the hotel all day for us.

We met many unhappy people and if you try to complain the Quality Manager accuses you of lying and threatens to call the police and kick you out so most were bullied in to just accepting the poor conditions.

After persistent phone calls and visits to reception the general manager, Adonis was made aware of our situation.

We finaly got to the 2 bedroom
Villa near by the sea in a complete darkness for which we had to turn our cell lights on.

Tried calling and the lady hung up on me.

Friday night entertainment in Radisson was a guy who plugged in his phone to a speaker and was playing very niche music.

The entertainment on a Friday night was a guy playing music off his phone plugged into a portable speaker.

but the stuff no and the service are very bad and the room are out of service,all the time you need to ask for things.no phone in room,no bedside table.

There was absolutely no entertainment for the family, there was no shows in the evening, and I can only describe the children's area as an absolute disgrace, on entering with two children, I wasn't asked my name or telephone number, staff left the doors open so the children were not safe!

Complained to reception who were under a lot of stress from many complaints daily and then complained to the hotel when we returned to receive an aggressive response calling me a liar and just trying to get money back from them.

although I haven't received any apologizing email or further call and although I am still fighting to get my money back.

We could not email it to the hotel reception as there is no phone reception and none of us could get on the Internet.

They were then forced to call the police due to the threats made.

The reception usually not answer the phone.

Lots of early nights watching netflix on my phone - don't expect much in terms of anything English on the TV.

Not answering , waiting 2 days for iron , calling for towels 3 times no one came so I went to reception asked them in personal and again no one came … I needed to wait for the morning to find by my self the hose keeping.

The tv are not English or give an option to be in English, the remotes don’t work, they don’t replace water or coffee or milk, you have to ask, don’t bother wasting your time on calling reception they front come, no one will bring anything to your room just go to reception.

Room Service, yes if you can wait over half an hour for them to call back to take the order, and a further half hour plus for the food to arrive lukewarm from a clearly overworked and unhappy worker.

I was smug sipping my cocktails when there was a queue elsewhere!

Long queues kept in boiling sun,   Drinks are watered down, cocktails tasteless, food bland cheap cuts or small bony fish.

The queues for a drink is 15 minute minimum and you ask for a cocktail for them to respond ‘sorry that one isn’t all inclusive’ 
The quality of the food is horrendous, it’s all leftovers, the fruit looks so dry and it’s not fresh at all.

but in reality this hotel is poorly maintained , too few staff in the dining areas , long queue to get your drinks , beach bar is not open at once ,and Not everything is ALL INCLUSIVE!

but expect to queue here for a long, long time even for a simple drink of water, there is a single line of people queuing from morning to late evening for a drink with only one (sometimes 2 later on) people to serve you.

but I have work to return to and a doctor to book an appointment with regarding these stomach cramps…

Long story short, if you want to stay at a resort with lovely grounds, but spend most of your time throwing up from ingesting raw food and queuing over 20 minutes for a poorly made drink, go ahead and book… if like us, you’d have had a better time in Blackpool, save your money and stomach health.

There were queues for the bars at 1 point I counted 16 people in a queue waiting for the bar.

Reception staff need more training
Dimitri (payout bar) so rude, probably shouldn’t be in hospitality 
Waited 3 days and god knows how many visits to reception for an iron
Bean bags (outside area of our room) covered in bird poo so could not use
Lights (outside area of our room) broken or did not work
Snagging issues in room, rotten wood by hot tub, pillows/ headrest missing or needs replacing in hot tub
Lack of bottled water in room, sometimes did not receive the 1 bottle they give you between 2 people
Long queue for drinks, only 1 person on at a time (payot bar)
All inclusive drinks, definitely watered down or at a really low standard
Entertainment, well what entertainment!

We asked for extra cutlery and the guy threw them down on the table and said “do it yourself” 

We have been queuing 25-35 min everyday for a selection of equally disgusting poorly made cocktails in a plastic cup.

but mostly cold or tepid which is very unpleasant
> Drinks: mediocre with only local spirits and queues when you wish to get a drink
> A-la-carte restaurants: limited to three per week although I question the menu – best keeping to the Mosaic Brasserie although foods are not labeled
> Reception: tries to help although mostly held in a queue
> Safety: what safety
> Best 1: the microwave oven to warm food up
> Best 2: close to Sisi for a proper Greek food which is warm and delicious
> Photo Gallery on their web-site is totally misleading as we did not see any similar rooms despite being given a Signature Room.

• Wet bar not always staffed as they seemed to give that woman a lot of duties making the queues for drinks quite long at times as everyone then went to Payot Bar.

Never waited for more than a couple of minutes to get served.

This was after 2 full days waiting and wasting our holiday!

Don’t bother with the shower room for late check out unless you are prepared to queue for half an hour.

but were always extremely busy with long queues.

Long queue at every bar and when you do order they roll their eyes at you utterly rude.

Lengthy queues at Reception to check in (and at other times (worst was 45 minutes)  mostly with all inclusive guests complaining about their deal !

Long queue to the bar , if you came to restaurant you should wait for table, for drink for everything .

Bar manager is very rude and find excuses like everyone comes to the bar at the same time which is not true because there is a queue all day…There are a lot of frustrated customers in the queues.

Guys you should visit the “Wet Bar all day” Radisson blu Milatos Crete the lady her name is Marina she is just amazing lovely women she makes the best cocktails here,very nice place to relax and have nice cocktails,which I can’t said about another bars out here.

Cocktails and drinks from the bar were lovely, especially a morning iced coffee by one of the many pools.

although I can imagine in hi season this can be a challenge 

Overall we had a fabulous stay, there are a few bits of tlc required and we recommend a couple of evening dinners in nearby Militos and Sissi which had great shopping as well!

We made use of the a la cart restaurant with the 6 tokens and the Italian was certainly our favourite that took the food and service to the next level.

The speciality restaurants are great to have a change from the main dining room.

A wonderful resort with good service, amazing accommodations, great range of various food.

Good food, with a lot of local natural products.

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