My husband, three young sons and I just returned from a great vacation at the Porto Elounda hotel. While it may not be obvious from travel brochures or agent descriptions, the three hotels consisting of the Porto Elounda, Peninsula and Elounda Mare are all co-owned and share facilities (such as the golf course). The Porto Elounda is the flagship where the spa and golf course are located. As some reviews mention, this will be a brief walk from the other hotels, but as most of the guests are quite fit, I am surprised that anyone would complain. Knowing that the three hotels share facilities perhaps should be some help for travellers deciding which hotel to stay at. Porto Elounda was very popular with families with very young children, while families with slightly older children stayed at the all suite Peninsula. I will make the deduction that couples wanting a romantic holiday without the bustle and inevitable noise children make stay at the Elounda Mare. The beach side pool area was wonderful and conveniently has two restuarants located there. While the food was good, I have to confess that the dinner buffet got old after a few days. The lunch menu also did not change or have daily specials. Nevertheless, the setting was spectacular, the guests dignified and relaxed and the weather perfect.

Our children went to the extremely well thought out Children's Ark for half a day. While these facilities were wonderful, including an excellent playground and swimming pool, my older children (aged 5 and 8) were fairly bored. Probably the structured environment or lack of sophisticated toys (i.e. Playstation) contributed. My three year old loved his time there.

I would not rate the Porto Elounda as a mind boggling, take-your-breath away experience, but we all had a wonderful relaxing family holiday and would definitely consider going back.

We stayed at this Hotel for one week in September,and found the Hotel to be very comfortable and because of the time of year there was no problem regarding sun beds on the beach.However when the new extension opens I imagine this will not be the case.The drinks were wildly expensive and the bar service very poor.
We paid cash for most of our extras,and had a small account due at the end of our stay,we tipped on a regular basis.The night before we left we recieved a call from reception asking what time would we like the porter to collect our luggage?The next morning we settled said invoice for amount owed no more no less.
SUITCASES WERE NOT COLLECTED AS ARRANGED!5 STAR TREATMENT?