This hotel is in a great location beach is across the road and a 10 minute walk into town. Our room was lovely, very modern with a sea view. We thought the food was very good with plenty of choices. There was a BBQ one night and we had a lovely Gala Dinner as part of our all inclusive. The restaurant is too small for the hotel. Every morning we had to wait for a table to be cleaned and new cutlery etc. They are extremely short staffed and we’re rushed off there feet. This was the same when we sat at the front of the hotel watching the evening entertainment, we would be waiting 20-30 minutes for our drinks then the smallest glass of wine would arrive. We did get fed up and ended up going out as it was wasting our evening. We didn’t use the pools as too small and not located in the right area of the hotel. Such a shame that the slow service lets this hotel down.…
Stayed here with friends last week and we had a deluxe sea view room. The views were breathtaking and the room was comfortable with all amenities you need. The food in this hotel is the best hotel food Iv had. Especially the al a carte. We really enjoyed our stay and if I come back to Rethymno I would stay here again. The walk into old town is 15-20 mins and is a stunning place. Thank you for a wonderful stay especially the manager or head waiter in the a la carte. He was excellent and should be manager
This hotel was extremely disappointing. Firstly the photos are a lot better than the reality. The hotel itself is quite run down, dark and small. Lifts are tiny, majority of the hotel has no aircon and communal spaces just need a general facelift. The pool is tiny at the front of the building, there is another bigger one but impossible to get around as there’s around 6 sunbeds there. There was also a mad rush for sunbeds at 9am everyday when the area opened - so be prepared! The gazebos look great on the photos, in reality they charge €36 extra for anyone at the hotel to use these which is crazy Other option is the beach which is okay (I’m more of a pool person but this hotel was a let down for this) Food is REALLY limited. Around 6 hot options for each meal. As I’m a vegetarian, I found myself having chips for every meal and started to dread mealtimes. We paid for a limited sea view. Our first room we had a wall as a view so we requested to change, second room had a view of a street (photo attached) and you had to lean over the balcony to see the sea. No privacy at all, and we will be contacting TUI for a refund on this. I heard quite a few other people in the hotel also complaining about their rooms and getting them changed. The staff worked hard but there was not enough of them, it took over 20 minutes to get served a drink at lunch! They also charge SO much for drinks - €4.80 for a bottle of water is daylight robbery! Location was great however, Rethymno was absolutely beautiful! Overall just a bad experience, not a 5 star at all and not worth the money!…
Coming home last night after fourteen days in this beautiful town.This was the second time we were living at this hotel.Very pleasant all of the staff who are working at the hotel.Located nearby the town and also just two minutes from the beach.Very good breakfast. I can absolutely recommend this hotel.
An Excellent hotel, with a huge beach Which was amazing, the hotel has a very detailed and interesting personality. Especially Maria, a hotel staff member which was very friendly and helpful. The house keeping was a perfection and the food is to die for. Thanks to the staff which had perfect service.
We had this holiday book for 3 years over the pandemic and just kept rolling it over with TUI so we were very much looking forward to our first visit to Crete. Arriving from Heraklion airport you’ll be thankful when the bus eventually pulls up and you see that you’re staying at this hotel having watched others get off the coach in some pretty remote, isolated places. The transfer is long but the location of Aquila Porto Rethymno is on the main road into the city and ideal for exploring. Approx. Half a mile/1km and 10min walk. There’s a no flushing of toilet paper rule in Crete. You bin it. Imagine our disgust arriving at Aquila Porto Rethymno at 0330 local time to find our room dirty (bathroom, floor etc) and the toilet paper bin hadn’t been emptied from the previous guests so we were greeted with their urine and faeces laden tissue. The mini bar was half emptied and I’m not even sure at this point the linen had been changed. We’ve never arrived somewhere for our holiday and the first impression to be to wishing we were on that plane back home. We also paid TUI extra for a partial sea view room but be aware, this includes rooms where you have to lean right over the balcony and look down the street to see the beach/sea. Our initial room was old and tired on the 3rd floor (332) with no partial sea view, only a view straight across into the opposite residential block. Very overlooked as residents sat out eating dinner looking in and we felt awkward sitting out. We complained to the hotels TUI rep about toilet paper issue, the food (this is coming…) and our room and we were moved to the 6th floor (619). Much better yet for a room sold at the same price point, they were very different standards. Kudos to my wife who was close to tears and had wound herself up enough over a 24hr period to say enough and actually complain. Also credit where it’s due to the hotel staff are very friendly and they handled it very well. My wife was shown the new room upfront and we just had to leave our luggage and come back later for a new room key. Paid to go all inclusive? My deepest sympathies. Half board was bad enough. I can’t emphasise this enough, the food and available choice is diabolical and hands down the worst I’ve ever experienced on any holiday, anywhere. We weren’t the only people to complain about the food either. We witnessed several other guests giving their politely worded negative feedback. In summary we wrote off two weeks half board took the additional ~€300 to €400 hit of eating out as we weren’t willing to suffer the 2 week duration and the prospect of eating at the Aquila on an evening was met with deflation and a sense of dread. It was beginning to overshadow and completely ruin our holiday. I’ve never experienced a hotel restaurant that’s too small to accommodate its guests either and people having to queue some 20 deep waiting to gain access for breakfast. After 0900 is a bad time to go and it’s manic. Items such as semi-skimmed milk runs out, hot food trays are empty, toast is a mad scramble with no sort of queue etiquette and the availability of tea pots/milk jugs can be an issue. Vacated tables aren’t cleared quick enough so you have to stand waiting or go ask staff to find you one, request it’s cleared then wait for clean cutlery and cups. Very limited compared to other places we’ve stayed but we stuck to grapefruit, toast and cereal most days. For lunch I’m convinced the available fair is leftovers from the previous evening, just re-dressed. We found ourselves limited to a pretty poor choice of salad as there wasn’t a selection of cold meats or dressings to go with it. Feta cheese it was. For dinner, the outdoor grill by the pool only operates randomly a couple of times per week and in all fairness it’s good when it’s on. Most other evenings there’s only one row consisting of 12 meat/veg/rice/pasta trays to pull a meal together from (I kid you not and reduced to 8 for lunch), one row of salad/cheese, the end of said row containing olives/feta/sardines, some bread and butter, 2 choices of soup and a small selection of deserts. Spaghetti bolognaise does seem to be a staple on at least lunch and dinner every day. Because the doors to the outdoor sitting area are wide open, there’s flies. Atrocious and any review stating otherwise either ate in the a la carte every evening, have very low standards or they’re false. My parting shot on this subject is that nowhere we’ve ever stayed has charged €4.50 for a bottle of still water or €5.50 for 330ml of beer which is more expensive than Manhattan. Noise. It’s a city hotel so expect bin men early doors, deliveries, scooters, cars, voices, dogs barking at all hours, groups of youths. What you won’t be aware of is that it’s also in close proximity to the local church and the bells ring early for morning mass at the weekend. 0700, 0800 and 0830. DONG, DONG, DONG!!!!!!! There’s two relatively small lifts in the hotel. Very slow, very stuffy even with the fan on and god help you if you’re on a high floor and it’s busy e.g during dinner. It’ll pick up on every other floor requested on the way up before getting to you so if there’s more than 6 people in it heading down, better use the stairs. Sunbed situation. Queuing by a number of guests to be on roof terrace by small pool from 15-20mins before it opens at 0900. Worse in our first week than second. You have a 5-10min window before they all go as it only accommodates 20 - 30 people. It’s on the main road so noisy with the odd waft of bus/scooter exhaust fumes. Not worth the rush. There’s beds by the pool along side the restaurant but they’re shaded most of the day and directly opposite people eating breakfast and lunch outside. Beach is the winner here. Loads of beds, plenty space, no running and a noticeably more relaxed atmosphere. A woman pulling a cart selling donuts, watermelon and Frrrrrrrrrrrrruity salad comes by around 1200 every day. Think it’s €5 for the fruit salad and looks huge. DO NOT BRING CHILDREN TO THIS HOTEL. There’s literally nothing for them to eat and nothing at all to keep them entertained. Rethymno as a whole is the nicest resort we’ve holidayed in. While the hotel is ideally located and looks to be one of the better this close to the city, the only way I’d ever agree to come back here is if we were on a room only or bed and breakfast basis. When your first impressions are wishing you were on a plane back home, you’re not the only guests to complain about the restaurant and food, how you sleep/noise levels are a typical topic of conversation among other guests and some guests are overheard at breakfast saying (exact words) “Only 4 days to go” there’s room for some major improvements. This hotel certainly isn’t worthy of the indicated 5 stars or in anyway a plush, modern or luxurious hotel. When compared to other 4 star hotels we’ve stayed in through TUI, I’d give this a 3 star max with a 5 star price tag and TUI will be receiving further complaint on our return home.…
Not having been able to travel abroad for almost three years, we were really looking forward to this holiday. We booked three weeks at this hotel - what a mistake! We had booked a superior room with sea view. We got the sea view, which was lovely. However, the room was far from superior. It was the equivalent of a cheap, run-down motel room. It was very small with two tatty, uncomfortable dining chairs and a very small dilapidated table between them. There was a window above the bed which was overlooked by some awful apartments and there was a curtain which didn't fit the window so people in the apartments could see straight into our room. The curtain had also been altered to fit the length of the window and there was stitching marks where this had been done - very unprofessional. I had to stand on the bed when we arrived and make adjustments to the width of the curtain to get some form of privacy. We only had an extremely small shower room (no bath) with only room for one person to get in so, if I was using the mirror to put on my make-up, I had to step out if my husband wanted to wash his hands after using the toilet. The toilet was separate in a tiny, stuffy cubby hole. There was very little storage. It was only after being shown a "standard" room, by some friends we had made while we were there, that we realised our room was so sub-standard compared to others. However, this was after two weeks and it wasn't worth complaining and moving by that time. We were all-inclusive. The food was OK but quite basic and became extremely monotonous after several days. There were no theme nights to ring the changes and the amount of choice wasn't good. The staff were mostly friendly but there was one person serving who was extremely miserable and never smiled. One big shout-out to the barman. I believe his name is Miltos. He was fantastic! The hotel was on a busy road which you had to cross to get to the beach. At busy times during the day, you took your life in your hands to get across with the speed of some of the cars. On a plus point, the beach is good and there was never a problem getting sunbeds. The guy who was providing drinks from the hotel to people on the beach was fantastic - friendly and worked very hard. The hotel is within 10-15 minutes' walk from the centre of Rethymno, which is a lovely town. In summary, we paid five star prices for a three star experience. If we return to Rethymno, which we might well do, we won't be returning to this hotel.…
We visited this hotel in early May. The transfer from Heraklion is well over an hour, and we arrived at the hotel very late (11.30). We asked if there was anywhere where we could get something to eat, and were met with a shrug of the shoulders and told to look down the street. As we were all-inclusive we asked if there was any food left from earlier in the day, but apparently everything was closed and not accessible. We had a room on the top floor facing the street/sea, a nice room, but the better ones are on the corner where the view is clearer. The rooms are clean and the fridge is kept well stocked which was welcome. The food was good, although by the end of the week the variety was lacking, and it can get very busy at times - we got the last table by the door a couple of times. The hotel has its own section of beach, which is great. You are promised drinks service by your bed as part of the deal, but we didn’t find this at all. We received the first drink early in the week and because we didn’t tip, the young lad literally ignored us for the rest of the week. He would walk around us! It is only a short walk back to the hotel so we got our own, but it is a shame that the service is so financially biased - we like to tip at the end of our holiday to the staff whom we want to reward, not feel pressured on every visit, USA style. The location is great, just a short stroll to the old town to help work off the food. There is some nightly entertainment of varying quality, but not many seats. I can only imagine the scramble in high season. Overall, a nicely located hotel, but a long way short of 5 star.…
Just returned from a lovely 11 night stay at this hotel. First impressions were good although not as expected as TUI had used some photographs from another hotel in their advertising which meant the outside space was not as advertised. This is a “city” hotel and as such the pools are small with very little area for loungers. However, the hotel is lovely with wonderful staff and the location is great, across the road from a beautiful beach and a 10 minute stroll into the gorgeous old town (a must visit). The food in the buffet is good but the a la carte restaurant is excellent. The service and attention to detail from Vassilis and his staff is impeccable and the food is some of the best we have ever eaten. We were fortunate to be Mythica guests as we upgraded our room and because of this could eat in this beautiful restaurant at no extra cost (no information about this from TUI when we booked). Also, special mention to Toula who looked after us in the downstairs bar, always giving a great welcome. If there are any negatives, I would say the bar service on the beach was very slow. Definitely need more staff there. But overall, a wonderful holiday. Thank you.…
First of all i would say the staff here are lovely & work incredibly hard, would definitely give them 5*. Food was really nice! The room was OK but the balcony facing onto the back road wasn't very appealing or relaxing & very noisy early morning. Pool area is tiny & no pool bar! & was crammed into the middle of the hotel. The private beach was lovely & was waiter service but after waiting for the poor waiter who was run of his feet we gave up. My partner had to go back in the hotel , sit down , and wait to be served, then fetch the drinks back over to me on the beach! We wasn't allowed to go get our drinks ourselves at the bar that was waiter service aswell, like I said the staff worked incredibly hard but there just wasn't enough staff & the constant waiting to be served wasn't very good for a 5* hotel. The reception is large & very nice, but the outside is very small & everything seems to be crammed in a very small space! theres not many relaxing seating areas! Don't no if its still waiter service because we went last October but it really let's this hotel down!…
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