MareBlue Village

I have just returned from a week away with a girlfriend. We were very worried about the bad reviews and I can gladly say that the hotel is no where near as bad as people are stating. The hotel is clean and bright. Fresh towels most days and on last day they brought freshly tumbled dried towels at 9pm for us. We stayed at the top and yes it is steep but if you have heavy bags or just can not be bothered they take you up in a golf buggy. Nothing was too much trouble for any of the staff at any time. The food we were dreading but it was lovely. Fresh salads a really wide selection of greek food, pastas, fish, meats and a daily roast. The puddings were fabulous! The hotel entertainment wasn't too great but hey...the sun shone, the relax pool was great and star beach on the door step. I would go back to the Mareblue again.

We have just returned from the Mareblue hotel,Crete.I was very worried when after i had booked i read all those terrible reviews.Hoping to find that the majority of people were wrong.Alas not all of there coments were unfounded. The accomodation was spot on,we were lucky with sea views.The layout of the buildings was great with little alleyways with pretty gardens all around.Apart from the steep climb which was the only downside. We found the food good,with some lovely greek salads on offer.Not so great for kids,not to much for them apart from chips.The snack bar was dreadful,with chips on offer and some bland pasta dishes which looked like they were leftovers.Very dissapointed with that.The bar was ok apart from the small plastic glasses which when having beer was half froth. The entertainment was ok during the day,our kids were just happy to play buy the pool.At night time it was rubbish,kids disco which lasted about 30 mins but was on the same time as the evening dinner.Not much in the way of parent entertainment either. All in all we had a great holiday as we had not been for acouple of years.But be prepared to make your own entertainment.We have been to other all inclusive hotels and this was not up to there standard,and we are not ones to complain much about our holidays. I would reccomend for a day out Water City if your a big kid like me which has some great slides,and a couple of area's for smaller children.Also Crystels which is down in Hersonissos.It has a enclosed park & you can it & have a drink/food in a relaxed sports bar.

Our experience. We are a family of 5 with children aged 9,7,5. We stopped at the Mare blue during May half term and went with another family of five. Here are some facts: Rooms were spacious, we had two balconies in our room with amazing views. Double glazing ensured that we slept well on amazingly comfortable beds. The rooms were cleaned well every day except Sunday. (So well we left a big tip to the cleaning staff) We were amazed by the variety and quality of the food offered and all 10 of us eat a little too well. The restaurant staff were unbelievably helpful and regularly went beyond the call of duty to ensure our needs were met. The location on the outskirts of Hersonissos means that the location is peaceful. We hired cars (via internet before we left for best prices) and found beautiful beaches and 'Star beach - Water Park' within 5 Mins drive time, perfect for our age of children. On a slightly negative note the resort nestles into a hillside and has a path network which is quite steep, particularly for more elderly guests, we had no problem. The entertainment in the Amphitheatre was a little repetitious. Overall though we had a better holiday here than Egypt last year. Well done Mare Blue you have clearly made some big changes. Weather was perfect 28-32 every day.

We have just returned from Mareblue Village. Our room was right at the top of the complex and when reviewers says it's a steep incline - it's actually horrendous. Do not go if you have any breathing or heart problems! We managed to limit it to twice a day and we are a reasonably fit couple. Too many people there with bad behaved children running wild in the evenings, although that is not the hotel's fault. Hire car is essential as there is very little to do at the hotel. Food is usually cold and re heated leftovers plentiful. This is definately not a 4*, 2/3 at best. Weather was fantastic. Drinks are watered down - 15 vodkas and still stone cold sober!!

Overall a good holiday. Food was very good and plentiful. Broad mix of guests from all over Europe. Mainly Brit and German, but plenty of Swedes, Russians etc. Entertainment .....interesting. German led team doing poor dancing by pool a couple of times a day, they try to be funny, but fail miserably. Best bit is watching the 2 new english members of the team squirm with embarrasement doing it. It is only a couple of times in the day though, so not too off putting. If you stay by the pool all week you will know the club song by the end of the week. There is a quite pool though if you want to escape. The English girl (Ashley) runs the Kids club so that works well. Although the hotel is about 20 minutes downhill to the sea (30 minutes hard walk back up the hill), they do provide free shuttle down, if you want to be tied to certain times. There are several water parks at the beach, which differ in size for different age groups.

My husband and myself just returned from this nightmare hotel in Oct. (Also known as Meltami Village). We had booked with Thomas Cook for 2 weeks, After just 3 days we were planning how to get home. Hotel was clean that was the only good point. Hotel was isolated, nowhere to have a stroll, food was cold and nothing was labelled. For the little food we ate, we were never out of the toilet. A/I ended at 11pm, beer was waterered down, other 3 drinks were awful. I brought my own bottle and mixer into hotel. 75% of holidaymakers were German and entertainment was in German held in the threatre which had no bar. All we could do was sit bored to tears in lounge with no music, television or entertainment. Just as well we met lovely family from Inverness with their 2 girls, Karen & Allen from Liverpool and Kevin & family. snacks at hotel were left out all day. No snacks were provided at night. This hotel was un-bearable we had to book our own way home to Glasgow 5 days later. It is never a 4 star, it is not for british guests, thomas cook should withdraw it from their brochure. If you are thinking of going please read all the reviews on line and take note THEY ARE TRUE, DONT BOOK, BE WARNED....

Mareblue Village has a lot of things in it's favour and could be a really good 4 star resort, but don’t go there unless: (a) You are in fairly good shape physically (the site is on a fairly steep hill). (b) You are prepared to hire a car and make use of taxis (otherwise you will be bored) (c) You don’t mind your food luke-warm. Our stay at the Mareblue Village was at the end of August / beginning of September 2008. We had booked a holiday in Turkey, but the flight was cancelled a week before departure so we had to re-book quickly. It took us 2 days to get a refund (disgraceful, travel agents take the money straight away!), so we really did not have much time. A real last minute booking! The resort is about 2½ km from the centre of Hersonissos and as I have mentioned before, it is on a fairly steep hill. There are no Tavernas or shops within easy walking distance, so be prepared to hire a car or some other means of transport. Because of its isolation, it is very pleasantly peaceful, with nice views overlooking the sea. Goats could regularly be seen on the cliffs above the resort, they appeared to enjoy watching the holidaymakers! The site is very well laid out with lots of greenery (but no mossies!). The rooms are quite adequate by Greek standards (they even have a fridge), the air conditioning worked OK, but the satellite TV only had Sky News in English. Most of the guests were German, with a fair mix of other Europeans. The two pools were clean and well maintained, as was the rest of the site and, surprisingly, there was never any problem getting a sun bed! Nearly all the staff spoke and understood English to a greater or lesser degree, and I must say that the Reception and Bar staff in particular were very hard working, friendly and helpful. The room where you eat your buffet style all-inclusive meals is quite pleasant with an adequate number of tables, but the food was not always of a high standard. Breakfast was OK, but the other meals were more aimed towards continental palates. Labeling was inadequate, which meant that often you had no idea what was on offer in some of the dishes. The meat was almost exclusively pork or chicken, although there was a fair selection of fish. But the worst thing about the food was the temperature… almost invariably cold! The kitchen and serving areas had all the necessary equipment, but the staff didn’t use it effectively. This is one area where the management really needs to get their act together! This was the first all-inclusive holiday we have taken in which there was no provision of a “supper” type meal, and also the earliest closure of the all-inclusive bar – 11:00p.m. On the dot! It’s more usually midnight or later. The animation team organized some activities by the pool during the day, and there was some entertainment in the evening, but as this was held in an amphitheatre with no bar, we didn’t bother! The Hotel runs a regular bus to the nearby Star Beach, but there is no private beach or beach bar, so this is an expensive day out (a large beer is 4 Euros). We quite enjoyed our break at the Mareblue Village because of the peaceful surroundings, but we could have enjoyed it far more! Would we go there again? Not unless we read some reviews indicating that changes had been made! P.S. If you do decide to book a holiday at the Mareblue Village, try to avoid any rooms near to 102, as the coaches park there with their engines running when they deliver or collect holidaymakers.

Warning - Check out reviews under Meltemi Village as well. (I have put this review on that one as well) as Thomas Cook still in their 2009 broucher advertise it as this, despite the name change. The village complex is on a steep slope and the staff use golf buggies to get about. (Which I am suprised they have not knocked any one over, with how they drive them). The rooms are basic, but at least they show SKY NEWS! The maid cleaned our room for the first 3 days, but not much evidence thereafter. Both top (relaxing) and bottom pools look untidy due to the slabbing in the grass and some areas of unkept grounds maintainance. (Long grass around hard to cut areas). The sunbeds are plentyful, but they stick them everywhere, so can feel a little on top of each other and they put them on the grass area, so you can image grass + water = mud! The all inclusive package is poor compared to others with have experienced. Only a very limited range of free spirits, needing to pay if you fancied something better, soft drinks and juices not very good (cheap products) and free ice cream is only for 2 hours per day. But we found the FOOD VERY GOOD and with variety. But if you only eat the norm, (English food) the only thing you will be able to eat will be the chips and salad. The desserts were wonderful. Canteen style help your self, did not experience the "queue" issue as described in other reviews. The complex is mainly none British (but remember - you are on holiday!), evidence of this would be the ratio of the animation team for the kids. (2 English, 5 German personnel). All the staff at the complex speak English thou, no issues with communication. But not enough staff thou, as you may have to wait to be served at the bar most days. We hire a car from the complex (but you can get it cheaper in the village of Hersonissos), so we could escape for 3 days and have a look around the island. There is no entertainment on at the evenings, so boring in that respect. Although we took our 7 year old daughter with us, we did not part take in the children entertainment, so would be unfair to comment on this. There is a free shuttle bus to their sister village complex of the Star Beach. Which is part of a larger complex. The Beach is just a large ashtray. No evidence of cleaning (But I dont blame the Mare Blue for this) as unsure who has the rights to this 300m stretch of sand completely full on sunbeds. You can use the sunbeds in the Star Beach complex, but again, you are living onto of each other and you have to pay for sunbeds and umbrellas. To sum this all up. We enjoyed the food, (but not fuss/kid friendly perhaps) Good exercise if you are at the top of the hill Beaches near by very poor No entertainment Cleaning and maintaince could be better. But at the end of the day, if you can get this at a very good price, perhaps you may be content. If you can afford it, dont go here, look elsewhere. Unfortunately we had to suffer English School Holiday Prices.

We booked this holiday last October and had read the reviews. We kept an open mind with regards to the reviews regarding the Germans with the belief that some people will complain just for the sake of it! Well these reviews were not exagerated. The hotel used to be called Meltemi Village and i think they changed names to try and shake off the bad image. We went with our 11 year old daughter and was told there would be a 'Stagecoach' kids club when booking. It was only several weeks after that we received a letter that this was no longer available. Probably too few English kids to join them! Food - If we wanted badly cooked English food I could go to my local hospital. One night there was chicken which my husband tried. He asked me to try it and it tasted of fish! Our daughter nicknamed it 'chickish' - needless to say he was up all night on the loo! The only good thing about the food was the puddings - I put on several pounds in weight because it was the only edible thing! We had better meals in the town than here! It was 95% Germans, and yes the majority of them liked to believe us British were not there. The first few days we kept saying morning to them but they look terrified of us and did not even bother responding.I have met Germans before on holiday and found them no problem but it seems this hotel attracts the worst. Our daughter is a little too old for kids clubs but I felt sorry for the little English kids as all entertainment in the day was in German. I must admit we did not bother with the evening entertainment - we have been all inclusive before and these cabaret acts just do not appeal to us. I did speak to one family who said they went one night and was asked if they wanted to join in the quiz which they said yes to - the sheet was all in German! We found the bar staff nice, they do have a system when serving and it seems you need to be there for a few days before you get priority. Once you have been there for the first few days they soon remember your favourite drink and automatically bring it over - which was quite nice. The restuarant staff in the morning are cheerful, but do not try to help yourself to coffee as they really take the job seriously and insist on bringing it to you. It is well worth the wait - really nice coffee! A word of warning if you take Euro Travellers cheques you can not cash them at the hotel, you need to go into the town (these will be cashed free at all banks but not at bureau's. Early May would be ideal if you are still not frightened off going as the wasps and mosquito's only started to appear in the third week of May. The pools (there are 2) are very clean as is the whole village. We made the best of the holiday, which I think you need to do, but I do not think we will go again. Our daughter was bored silly at times as there was nothing for her to do in the complex. I really think travel companies should warn people when the majority is another race.

Clean, well looked after, excellent food, good entertainment team, wonderful staff, a pleasure to stay there. Only sorry it was just the one week!