Mistral Mare Hotel

Well, having stayed in Hotels on Crete in the past, which have also been slated on sites like this, we didn't think The Mistral would be nearly as bad as has been made out by other reviewers, and so it turned out. We arrived under our own steam ( having picked up our hire car at Heraklion airport ) and found the hotel easily, after an hours drive - turning up at reception at about 11.00pm. We were offered a welcome drink from the bar, then showed to our room. The room itself was HUGE, very clean, with the best view over the bay opposite - probably the best view we have ever had. Collapse and have a sleep - up in the morning, dreading the "appalling " food we had read so much about.....ALL RUBBISH. Very nice breakfast, eggs, sausage, bread for toast, cheeses, tea, coffee, honey , yoghurt etc etc. This proved to be the story of the week - we enjoyed EVERY meal, always a good choice, nice chicken, pork and lamb, good choice of salads - I can only imagine that the " moaners" had never actually eaten in Greece before.... The hotel, this early in the season ( we arrived on 2nd May) was very quiet, only 13 other guests when we arrived, building up to around 60 when we left. This suited us down to the ground - never waited to be served at the bar or at mealtimes, pool nearly deserted, we had a great time. Yes, the drinks under the all inclusive could have been a bit stronger, but no-one is stopping you going up as many times as you want...... In summary, we paid very little for all inclusive, had a great time, and would certainly go back.

We are from Jersey, Channel Island. We went to the Mistral Hotel in Oct 2006 and really enjoyed it. Being that we are only 20 & 17 we wanted to be more close to Agios Nikolaos and the Mistral is quite far away however there is a good bus route so we found no problem. The food was alway nice, and the staff were very helpful and friendly. If you are thinking of going here i would ignor all of the other reviews, I have been going to Crete for the last 7 years and this is by far one of the best hotels that i have stayed in. It was very clen and the views from the hotel were amazing. It is run by a family and they are the niceset people that you will meet. We will definatly be going back to the hotel if not to stay because of the distance we will definatly be back to say hi, and hope to see the staff in the town of Agios Nikolaos for Christmas and the New Year. Thanks for the stay it was brilliant, Sam and Katie

The Mistral Hotel is to Crete what Guantanamo Bay is to the US. If you are considering this hotel I strongly advise you to think again. On the plus side, many of the rooms have a beautiful sea view (whilst the others boasting a ‘mountain view’ face a rock wall) and the beach is one of the best on the island. However, during our two week stay we experienced the worst service my girlfriend and I have ever received… THE ROOMS -You have to pay extra if you want the air conditioning unit in your room turned on -Towels are changed twice a week (or twice in nine days as we experienced) -Kettles and other means of heating water are not provided -Live wires are exposed (in our case this was in the bathroom and behind the bed – so don’t go to sleep with wet hair!) -A couple with a small child were there the same time as us. They put their child in the cot to sleep but he couldn’t sleep for coughing. They felt that the mattress in the cot was damp to the touch but their baby was dry. On inspecting the mattress they found it was sodden with mould. When they complained they were told it was their baby’s fault, who must have ruined their mattress. This was their first night. THE SERVICE -When my girlfriend asked for assistance because the pool table had swallowed the tokens, she was told ‘table fine – you don’t understand how it works’. My girlfriend answered that she did (token goes in, balls come out), to which the Food and Services Manager, Stellios, replied that she ‘didn’t understand’ and was being ‘stupid’. I appeared and, hearing this, told the man that he was rude and had little to no idea how to speak to guests. He blew up, yelling that he had 57 years experience and that we knew nothing. He then proceeded to shout and gesticulate wildly. My girlfriend, upset, told him we would report him to the rep, at which point he marched over to my girlfriend screaming ‘I’m not afraid of the rep! Call her! I don’t care!’ He had my crying girlfriend up against the wall and, I can honestly say that if I hadn’t stood in his way, would probably have hit her. Despite pushing himself up against me, he finally listened to my instruction for him to go away and cool off. We received no apology and our rep said there was nothing she could do as the receptionist had witnessed the event and nothing happened. We had four witnesses and the receptionist who claimed he’d seen the event wasn’t even in the same room. -We returned home at around 7pm one evening from an excursion to find our room door open. We were given no explanation as to why. -Coffee is not available for all-inclusive customers throughout the day: only between the hours of 07:30 – 09:30 and !6:00 – 17:00. Outside these hours the coffee will cost you 3 Euro, making it probably the most expensive coffee on the island. THE FOOD -Whatever is left over from breakfast reappears in other dishes at lunch and dinner. -Butter and margarine will not be available other than at breakfast, despite bread being available at all meals. If you ask for butter you will be told it is locked away in a fridge that, apparently, nobody has a key for. -The ice cream fridge is locked early, so don’t leave it till the last minute to get desert! -Vegetarian food is not marked and you will find minced meat in the aubergines and chopped frankfurters amongst the tinned carrots in the ‘French Bean in Tomato Sauce’ -The eggs are cooked three ways from terrible and smelt like something has died. Had I carried on eating them this may have been the case. They caused at least one girl at the hotel to be physically sick on two separate occasions (once when she eat it at breakfast and again in the evening meal when they’d obviously used the same eggs chopped and thrown into a pasta). -When we complained about the food, we were told that “it’s not bad, it’s just different. You are not used to Greek cuisine”. This was after the evening meal of fish fingers, burgers, tinned carrots and mushy sprouts. -All the tavernas near the hotel are full of dining, all inclusive Mistral guests. Speaking to some of the staff, we learned that the food at the Mistral was a standing joke amongst the locals and heard our 3-4 star hotel described as ‘Alkatraz’, ‘Abu Gharib’ and ‘Butlins in Iraq’. THE FACILITIES -The mini-golf is overgrown and unusable -The pool is full of large, dead insects. I can only assume they committed suicide after tasting the food. -The pool table, costing 2 Euro a time, swallows tokens without producing the balls. -There is no evening entertainment -The ‘American Bar’ does not exist Crete is a beautiful place with so much to do and see. I’d advise all beach lovers, cultural vultures – pretty much everyone to visit the island. Just make sure you avoid the Mistral Hotel at all costs.

Well if you have booked a holiday here then I strongly suggest you tear up your tickets and book to go somewhere else. We went for a week in September and as many other people, took advantage of what we thought was the good price. We booked it and made the mistake of not looking at the reviews. Had a early morning flight and got to Crete airport at 5pm local time. Surprisingly we had a taxi booked for us taking to the hotel which was a nice touch but it still took 1hr 10 minutes and takes 2 hours on the coach. As we were driving we saw our hotel and could not quite believe how high it was in the mountains, luckily the taxi dropped us at reception becasue throughout our week there we saw plenty of people get dropped off at the bottom of the road which was then a 100m climb to receoption with cases, checked in and wasn't overly impressed by the man in reception who threw a few rules at us and then gave us the key to our hotel room 308, that number will never leave me. Me and my friend are not partners but booked a twin room, we decided to get the lift to our room, but had massive trouble getting the 2 of us in and cases, I ended up having to stand on top of the case, I am not joking, seemed to walk under ground to get to the room, opened the door, popped my head round the corner and I could not believe it. It was a double bed, the smallest room in the world, the smallest bathroom you have ever seen, shower, loo, sink, you could could get in all at once, The toilet smelt of sewage, there was no room to put your case as the bed filled this space, went through to the balcony hoping for a good view and was greeted by a rock face fully 3 foot away, unbelievable, we sat on the bed and basically nearly cried, we went down to reception to complain and they told us we must have dinner by 8pm as restaurant shuts, wandered into restaurant and to eat and looked at what was on offer and once again nearly cried, about 8 school canteen trays filled with cold food as it was nearly 8pm, we tried cold fish finger and chips, had a bite but couldnt stomach it, went back to reception to complain about room and they said they would move us tomorrow, as they didnt understand the difference between double bed, twin room or twin bed, so we decided just to go into the bar and have a few drinks, this was another shock, all inclusive I dont think, bar shuts at 11, if you want more to 00.30 you have to pay, they give you half pints (just) asked for a large as I would keep going back but no still the halfs, my friend drank vodka which was watered down, all spirits were watered down, the cocktail bar which was advertised was just a bowl of punch made by barman, not allowed more than one drink at anytime so que to bar often long, nothing to do in bar, no entertainment at all, the hotel staff woudl have what they wanted on TV, English football on and they would just change the channel to greek division 3 stuff and then laugh. Following morning we got put in room 114, which was right behind reception with paper walls so you could hear everything, all night, all day, no sleep, and I was put on a camp bed for 6 nights, they advertise mini bar, and music channel, this wasnt here, no kettle, fridge, micorwave, cooker, one plug point, no air conditioning, nothing,staff at the hotel especially the man at reception who seemed to be there all the time was the rudest ever, no help, the all inclusive tag, doesnt include coffee apart from 4-5pm, doesnt include orange juice apart at breakfast which is just squash, doesnt include air conditioning which is 6 euros a night, doesnt include alcohol after 11, doesnt include darts or pool or mini golf, ps, the mini golf is the worst I have ever seen, 4 holes where all the paint has peeled, has plants over growing on course and the 4 holes together arent no bigger than a full size snooker table, the pool bar open for 3 and a half hours a day is a joke, stale bread with a bit of cheese or frankfurter hot dog on stale bread again, dinner an absolute farce, like being in prison being served from canteen dishes, same every day, pasta, rice, fish, beans, fish fingers, potatos in dish water, dry bread, cold chips, i could go on and on. As so high in mountains access was very hard, the walk to beach and town was 300 metres downhill so beware of the steep climb back up, not for elderly or disabled, they have cut a tunnel to beach but dont take this, its very steep, on cracked up pavement with no handrail, if you do be careful, the hotel rep was useless she was more interested in her own mobile and would only support the hotel staff, we had to confirm our plane tickets as last minute so hotel said we could use phone, used phone then got a call saying we must pay 17 euros, on your last day they cut your wrist band off straight away and you are then only allowed 1 drink and lunch, anymore has to be paid for even if you have only spent 6 nights there, some people we met arrived wednesday morning and flight very early Tuesday morning so only had 6 nights as out by 12 noon, they were not entitled to any meals although only been there 6 nights, also upon there arrival at 6am they were not allowed coffee as only served from 4-5 as part of AI deal, the swimming pools were full of chlorine, very cramped. The local village is very quiet during the quite months with not a lot to do so if you dont go into main town you will be bored, the bar at night in the hotel is so boring its unbelievable, people sitting around doing nothing. From night one we could not wait to leave, when we were leaving people were actually jealous of us and we felt so sorry for people walking up to check in, you have read the review and I am not lying as so many others have said the same THING. The good things about the hotel was the view and the beach when you got there, beautiful, we had a day trip out to spinalonga which was great and we also spent one night in the main town which was our best night and I would recommend this, its 14 euro by cab or 1 euro by bus, we also heard the water parks were good. Also for good food go into the local village down the 400m, some nice meals we had there and during the day go to a little place called the water park, free to get in and friendly staff plus they give you 20% as you are Mistral guests, the locals laugh when you say were you are staying. I f you go here good luck is all I can say

We have just returned from The Mistral and agree with all the reviews already posted. It really is a shame that a hotel with such spectacular views is so poorly run and people return from Holiday with such negative feelings about a lovely part of Crete. We also found the management petty and unhelpful. The staff we wouldn't say were rude but i think were just carrying out Managements Orders. A prime example was we arrived at approx 2330 hrs on 26/09/06 and were greeted with the offer of a meal. Nice gesture we thought (even though warmed up roast pork would not have been our chosen option a light salad would have been nice) but lets not get Petty !!!!!!!We then asked for a cup of tea (all inclusive as much tea as you can drink can't you ?). The tea duly arrived along with a receipt for 4 euros, must be a mistake i thought. Anyway went to the room and had a shower and also flooded the bath room as other guests have done but just wanted to sleep after a long day. Woke up to our sea view which was obscured by foliage and the frame of the pagoda by the pool. But at least we had a sea view and we thought we might ask for a room change later to a room above which was empty. Went to breakfast and had toast that you had to toast about four times just to get any colour on the bread watered down juice and boiled eggs which became the staple diet of the week for my wife and i.(Hope we don't get called for a cholesterol check in the next 6 months) Second night there, i go to the bar for some watered down alcohol and am greeted by the bar man who asks if i am in room 507. I duly reply yes thinking good news must be coming my way. Oh dear how wrong can you be. I cannot serve you any drinks until you pay 4 euros for the tea you had on the first night he says Well to say i was amazed is an understatement. This unfortunately is how bad they were. The food and attitude of the management of the Hotel was appaling. Still saying that we did have an enjoyable break and the good old British sense of humour saw us and the other British Guests there through the time we were there. One thing that does confuse me is that there were some guests who actually ate the food with some gusto can anyone explain this. All in all great location but don't stay here. It makes Fawlty Towers look great.

Firstly, I am not one to complain but what a joke this hotel was. I thought I was in Faulty towers!! You may laugh, read the other reviews then you'll believe me!!! I booked late so fair enough I didn't expect and amazing hotel, but I didn't expect my room to me next to reception, 114 don't do it to yourself!! Constant noise from the fax and people coming and going through the night. Positives: Superb beach and excellent views, great sun Negatives: Crap food, your band is cut off immediately when checking out, staff are rude and very very unhelpful. Fair enough if you enjoyed your stay, not my cup of tea !!!!

Me and my friends booked a last minute holiday and didnt read the reviews until the day we were due to leave (we wont make this mistake again!) We decided we had got the holiday cheap and that we would make the most of it. We arrived in the middle of the night and we were met by an extremely rude hotel porter who made us feel like we had come to wrong hotel. Overall the hotel was very clean and the rooms had a beautiful view of the sea. The next morning we tried the food, which i think we managed to eat for about 3 days then had to venture into the village as we couldnt face any more bland pasta and rice with cut up hot-dogs in everything! We think this must happen a lot as many of the local taverna owners smile sympathetically when you say you are staying at the Mistral and one even offers a 20% discount for staying there! The staff are all extremley rude and act more like prison wardens than hotel staff offering a service. I think we managed to have fun and make the most of it but we did meet some other families for which this had ruined their whole holiday and they wanted just to go home. We made our complaints to the hotel owner but this was much in vain and he in fact said people only did this to get money back, well i dont care too much about my £263 but i dont want other people to come here and be disappointed like many others. So like one of the other reviewers said, if you have already booked it dont worry because the hotel is clean and the island beautiful. Its also only a euro on the bus to Nikolios. If you havent already booked it then i would try and find one of the many other lovely hotels on the island. I have never take the time to write a review/complaint before but i did feel extremely strongly about this.

My friend and I have just returned from a weeks' holiday at the Mistral. We booked it through teletext and it was reasonable for a weeks "All Inclusive" deal. After we booked it we read the reviews, but kept an open mind. Yes the resort is very pretty, the beach clean and the views lovely. The village is fairly quiet, but had some good tavernas and bars. Aparently the locals call the Mistral - Alcatraz!!! It was a shame that we had no help with our suitcases on arrival up two steep flights of stairs. There were two men on reception but no assistance was offered. A few elderly people staying there were given no offer of help. I think that was pretty poor. The management were very petty. You can only get coffee in the morning at breakfast or between 4 & 5pm. Any other times you have to pay for it, even after dinner. Initially the food seems to be good. It is certainly edible, but no expense is spared. After 4 or 5 days you get fed up with plain pasta and rice. The meat is poor quality, but the moussaka was good and occasionally the meals were OK. Unfortunately the different dishes didnt go together very well at all, as if no thought went into the meal planning. The restaurant closed bang on 8pm and the first evening we missed it. That was probably a good thing as we ate at "The Panorama" down the road and had a lovely meal. We also ate here on our last night. It was definitely popular with guests from the Mistral. Although the drinks were included the spirits were poor quality, the beer was OK, but if you wanted anything decent you had to pay extra. There was no atmosphere in the hotel. The management watched the staff like hawks to make sure they weren't giving more than one drink to each customer and followed the strict rules. The lights in the restaurant started to get switched off at 8pm. Some people even picked up their ice-cream and left the restaurant at that point, but we intended to stay until we had finished. As dinner finished early you would expect some type of entertainment provided, but there was none. The Germans seemed to enjoy playing cards, but I would recommend going to Aghios Nikolaos by bus 1 euro 20, taxi home 15 Euros or have a few drinks in the village. Otherwise you will be bored, bored, bored. We visited the Commotion Cafe right at the end of the village, but it's worth the walk. They make lovely cocktails, have quizzes some nights and Sky TV. Most of all they make you feel welcome. There are some very popular restaurants in the village, which are well worth checking out. If you got a cheap deal like we did, treat yourself and eat out in the evenings. Another thing which annoyed us was that the towels weren't changed in the rooms. Only once were they changed, probably because we asked for replacements as we flooded the floor using the shower. It was impossible not too. The design was terrible as the shower holder was at waist level. OK for dwarfs but otherwise totally impractical. All in all we had a good holiday. We made the most of it and met some nice people. We had a bit of a laugh with the other English there. The Germans are OK, but they do tend to stare. Must be part of their culture!!!! If you read this review before you book, choose somewhere else. I've been to Greece six times before and it was never like the Mistral. It hasnt put me off Greece, but the Mistral yes and I wouldn't do "All Inclusive" again in Greece.

what an experience?????????????? View wonderful hotel terrible. I have been to several greek island so knew what to expect regarding food. This was diabolical at this hotel chips chips chips packet mashed potatoe etc. Ok your thinking chips very edible but not these they where frozen ones but felt like eating bullets. Pool - if you are taking your kids make sure you take some goggles. Nice pool but they put far too much chlorine in 1kg when they are only supposed to put 0.2kg. If you are not wearing googles the water burns your eyes and makes them very sore. 1 family had to seek medical advise regarding their children. Hotel staff and management - very poor. Please if you are a coloured family do not go has the hotel management very racists. We did see this first hand as a coloured family we met where being treated very badly. The rep is greek and she sides with the management all the time. Down the very long road there are some lovely tavernas to eat in. They make you welcome and tell you a bit about the area. (no such luck getting this info from rep) It is a very steep hill and does take your breathe away. No entertainment on a night. Take playing cards etc. bar shuts at 11.00 bang on time. If you want another drink you have to pay and bar open until 12.30. Pool bar snacks it does say sandwiches and hot dogs . you can only get hot dogs on stale bread roll. Only good thing cake at 4.00pm. Very poor all round

To start with I would have to commend the builder on the choice of location for the hotel Mistral, the view is quite simply breathtaking. However in locality to amenaties the Mistral hotel doesn't score so highly, there are a few local supermarkets- some claiming to sell things they actually dont i.e soft drinks. I would love to sit here and tell you about what a great time i've had at the mistral hotel, however this would in fact be a lie. Although posted on websites such as this you would be hard pressed to find out the hotel mistrals actual definition of 'all inclusive' untill you actually arrived. In truth not many things are actually included in the price such as air conditioning- payable at six euros per night, a sea view- payable at ten euros per night and finally good customer service payable at, well quite simply not on offer. I would like to tell you about a simple problem I had at the mistral- the food. It is true to say that the majority of the guests at the mistral hotel are of German origin followed closely by those of British, however the food on offer seems to suit entirely the German audience, or at least they were the only ones brave enough to eat it. Following my dinner time problem I decided to seek refuge within the filling nature of a sandwich from the snack bar- or at least I thought. On more than one occasion I was told that I could not have a sandwich as there was no bread to make me a sandwich. So I asked what else I could get with my 'so-called' all inclusive band, I was told normally a hot dog- which at the time was also not avalable. So upon asking for a suitable replacement to be offered i was offered only a 'beer mat' sized piece of cheese and ham pizza (this being the only choice and the only flavour). As personally i do not like ham I made the suggestion that this infact was not a suitable alternative- on being told that it was, I preceeded to ask that if this is the case what would thay do if a vegetarian person wanted a snack (which they had all inclusivly paid for) bearing in mind that although I never did recieve a sandwich- myth would have it that they contained ham or chicken (both if your lucky!). With reference to the vegetarian quiestion I was told that the hotel had no obligation to provide a vegetarian choice on the menu, which on their part was exploited to the fullest. Also the only obligations they had at all were to the contracts, not to those staying in the hotel. A point reinforced by the fact that the hotel does not have its own complaints proceedure. I was told that all complaints would have to go through my rep- visable approximatly twice a week toting dreams of excursions for twice their real asking price (I know this because by that time i had already been on one that I had booked locally). My point being that where does the rep then take my complaint? Later on I was to find out that the gentlman I was actually attempting to comlain to makes the contracts himself. And at my query over a previous claim that he had made with regards to wheather or not they could offer a single soletary vegetable at dinner time without some 'waky' non-creetian sauce accompanyment he would have to change every dish on the menu for a whole fortnight, I began to take offence when he claimed that I was being un-reasonable to expect a three star hotel to offer bread on an all inclusive service, which was supposed to offer me a sandwich on my request!! I know my review seems long winded, but quite simply im trying to help you not to make the same mistake as i did- expect good customer service from the mistral hotel. All inclusive drinks are administered in small measures (very small) a beer? It would be reasonable to expect a pint? apparently not- you will recieve a begrudged quarter of a pint within a half pint glass, unless you were on holiday from Germany (or so it seemed). These comments were recipricated by every English person I spoke to whilst holidaying in the mistral. I would now like to take a moment to discuss the state of the interior decor. If un-finished looking quite dangerous rough plasterwork is your thing then this is your idea of paradise- if it is not you have been warned. The marble staircases are slippy to say the least and the bathroom i had at least was approximatly the same size as that box under your staircase (yes i think you know the one!). I dont think it wrong of me to suggest that many of the members of staff are arrogant, as every guest I have spoken to has said the same. On top of this I actually told them this in person. I would strongly reconmend that you seek other accomodation perhaps not a twelve euro ride away from the centre. ( Bus 1 euro) but there only every 1.5 hours and its hard to find one on the way back. Not to mention the last is at about 10pm. If you have already booked- as the food is the running joke between the guests you will be happy to know that there is a very friendly resteraunt down the hill called the 'panorama' offering a great choice approx 500 different items. And a nice Atmosphere- they really value your custom there (as you will see) I appologise for putting a dampener on your holiday before you even get there- but rest assured that the setting for the hotel is one of the most picturesque around so if you eat out and dont complain you will have a great holiday. p.s i have reason to believe that the other reveiws speak not entirely the truth. I have not felt the need to fabricate anything. Thank-you for reading!