Iberostar Creta Marine Hotel

The place is amazing! Wonderful for families or couple lokking for peace and relax. Great restaurant and extremely friendly staff. We will definetely go again! the Koch family

Beautiful clean entrance with fabulous gardens, especially the 2 banana plants! Restaurant staff very friendly. Meals were excellent with a large selection. Pool areas superb. Cleaning in rooms could be improved and towels have definitely passed their sale by date. Reported a couple of maintenance problems, which required attention in bathroom but not rectified during my stay. Disappointed with our view, as there were plenty of rooms available due to the fact that I was staying during the last week of the season. Sadly no beach. Location is rather remote but perfect if you don't want to leave the hotel. Getting the right bus takes a little practise if travelling to Iraklion as they won't necessarily stop but thanks to a couple of very kind bus drivers (on two separate occasions) we were given a lift to an official bus stop (a couple of miles further on) without accepting any money. Senior Management were very sympathetic with our complaints on the last day - so any problems go to the very top who are more than happy to oblige.

Went to the Creta Marine Hotel for 2 weeks from 9-23rd August with my husband and two children (girls aged 4 & 7) and friends with children the same age. I was slightly anxious about the rooms as we normally go to a villa and I'm not used to sharing a room with the children. My husband snores and it could have been a disaster! I needn't have worried - the standard family rooms were excellent. The children even had their own bathroom and TV and there was a connecting door to our section. The kids clubs were good and there were plenty of free activities for adults too. I tried my hand at Archery which I've always wanted to have a go at. There were not many British people there, mainly French, German and Italians but that doesn't bother us at all. The food was very good generally. We went all inclusive but we did feel a bit institutionalised by the end of the holiday. The buffet breakfast was fabulous and then there was buffet lunch and dinner in the main restaurant. There was supposed to be a snack bar but it wasn't really snacks and you had to book for some reason and you could only go there once a week on the inclusive basis. There were two beach bars but not much on the menu that was light and only one thing included in the all inclusive which I thought was a bit off. The hotel wasn't really near other bars or restaurants unless you wanted to go to Rethymon whichis about 20 mins by taxi or the little fishing village of Panorma about 10min by the special free train they lay on. Entertainment in the evenings wasn't really up to much but great for the children. A mini disco every evening ffrom 8.30-9.30 followed by some sort of show. Usually put on by the hotel animation team. The Greek dancing was worth seeing though at the BBQ night. Don't pay extra for the actually BBQ but go along and watch the dancing and plate smashing. The Animation team were excellent and very hard working. Overall a good holiday but I wouldn't recommend going all inclusive there or 2 weeks - recommend just the one. I missed chosing restaurants etc. From a monetary POV Worth doing all inclusive though as drinks/food expensive apparently having spoken to others on half board. I'm not one for returning to the same place year after year but I would come here again and recommend it to others with children.

Just returned a week ago from this hotel and had a fabulous holiday. We stayed there with our two children who took full advantage of the kids clubs while we relaxed by the pool. The hotel was beautifully kept throughout. We had a two bedroom bungalow with fresh roses on the beds daily. There was a good mix of Nationalities with the British more of a minority but we had no problems and we all mixed well together. The food was good, although rabbit was a little too popular, maybe the other guests enjoy it, but we always found plenty which we liked. The beaches are nothing spectacular but the pool makes up for it and the kids enjoyed the pool more (saltwater). I would definately recommend the hotel, the staff were great throughout and the standards are very high. We will use Iberostar again.

My boyfriend & I have just returned from a two week holiday here. The hotel was lovely, really great service, but like previous reviewers have already stated, the majority of guests were Germans & Italians. The entertainment & children's club were aimed at a German audience, and the entertainment in the evening by the team was ok given that they work so hard from around 9.30 in the morning until 11 at night every day. The rooms are lovely, really spacious and we had a gorgeous view overlooking the sea. There was little noise from the main road infront of the hotel, and the bus service going into Rethymnon was regular and took around 45 minutes. Overall, a lovely hotel, but too isolated for you to see anything unless you have a car!

My husband and I have just returned from a week at the Creta Marine. We chose the hotel after reading all the reviews and the hotel lived up to its expectations. We booked the hotel independently and paid for a room in the main hotel, however on arrival we were actually upgraded and given a bungalow in the gardens. We knew the hotel was remote when we booked, but this didn't bother us as we wanted to explore and had a car for the week. The hotels guests were mainly German, but they were lovely and we didn't find this a problem at all. The room was quite big and was clean, and the remote controlled air conditioning was a bonus, you could turn it up or down in the middle of the night, without even getting out of bed. The gardens at the hotel were beautiful and very well maintained and the whole complex was very clean. There were several small manmade beaches directly in front of the hotel and also a reasonably sized shingly/sandy beach just beside the sister hotel the Creta Panorama, which you could walk to through the gardens, almost like a promenade along the cliff tops. The food in the hotel, we thought was very good, with a mix of greek and european food, granted slightly biased towards the German guests but still good. If there was a downside to this hotel, it was the lack of evening entertainment, but we were there when the world cup was on so lots of people were watching the games anyway. We really enjoyed our stay at this hotel and our stay on Crete and would stay there again.

My wife and I spent a week at the Creta Marine and found the hotel to be very good. Our room was good and clean with an excellent view over the pool area and sea below. The food was excellent and suitable for all tastes. The staff were helpful and fiendly without being obtrusive. There were opportunities to participate in many daytime activities for all ages and watersports for the more daring! The hotel had a good mix of clients from most European countries but was predominantly German until a flight of Italians arrived for a Baxi Boiler convention! The overall quality of the hotel was very good but two things let it down unfortunately. Firstly the location is extremely remote. It is about 2 miles from the small fishing village of Panormo which can be reached by the road train which ran well into the night every 30 minutes. Don't try walking. It is also about a forty minute bus ride to Rethymnon which has a nice old town and a not so nice new bit. Good if you like shopping. Have lunch at one of the Venetian harbour restaurants. Secondly, considering the remoteness of the hotel, the entertainment is very poor and consists mainly of the Animation team miming to music and trying to be funny. It is simply ineadequate and we found ourselves sitting in the hotel bar every evening half watching the World Cup with the supporters of whichever nation was playing that day. There are no other tavernas to stroll to in the evening so we found it a bit of a constraint. Overall it's a good hotel in a poor location with excellent daytime activities and pathetic night time activities.

We've been visiting 5 star hotels for 10 years now, this Iberostar however only has 4 stars. This is not right, they deserve 5. From the reception to the cleaningladies, to the animation and the food. Everything is EXCELLENT. If you want to name 1 minor flaw, all the pools have salt water; this is not appreciated by everyone (especially not my kids) but they got used to that. For the rest, JUST GO THERE!

Have just returned from 2 weeks at this Hotel. The hotel is well above average and the staff tried hard to please. The complex is much prettier in realty than the brochures photos. Weather was very hot and the hotels pools were very busy but we stayed by the hotels own seaside coves and they were not at all busy! Breakfast and Evening meals were continental biased towards the Germans taste (99% of the guests were German). We booked through Sunstar and paid a lot less than every one else for HB; our room was 20 by 60 feet, and very well decorated, but it only had single beds! Overall I would say this is probably the best value hotel we have stayed in and my wife is very fussy. It is out of the town and you will need a car to explore Crete if you want too.

The hotel is well above average. Clean, good food and friendly staff. A wide mixture of guests but mainly Italian & German. The entertainment staff work very hard but if you do not wish to get involved they are not pushy just friendly. The position of the resort is excellent with quiet coves and short walks. It is a bit isolated so unless you are very fit you will need transport to get anywhere. However definately somewhere I would go back to should I return to Crete. Oh one final point, drinks in the hotel are expensive but there is a mini market nearby where wine is a quarter of the price.