Elounda Residence Resort & Waterpark

Went here beginning of May, worse holiday ever had by far! How this hotel is a 4 star is beyond me! Food was ‘ok’ not the best it was not hot it was warm, we went out a few times and had gorgeous meals in the town of Elounda. All entertainment is French, we then got shouted out by other guests for winning a music quiz that then carried out throughout the whole holiday whilst said guests was present. To be honest entertainment team did translate to English so we could understand and attempt to join in. Thank you to Esteban (unsure of spelling sorry) from the entertainment team for making us feel included! Pool safety, horrific! One life guard for the whole resort that stood at the top of the slides in a hut with sides on manning the slides. Dirt around the pools where drinks had been spilt on the floors and sun loungers days prior and not cleaned. Rooms are very dated, we had a villa with a private pool and could count on 1 hand how many times we used this pool as it had all sorts of dead insects, cockroaches, worms floating in it reported to reception they cleaned it the night before we left absolutely disgusting!! The maid who cleaned our villa daily was so lovely when we spoke to her and did a really good job cleaning our villa. One of my children had to be taken to hospital with an ear infection doctor advised it was due to being in dirty water. Mouldy cups left in the kitchen for us to use. Air con wasn’t working to find no battery’s in any of the remotes in our room. On our last day we rang reception to pick our cases in the golf cart (they offer as free service to get around the resort) to take suitcases at 10.45am we had to be out our villa 11am. At 11.08am the phone rang it was a lady on reception telling us we needed to be out. My husband explained to the lady we are waiting for the suitcases to be picked up they told us to leave them on the front said no as we didn’t want our luggage left there as was a main road running down the side of our villa. The male who drives the golf cart around arrived at our room to collect suitcases arrived at our room and then took it upon himself to swear at us and called us ‘f ing British’ I have never in my life felt so singled out on any holiday I have ever been on apart from this one for being English. I am not one to complain, however before people spend thousands of pounds to come here for 10 nights for a holiday like we did to enjoy ourselves with our children, I’d rather warn people to think twice before booking here and book elsewhere. Elounda the town itself was lovely and the Greek people couldn’t do enough for us and was very welcoming, quite the opposite to the experience at this hotel.

Please note, the holiday was great, but not because of the hotel but in spite of it. It starts with check in, an A4 piece of paper given to you with the usual, breakfast and pool opening times, reception lady went through very fast and gave us the key to our room. She told us it was up the hill and left, what she didn't tell us is there was a golf cart that runs 24 hours a day to save you hiking up Kilamanjaro, except at one point I saw it wheels off sat on pieces of wood? Get to our room after going up the 3 peaks challenge we got a lift in a mini bus with our luggage, but when one of the first people you see is seriously grumpy, it doesn't set a positive tone. Likewise if I'd have known about the hills I'd have brought my walking sticks, bobble hat, oxygen tank, climbing boots and Regatta coat, but I thought this was a Crete pool holiday not camping in the hills and valleys of Wales. The door opens, you see your room for the first time, a put me up single bed from WW2, so hard a drill sergeant would sign it off, no actual proper couch or chair to sit on, apart from 2 wooden chairs round a tiny table that barely had any space to sit down on and certainly not comfortably anyway. Nice touch - 3 small bottles of water in the fridge on arrival. The room is quite small, tiny TV on the wall with only one music station tuned in, just about tuned in as well. Bedroom, 2 adults plus cases and clothes, you've got no chance There's 6 hangers and a few shelves but due to the layout of the room only one of you can realistically be anywhere near the wardrobe at any time. If you've got a child's clothes to throw in as well, one of you is living out your suitcase on the living room area floor till you go home. The balcony had a great view, of mainly cactus plants that had seen better days, but in the distance to be fair was quite a stunning backdrop of the sea and hills far away and beyond. First thing in the morning it was stunning, apart from the noise disruption which I'll get to shortly. The balcony itself was quite small for 3 to sit on, table took up most of the room, metal chairs the rest, they get quite hot as you can imagine, if you used the washing line extension type thing it again took up what little space there was free. We head down to get something to eat, we've gone all inclusive. I'm not a fussy eater, but I won't eat anything I wouldn't eat at home, which takes away, quite a few things straight away, salad bar is vast, but that's about it in terms of choices. The Mediterranean buffet, chicken legs that had that air of been there a while about them, pork cut into almost half a burger size slices sat in some sort of fat/juice, rice, pasta, and honestly very little else. Oh, wait, I forgot the spring rolls, apologies Chef. We sit wondering what the entertainment will be like, there's a sign hidden away in the corner on a plastic board that's barely legible and written only in French. I did GCSE French so glad I got the days

This was our second visit to this family run hotel. We were also there in July 2024. On arrival we received a warm welcome and settled into our spacious villa which had a fabulous panoramic view of Elounda, the surrounding area and of course the beautiful clear blue sea. All members of the management team and staff were very pleasant and attentive throughout our stay. The food was delicious. Excellent quality local ingredients cooked simply in the Cretan way. This hotel is unlike so many hotels in that we were always treated as "guests", not just occupants. Crete is a lovely island and we really enjoyed our stay in Elounda as the Cretan people are genuinely warm and friendly. We had a great holiday.