Creta Maris Beach Resort - All Inclusive

“Amazing experience and highly recommended”

The resort is great and filled with many activities for the family and kids Rooms are modern yet you feel the Cretan style and vibe Food is amazing and many varieties from buffets to à la carte Many added activities for families and kids from jet ski to Crete safari and many others The water park … more

The resort is great and filled with many activities for the family and kids Rooms are modern yet you feel the Cretan style and vibe Food is amazing and many varieties from buffets to à la carte Many added activities for families and kids from jet ski to Crete safari and many others The water park is amazing and fun for kids and adults alike The resort itself is very beautiful and big, you have to walk to get from one place to another. We did a photo session as a family with the in house photographer, Mr. Robert, such as amazing person and handles kids very nicely and friendly I highly recommend this resort for all sort of people

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“Fantastic stay at the Creta Maris hotel.”

We chose this hotel because i have a disability and it had good access and facilities. The staff were very friendly and super helpful Hotel grounds were beautiful and well maintained..Food choices were amazing fresh and varied. Al la carte food was very good. While there i had an accident in the ho… more

We chose this hotel because i have a disability and it had good access and facilities. The staff were very friendly and super helpful Hotel grounds were beautiful and well maintained..Food choices were amazing fresh and varied. Al la carte food was very good. While there i had an accident in the hotel with my hired scooter. It was handled very well by Ani Kerobyan the guest service manager she was excellant making sure i was okay.She is an fabulous manager very good at her job.The kindness and professionlism she showed was outstanding. I just want to thank not just Ani but the whole team for making it so special for us . Thank you so much.

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“This Place is Magical”

Creta Maris is amazing, we come here for our summer holidays every year for 4 years now and every time is wonderful. Everyone loves it, my husband and I, my niece and nephew, and even Grandma. We have a favourite room and they are kind enough to offer it to us 😍. The food is flavourful and variety … more

Creta Maris is amazing, we come here for our summer holidays every year for 4 years now and every time is wonderful. Everyone loves it, my husband and I, my niece and nephew, and even Grandma. We have a favourite room and they are kind enough to offer it to us 😍. The food is flavourful and variety is top, multiple restaurants on the grounds with offering for any palate. The beach is a blue flag beach (best water ever). And for some romance try watching the moon rising in the adult only Adama bar, while sipping on a cocktail. There is kids club and multiple activities on offer and they have a transfer company working directly with them, which are absolute gems to use. Sometimes it's the simple things done exceptionally well, combined with an amazing location, that make a place truly special. Creta Maris gets it right every time, and we can't wait to return. A special thank you to Emmanouela, Adriana, Manolis, Flutura, Bablu, and Eutyhia. We appreciate the attention to detail, and genuine hospitality. You all are wonderful ambassadors for Creta Maris and deserve to be recognised for the exceptional experience you create.

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“Creta Maris Beach Resort – Honest Review (Family of Four, July Stay)”

I would describe Creta Maris as a very good 4-star resort with some genuine 5-star qualities, rather than a true luxury 5-star experience. We paid around £6,000 including flights for a family of four in a One Bedroom Family Suite during the peak summer holidays. Overall, we had a lovely family hol… more

I would describe Creta Maris as a very good 4-star resort with some genuine 5-star qualities, rather than a true luxury 5-star experience. We paid around £6,000 including flights for a family of four in a One Bedroom Family Suite during the peak summer holidays. Overall, we had a lovely family holiday and made some wonderful memories, but unfortunately the resort didn’t quite live up to what we’ve experienced at similarly priced family resorts over the past few years. The Positives We were allocated a spacious One Bedroom Family Suite with a beautiful garden, which was ideal for travelling with young children. As we’d booked late and paid a premium, I do think I would have been disappointed had the room been any smaller, but thankfully it was a lovely size. The staff deserve enormous credit. The reception team were genuinely warm, welcoming and accommodating from the moment we arrived. They kindly assisted with my request for a late checkout during one of the busiest weeks of the summer, which was hugely appreciated. Guest Relations were equally excellent throughout our stay—always friendly, approachable and happy to help. The hotel itself is spotlessly clean. The housekeeping and maintenance teams clearly work incredibly hard and the entire resort is beautifully maintained. The water park was fantastic for children of all ages and became one of the highlights of the holiday. Having food available there was convenient and meant we could spend most of the day without needing to leave. The reception terrace quickly became our favourite place in the resort. The coffee was excellent, the drinks selection was good and it was a lovely place to sit, read or play games with the children. The newer side of the hotel also offered better quality lunch options and had a fresher, more modern feel. I also really appreciated the thoughtful personal touches—a welcome gift, a beach bag to use during our stay and a lovely postcard presented on departure celebrating the hotel’s 59th anniversary. Small details like these really do make a difference. The beach location is excellent, with easy access from the main pool area, and our children genuinely enjoyed the Kids Club, happily attending on two mornings. As a parent, that’s always reassuring. Where It Fell Short Although Creta Maris has a charming Cretan village concept, I couldn’t help feeling that many aspects of the resort haven’t evolved alongside the expectations of today’s luxury family traveller. The biggest disappointment for us was the food. The à la carte restaurants all felt remarkably similar. While each had a different setting, many dishes overlapped with the buffet and there wasn’t enough individuality between them. After several evenings, it felt as though we were eating variations of the same menu. The themed buffet nights also lacked authenticity. For example, the Asian evening was disappointing—the stir-fried noodles were unexpectedly sweet, the sweet and sour vegetables tasted neither sweet nor sour, and the sushi was fairly mediocre with very little fish. I really wanted it to be good, but unfortunately it just missed the mark. As vegetarians, we found the overall choice repetitive. Every day there seemed to be the same soya bolognese, pasta and focaccia pizza, with many of the other dishes lacking flavour or imagination. The hotel kindly offered to arrange a discussion with the chef, but on holiday I don’t really want to have to organise my meals in advance. The quality at the water park snack bar was inconsistent too. On our first visit the vegetarian burger was freshly cooked and delicious. On later visits we were repeatedly served pre-cooked burgers that were reheated, one of which was still cold in the middle. When I requested one to be cooked fresh, it was simply fried again rather than prepared from frozen. More disappointing was discovering it had been cooked in the same oil as the chicken. For a resort that rightly promotes fresh produce and quality ingredients, this felt at odds with the message. Similarly, healthier options for children felt limited. There was plenty of pizza, chips and fast food, but fresh fruit wasn’t readily available at the water park. Parents today increasingly look for nutritious options alongside treats, and this felt like a missed opportunity. One particular dessert on the Asian evening—a battered pineapple—was unfortunately inedible. The frying oil appeared extremely dark and old, leaving the batter greasy and discoloured. It wasn’t something I felt comfortable eating. Overall, the dessert selection throughout the week was rather underwhelming. Drinks also felt behind the standard I’d expect from a resort at this price point. Fresh orange juice wasn’t available at breakfast, proper barista coffee wasn’t consistently available across restaurants, cocktails couldn’t be ordered with dinner, and there were no fresh milkshakes for children—only artificially flavoured slushies. Entertainment was enjoyable enough but fairly average. Most evenings consisted of live music, a children’s disco and occasional performances. Compared with similarly priced resorts in Crete or Turkey, it lacked the wow factor. The resort itself is also extremely spread out. While golf buggies are available, they didn’t seem readily offered beyond arrival and departure. This became frustrating because the newer reception-side pools—where the better smoothie bar, fruit, salads and modern lunch options were located—were often full by 9am, while the family water park area mainly offered fast food. Walking 10–12 minutes each way simply to collect a fresh smoothie before returning to the children’s pool wasn’t especially practical. Likewise, towel stations were located at different parts of the resort and only available during certain hours, making what should have been a simple luxury feel unnecessarily inconvenient. The arcade was probably my biggest disappointment. Positioned right in the middle of the resort, it felt completely at odds with Creta Maris’ otherwise strong sustainability message. It encouraged children towards expensive plastic prizes and repetitive gaming, which personally isn’t something I look for in a family holiday. Unfortunately, it would genuinely make me think twice before returning. I was also concerned to see the arcade attendant using an electronic cigarette inside the arcade while children were present. Although it’s operated by an external company, I do feel the hotel still has responsibility for the standards of businesses operating within the resort. Finally, our television never worked properly despite reporting the issue. We eventually streamed the football using our own UK mobile data late one evening rather than chasing the issue again. Overall Creta Maris certainly has many strengths. The staff are wonderful, the resort is immaculately maintained, the children loved the water park and we genuinely enjoyed spending quality time together as a family. However, for us, the food simply wasn’t good enough to justify the price we paid, and ultimately that’s the biggest factor when choosing an all-inclusive holiday. With more modern dining, better vegetarian options, stronger entertainment and a few improvements to the overall guest experience, I think this resort could comfortably compete with the very best family resorts in Crete. For our personal preferences, we would currently choose somewhere like Lyttos Beach or Daios Cove instead, where we feel the overall experience, entertainment and dining are stronger. Creta Maris undoubtedly has some genuine 5-star qualities, particularly its staff and hospitality. But taken as a whole, I personally feel it delivers more of a very good 4-star experience than a luxury 5-star one. That said, we still had a lovely week together as a family, made wonderful memories in the sunshine, and for that I sincerely thank everyone at Creta Maris.

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