Knossos Royal Resorts

We stayed in Aldemar Knossos Royal at the beginning of the UK school summer holiday period for 7 nights. We arrived around lunchtime where we were informed our room was not quite ready (which was expected based on their online check in times) and were told to go get some lunch at the lunch buffet and by the time we were finished our room was ready. We had booked the garden view room with all inclusive plus package. We were a family of three (2 adults and a 6 year old). The child's bed was a sofa bed. With the extra bed set up the room was a little cramped but fine to stay in for a week or two. We noticed the room was quite dated in style but I do not think this stops the hotel from being 5 star. The first night in the room the air con was not working properly at all. We woke in the night hot. We reported this the next day and was told someone would be out to look at it. We don't know what the outcome of their visit was, the air con seemed a little better however, it never worked efficiently in our opinion. Like many hotels when you enter the room you put your key card in the activation slot for the air con and lights to work. For the duration of our stay we left our key card in there 24/7 to try and get the room to cool to 20 degrees, but it never seemed to reach the set temperature, although it was more comfortable than the first night. The room was not cleaned very well, one day it was completely missed altogether. I reported this when we went to dinner and someone came around and did a quick whizz around but to be honest I don't know why they bothered. Bed sheets had rips in them. We were only supplied 2 glasses, even though the room was for 3 people. I accidently broke one glass and this was not replaced. You are given a bottle of water daily in your room (again one day this was missed). The bottle is quite small and left on the sideboard. In that heat I think the water should be in the fridge as I don't want a room temperature water when I've been in the sun all day. You can get extra bottles of water by asking at the bar, which we did most nights. Along with the air con issue the other item that let this room down was the smell. It smelt like a damp old boot bag. There is a open drain in the bathroom floor and as you shower the water and bubbles come up and out of the drain. We did complain about this, again we don't know what the outcome of the hotel looking into this was, but it never got any better. The toilet flush was on the wall, you had to hold part of it whilst flushing to stop it coming off the wall. The towel hook on the wall was broken so as you tried to hand your towel it would just spin around. The hairdryer was one of those old fashioned ones attached to the wall where you had to hold the on button constantly for it to work. For us the room lets this hotel down and it why we cannot say it was a 5 star. As we did not have a private pool room we had to use the main pools. These were lovely deep pools but they are salt water. The sunbeds around the pools are jammed in like sardines. You have a choice of full sun or full shade. We always managed to get a space around the pool but would have to put towels down before breakfast. You can help yourself to soft drink throughout the day in the lunchtime/pool bar area. On a couple of occasions , in the late afternoon staff did come around the pool with a tray of drinks but you just had to choose a drink already on the tray, it wasn't a poolside waiter service. The lunchtime buffet was a bit hectic. Although online it says no swimwear to be worn everyone did. I did not have an issue with this. One day a lady was carrying her naked toddler around the buffet choosing food - I do think the hotel staff shouldn't have allowed this. Dinner buffet there was a good selection of food, but I feel there could have been a better selection of plain food for children. We would get there around 7pm and walk straight into a table. When we would leave around 8pm there was normally a queue for people waiting for tables. We did try the a la carte Italian. The food was delicious here and we were well looked after. We also had the beach bar lunch, which again was delicious and we were well looked after. There is a lot of steps at this hotel so I would only recommend it if you're quite mobile. The private shared pools looked nice but I think you could have quite a walk from some to get drinks from the bar. The beach area was nice, but again the sunbeds are all crammed in together (although this may be to do with recent law changes out there). The sunset from the beach in the evening was beautiful. Although I identified issues whilst we were there I don't think they were fully resolved. In hindsight I should have pushed more whilst we were there but I don't go on holiday to have to keep complaining, this is why I chose a 5 star in the first place. The quality control of the rooms is low and more time should be spent actually reviewing rooms by the hotel. Would we choose to stay here again? No, we would not.

We really enjoyed our 7 nights here and wish we had stayed for longer. The hotel is beautiful, a bit like a Cretan village. Its built on the side of a hill, with reception and restaurants at the top and a sand/shingle beach at the bottom. The rooms are in one and two storey bungalows built around gardens, courtyards or shared pools. There are a lot of paths and steps but these are not too much of a challenge and there are golf buggies available to help with luggage. The bonus of being on a hillside is of course the views, which are stunning. We stayed on an all inclusive basis and for us the food and drink was fine. As non meat eaters who never eat pasta or pizza we usually struggle but we could always find something to eat. We thought the self serve cafe open during the day was a brilliant idea and the outside seating was a bonus. We tried the a la carte restaurants. The beach restaurant was good but our favourite by far was the Italian. Thank you Mr Stavros and Ioanna. It was a pleasure. Would we recommend the hotel. Yes. Hopefully we will return early next year when they reopen.