Iberostar Waves Creta Panorama and Mare

"Our holiday far exceeded our expectation. This large hotel is set in beautifully grounds with a variety of accommodation. Our sea view bungalows were spacious and very comfortable. The fully inclusive offer was good value and the speciality restaurants a bonus. All the staff were attentive and special mention goes to Lisa in Guest Relations whose advice and recommendations added greatly to our enjoyment. We look forward to returning next year and viewing the refurbishments."

"We stayed late August/early September and overall our experience was good, but the food was a big let down. Our room in the main hotel block had been recently renovated to a high standard and was one of the best rooms we've stayed in for an all inclusive. Most of the staff were friendly and we never had any issues with language barriers. The entertainment staff always managed to make you smile and it was good fun getting involved in the activities in the main pool (basketball, zumba and volleyball). Most of the pools are saltwater, which was odd but wasn't an issue. Queues at the swim-up bar in the main pool could get quite long but service was still fairly quick. The main pool bar had a limited menu and didn't do 'proper' cocktails, a Pina colada was just pineapple juice and rum. Unfortunately the rule of saving sun beds isn't policed so a lot of the time you can't find a bed after 10am. One of the reasons we'd booked this hotel was to avoid the typical all-inclusive fight to get a sun lounger. However, we found some people would leave for lunch and give up their sun beds. So we ended up having lunch at the restaurant next to the main pool around 12 and counting on someone leaving (it worked almost every day but probably wouldn't work for a family). This was also similar for the beach where all sun beds are reserved by mid-morning, but the view from the Star-Cafe (beach bar) allowed us to see people leaving and race down. The beach bar also had quite a limited menu, the only alcohol was the local beer - which was nice but a cocktail would have been nicer. As I'm sure other people can agree, it is really frustrating when you've paid so much for a holiday and you go down to the pool and there's a line of 10 sun beds and no one has been on them for hours, there's no bags, no stuff just a hotel towel. The main restaurant was fairly chaotic, but the staff did a good job of showing people to tables during the busiest hours. Overall, the food was really disappointing. The hotel did themed nights every week and the options were just so strange every meal. When we went down for breakfast some of the options were brussel sprouts, boiled courgette and cauliflower? There were quite a few options every night but it was difficult to make a cohesive meal. The assorted meat was mainly overcooked and tasteless and with the fish, you'd spend 20mins picking the bones out of your mouth after every bite. Safe to say we often went hungry in the evenings. However the Gryos counter next to the pool was a good saviour for lunch, although a little bit repetitive when you are there for a week. The main lobby bar was nice, the cocktails were lovely but we found they were the only thing we were drinking because the wine and prosecco were not very nice. There was always a singer or dancing or something going on which was good, there was a nice view of the sea and little bowls of crisps with your drink was a nice touch. We enjoyed ourselves overall, however we found ourselves comparing the resort to others we've stayed in over the last few years through out the stay. In all cases, Iberostar Waves... & Mare, was the weakest, but the most expensive. I think if you had paid what we paid and weren't in one of the refurbed rooms you would have been more disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the place is beautiful, clean, and family friendly... we've just been to better places for (a lot) less."

"this is our 10th year coming in october all the staff are welcoming and lovely people, we spent most of our time with yannis and the bar staff who are lovely and funny"