Petousis Hotel & Suites

"This is mostly good, with some exceptions. Firstly, the very good. All the staff are lovely. Maria in the spa has magic hands. The pools are great. The taverna is great - thank you Costas! Even the local cats are great. The beach is large, and an easy walk, but with no facilites unless you pay for them, or sneak in to use a shower for my shoes! What didn’t I like? The location isn’t brilliant. I thought it would be a village about 3km from Heraklion. The reality is that Heraklion doesn’t really finish and runs into Amoudara. The rooms are spacious, but with almost no space for clothes. We had a huge room, with one small cupboard, and not a single shelf. There is a long expanse of worktops. Why not put some drawers underneath? All rooms were the same. It was nice and quiet though. The half board food in the hotel is poor in the evening. It was almost cold and tasteless. Very importantly, nothing was labelled properly, and the chef in the area did not speak any English. I do not eat meat. My husband does not eat shellfish. For example, there were spring rolls. Vegetarian or not? She showed my husband the packet they came from! Some labels were mixed up as well. We negotiated and ate in the taverna in the end, where the food was far superior. The cleaning wasn’t always good. Sometimes towels were just dumped in our room, with little done. The gym is nice, but small. It is a nice hotel, which could do better. We won’t go back, mainly because of the location."

"Exceptional Staff and Wonderful Hospitality! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ We've had a wonderful experience at Petousis Hotel & Suites, and what really sets this hotel apart is its exceptional staff. From the moment we booked, the communication and hospitality have been fantastic. Every member of staff we've encountered has been friendly, welcoming, professional and genuinely eager to help. There's a lovely atmosphere throughout the hotel, and you can tell that customer service is taken seriously. A special mention to Anna on reception, whose excellent email communication before our arrival gave us a great first impression. We also encountered a small issue during our stay, which she handled promptly and efficiently. A real credit to the team. Having worked in customer-facing businesses myself, I particularly appreciate the difference that good staff make, and the team here certainly deserves recognition. It's often the people who turn a good hotel into a memorable one, and that's certainly been our experience here. A big thank you to the entire team. You've given us every reason to return, and we certainly look forward to doing so!"

"The Petousis is only about a 20 minute cab journey from Heraklion airport (about 30 EUR at the time of writing), and is a five minute walk to Heaven Beach which is just down the road. Getting to the the town of Heraklion is an easy 30 minute bus ride and getting to the vineyards or to the palace of Knossoss are also only a 30 minutes or less cab ride away. I got a very warm welcome on arrival, and the reception and bar staff were very helpful and fabulous throughout. The hotel has all the expected things - the room was very well appointed, clean, everything worked, it had and excellent shower and in-room WiFi. And the rooms get cleaned every day. Sleeping was not a problem, no noise that I could hear. I did get woken in the middle of the night once by a slight earth tremor but soon got back to sleep. They are fairly frequent in Crete I believe. They have a full buffet breakfast so no problem sourcing fresh fruit, and they actually do fried eggs which is pleasant a change from some of the hotels I've been in in other parts of the world - but I'm not here to talk about them. The Petousis restaurant is excellent and offers the famed antikristo - lamb on vertical grills being cooked around a fire - but they are big on vegetables as well. And pizza. They are also very generous with raki, the local spirit so watch out :) In the evening the hotel bar on some nights has local musicians playing and on other nights you can watch football on bar TV. Petousis is in the middle of Gazi so there are lots of other bars and restaurants within easy walking distance. I was in Crete, in Gazi about three years ago and we visited this restaurant often so I thought I'd get a room at the hotel there next time I came, and I'm very glad I did. I shall be back next year!"