"We stayed in a premium pool view room from 09/07/26 to 19/07/26. The premium pool view room has a slightly larger room square footage compared to the smaller Luxury pool view room.
Having stayed we are happy with our choice. On arrival we were greeted in reception by guest relations who take you through most of the booking in needing only to go to the reception desk to pay the tax of 15 euro per night. We were given a welcome ginger & herbs drink (delicious) and sweet treat whilst we did so. All staff at reception and guest relations are extremely calming and relaxed.
We were then taken by golf cart with our cases to our room and shown the basics, before being left to quickly change and catch last innings in the buffet.
Food on the first try in the buffet restaurant Kimata, being at the end of the night, was a little cold but the food was delicious otherwise.
The next morning, being a natural early riser, I took the provided pool towels (which are provided freshly each day when they clean the room) down to the pools. At 7am I was the first, and just beat the cleaners who came round every morning to wash and wipe down the sunbeds and hose the floor, saying morning to me each day.
Sunbeds cannot be reserved before 9am, and I saw only a few attempts to do so from 7.30 onwards and most of those were removed by staff if unattended for around an hour or so, otherwise where we were had no sunbed wars.
We sunbathed by reception & Kimata quite close to Cabana bar. The swim up rooms on that side, which I think were the Luxury swim up rooms, seemed to be in shade until around midday or just after. The swim up rooms on the other side, alongside some Overwater bungalows on the Cabana bar side seemed to fair better for sunshine perhaps.
The venue attracts 3 types – Honeymooners, retirement age (ish) couples or Social Media influencers (more intent on photographing themselves repeatedly, or plates full of beautiful looking food, which I am not sure they then ate.
We were staying 10 nights so could book all 6 a la cartes for one night each, and we did this via the app on the first night. In hindsight we booked our meals a little early, around 7 to 7.30 pm and soon realised we might have preferred a later meal.
The food was lovely, initially we wrote off the buffet thinking that whilst it tasted lovely there seemed to be little choice, however toward the end of our stay we revisited and (pardon the pun) ate our words.
Oceana – This is above reception. You get to select a starter, main and dessert. I found the starters were not for me but tried one, then we both ate the most impressively cooked steaks, one was perfectly Medium/Rare as requested and the other was the only Well Done steak I’ve ever had that still remained tender and moist – incredible. Unfortunately the steak was just that, a steak on a plate with a small pot of Risotto. It needed veg or chips ! Desserts were small, arty but nice.
La Parrilla – we visited for lunch, very nice but slightly inattentive. The pizza was soggy, perhaps my own taste issues since I own a pizza oven and cremate everything I cook, but the base was soggy and the toppings needed more flames. We then visited for an evening meal – much nicer and more attentive. Delicious steak, not quite as nice as Oceana’s but close, and the Wagyu beef mini “burgers” were so nice for starters.
Vegera – we visited for the evening meal – lovely looking restaurant, food was nice but yet another steak and again not as nice as Oceana’s or La Parrilla’s steak.
We cancelled Paraiso once we noticed diners still trying to eat their food whilst guests attended to watch the shows which happened in the same location around 9pm or 10pm. We felt this was not ideal, but presuming you ate earlier enough perhaps you would have been ok.
We tried Isla for lunch which you book – it was very hot being effectively poolside, and whilst the food was nice the Gyros I had did not match Gyros I’ve had before in Crete in previous years – this was probably personal taste. We cancelled our evening slot there and also at Umami to try other places.
We ate in the village twice – You leave by the gate at Paraiso end and turn right. Walk for 15 mins, and once you pass Rizes Bar/Restaurant you take the next road on the right. You then pass Mam Restaurant where we ate, which had great reviews for the pizzas but again seemed under cooked and soggy based. If you carry on and turn left at the end you find Sirtaki Tavern where we prebooked and ate at.. very nice too. Both meals came to under 60 Euros for 2 people, with drinks but just mains.
The resort location has little near it however (bar the water park we did not use for free) and it is under a flight path that is fairly active in the daytime but didn’t bother us (I grew up near Stansted Airport, so perhaps why).
The evening entertainment was ok at times, and a bit repetitive at other times. They worked very hard, but there is only so many times you can watch them gyrate to tracks. The singer was so good also.
Having a sax player occasionally at breakfast was odd, especially when he mingled around the tables as you ate, and the occasional keyboardist was also ok (he stayed sat).
Some evenings by Cabana bar you had a DJ, or a violinist and Saxophonist initially playing the greatest hits from a care home but then later seemed to improve, or the alcohol kicked in, and it got better. We felt the area at the Cabana bar could be used more for evening entertainment, singers and the like perhaps.
The staff at the resort were lovely. The bars and pool waiters are so friendly and helpful and work so hard coming to your sunbed and taking drinks orders that then arrived quickly. Thank you Konstantinos (Kostas) for being so attentive poolside that at one point there was more fluid in me than in the pools, and for having such a dry humour like us. Lefteris and Man made our evenings at Cabana (yamas !).
The Cabana bar closed at midnight and reception bar closed at 1am I believe, which was late enough for us. The only thing I wanted improved was a bigger beer glass, more a pint or a stein perhaps rather than the smaller glasses that are given. I was happy with Mythos on our basic All Inclusive package, the Overwater upward rooms being offered more beer choices amongst other drinks, however everything we drank was free on our AI and the local free wine was delicious (I had red, my partner flipped between rose and white).
In Summary – we loved it, immediately said we would go again perhaps .. and then in fact have now already booked the same premium pool view type room for the same time next year. We felt for what you could pay for the swim up and Overwater rooms upwards, everything seemed a bit on top of each other and lacked some privacy.
The resort though is beautiful, clean, friendly, calm, peaceful and very photogenic."
