Porto Platanias Beach Luxury Selection - Adults Only

Lovely location and great staff. 2 main gripes. Limited wardrobe space. One of us living out of suitcase! The main issue we have is the breakfast. Such beautifully cooked food but left to go stone cold! Hot plates not on so all cooked food left to go cold. No issue with quality of food but don’t enjoy eating cold food, might as well just stick with continental option. Such a shame as chefs so proud of their food! Please can we have some heat!!

The hotel was very clean and well maintained. All staff very pleasant and helpful and in particular the housekeepers. Now a few downs on previous visit. On late arrival ~ 11:00pm only offered a cold meat plate then told we have to wait an hour or more as they were still waiting for others to arrive, no thanks do not want to eat at midnight. I would have thought they could offer a lunch voucher as a better gesture. In the room there should have been tea/coffee making facilities but none so had to ask for them. Only two very thin pillows so had to ask for more, wasn’t the case on previous visit. Our main problem was the restaurant. Problems with the fresh juice machine which was changed to a new one that didn’t work so one day no orange available. Food selection was very samey and worst of all hot choices actually only warm. Too much advance cooking and left to stand in warming dishes that were obviously too cold. Once again, a dress code called for but many guests chose to ignore and the hotel staff obviously not prepared to challenge anyone. On occasions they didn’t have enough tea pots or condiments so only a cup of hot water issued or take items from another table. On the beech only a few sun beds had cushions available not like the associated hotel The Beach & Spa Resort so makes you wonder why this hotel is the Luxury Selection! The usual at the pool side, signs about not putting towels on beds and leaving them clearly ignored or acted upon. Mini Bar not in room now but can be supplied which I would think is a good change as very few people use them but appreciate a fridge for items bought off site. Towel changing not daily but Tues/Thurs and Sat. On the beech you were constantly being ask by passing by Masseurs and two particular ones were very pushy, not sure if the hotel can do anything about this but I am sure many guests got fed up with this. So, our biggest disappointment was to food / temperature so unlikely we will return. I wonder if too much cost cutting processes are being used and not in line with a 5 Star hotel. I would not call this now 5 Star.

I would stay at this hotel again if there was a no food option. We stayed half board with the intention of eating out as it worked out a similar price to other self catering/bed and breakfasts we looked at. However, I would be disappointed if I intended on eating here the whole time. There is a good selection of cold meats, pastries and bread at breakfast however the hot selection is small and each time we ate, was cold. We tried on several days the scrambled eggs, bacon, beans and sausages but they didn’t get any better. Evening meals we only had twice in the end, there was a small selection of hot food which was ok, I would say it wouldn’t be good if you had fussy eaters, which were not. The service at the restaurant was quite good and the price of drinks was reasonable. The actual hotel is really lovey, it was also spotlessly clean and there were plenty of sunbeds. There was never a rush for a sun bed around the pool until towards the end of our holiday where more people came however there is plenty of choice on the beach. The staff were super friendly and you are able to order drinks from your sunbed and room service. We didn’t order anything to the room so can’t comment but there is a €8 euro charge which is understandable. We booked a garden view room but actually ended up on the ground floor with pretty much a pool view which was great. You are able to get towels from the mini market in the hotel and get these changed every two days which was great. My advice would be to purchase any snacks or drinks from the little supermarket right outside the hotel as it’s cheaper, the staff were really lovely in there too. There is so much choice of food outside the hotel which is reasonably priced. We went to a place just along the beach called tralakis for lunch quite often and the staff were amazing so I would definitely recommend! It’s easy to take a walk into either platanias or agia marina and we got a taxi a few times to chaina which was €20 from the taxi company right outside the hotel on the main road. One night we went to the other platanias hotel just five minutes down the road for a Greek night. The food was lovely there, we had the a la carte and you got a €8pp discount on food if you were half board. We didn’t, but got speaking to somebody who said that you could go to reception and let them know that you didn’t want the evening meal and they would give you a lunch voucher for the other hotel - they don’t mention this to you at the hotel though. I would go back to Crete and would perhaps try the other hotel where the spa and water park is based. However in our opinion it is the food that lets this place down. Otherwise I think it would definitely stand up to its 4/5 star rating.