- Greece Holidays
- Gouves
- The Island Hotel

This luxurious hotel boasts a prime location right in front of the beach and in Goúves area in Crete island, where guests can enjoy a relaxing bath at the long sandy beaches and discover some interesting archeological sites and traditional villages if they want to learn more about the ancient Greek culture. This wonderful establishment is only located 19 kilometres from the capital city of Heraklion, very near Knossos' palace ruins, and 17 kilometres from Heraklion's international airport. Guests can very easily escape from their everyday troubles at the beautiful and airy guest rooms that await for them with plush features such as a terrace with fantastic sea views, a signature bed and silk and velvet textiles. Business travellers can make use of the well-appointed meeting facilities and everyone will enjoy the dining options available at the hotel and the gym and spectacular bathhouse.
Pamper yourself with a visit to the spa, which offers massages, body treatments and facials. You're sure to appreciate the recreational amenities, which include 3 outdoor swimming pools, an outdoor tennis court and a sauna. This hotel also features complimentary wireless Internet access, concierge services and an arcade/games room.
Due to the surrounding area and the number of steps around the hotel, it may not be suitable for those with mobility difficulties.

Lovely hotel with very nice rooms. Breakfast disappointing as in very samey, nothing unique. The bar is non atmospheric and the barman extremely unfriendly. He put all the lights off at midnight saying that we had lights over there, they were about 20 yards away. We were in darkness. Lots of nice tavernas just outside the grounds, great for eats and drinks. So glad we came bed and breakfast only. Lovely pools with plenty of beds to enjoy.
This is a lovely hotel in great location,but and it's a big but,the food is appalling,the food is cold,cheap and they even have a microwave to heat it up. Staff are generally very helpful,but got told off for taking a coffee from the restaurant to drink outside,they are a little touchy about you not buying their stuff. We ate out because it was so bad,all the little tavernas were great and cheap and good quality. Travel by bus is great,and easy,but bus stop is 1 mileish on main road.
All in all nice hotel rubbish food. Not 5*
We were there during the floods so weather was crap too.
The room itself was a good size, but the balcony was very small, and the open-plan bathroom took away any sense of privacy. It made the stay feel a bit uncomfortable, even though we’ve been married a long time and can laugh about it. The hotel seems focused more on appearance than practicality, and with a few thoughtful changes it could be so much better. Breakfast didn’t vary much, which became noticeable after a few days. The best part of my stay was the massage, which was genuinely lovely. Less impressive was the fact that the sauna, jacuzzi, and indoor pool all required additional payment unless part of a treatment. Overall, it wasn’t the experience we hoped for, and we won’t be coming back.
Having read previous reviews, we wanted to take our own view. This hotel COULD be amazing, however there are several things that need addressing. Absolutely not a 5 star .. 3.5 I’d say. The staff are fabulous, it’s kept immaculately clean and the location is great. However, it is VERY tired . The sunbeds are, basic, and cabanas horrible old yellow plastic cushions, there is only ONE buffet restaurant for dinner and you certainly do not need to dress up! It’s basic , 80% buffet dishes filled with mediocre food. The only other place to eat was The Taverna, which we were not told in check in, was only open Mondays and Fridays .This had to booked the day before, but on Saturday, they were already full for Monday! Therefore, If we’d have only been 7 days, and not 10 , we couldn’t have had that option. You also had to pre order from a very limited choice of 3 dishes! Another thing, there is no pool side service at any of the three pool areas. Shame. The gym looks well equipped but it is extremely old, and actually not maintained, so quite dangerous, alongside being very basic . We only went once in the end! Now the room, we had a garden room 921. It was sooooo dark, and actually quite depressing. Very minimial natural light due to the rainforest of trees outside, and also the corner of the building at the front. Tv waste of time - again out of date for 2026 and the Netflix era! Very small room but bed was very comfy at least. Lastly, around the area, there are other restaurants, some good - some not so. But it’s lackluster… no “pizzaz” anywhere! Great for totally relaxing , but nothing more. Shame , as there is so much potential to right everything .
Me and my parents arrived at 4am. The booking agent had booked the room the day before which meant we have to wait for 10 hours to check in. We weren’t aware of that upon arrival and requested early check in or some sort of priority for my sick parents both have disability and long term health condition, I explained this to the receptionist multiple times I informed them they were not feeling well and needed rest. At 7 am another receptionist informed us there’s some people checking out early so she’ll do her best to check us in early.
Upon double and triple checking with them at 10 and 11:30 am as my parents and myself are very unwell at this point, they informed us there’s nothing they can do and we have to wait until 2pm.
This is extremely poor customer service and as lovely as the hotel looks we are now too unwell to enjoy it because they weren’t able to accommodate us slightly earlier, even though multiple guests left very early in the morning and cleaning team arrived at 8am.
