Iberostar Creta Marine

A touch of luxury Hotel and pool area emaculet Food fantastic vast array catering for all tastes Pool sun beds comfortable good policy of not allowing you to reserve sun beds with towels and going for breakfast! Towels removed if not accompanied Plenty of activities for kids and adults if you don't want to soak up the sun.

Our stay at the Iberostar Selection Creta Marine was a mixture of positives and disappointments.

On arrival, we weren’t offered any assistance with our luggage from the taxi to reception, which wasn’t the welcome we expected from a five-star hotel. The check-in process also felt disorganised. As we arrived at around 2:00 pm, we were invited to enjoy the buffet while our room was being prepared, which was a nice touch. Once the room was ready, an attendant took us there with our luggage, although I ended up helping carry the bags into the room myself.

The room itself was excellent. It had clearly been recently refurbished, was modern, clean, and very comfortable throughout our stay.

The hotel grounds are another real highlight. They are beautifully maintained, picturesque, and create a lovely setting for the holiday. The beach alcoves are also a fantastic feature, offering a peaceful and scenic place to relax. However, they were often left dirty, which was disappointing and detracted from what could otherwise have been one of the hotel’s standout features.

The food was consistently very good, with plenty of choice and high-quality dishes at each meal. Unfortunately, the dining experience was let down by the service. On our first evening, we were greeted by a member of staff named Victoria, whose attitude was unexpectedly rude and left a poor first impression. Throughout our stay, guests were rarely shown to a table, and drinks were often not offered until halfway through the meal, if at all. This made the buffet service feel well below the standard expected at a five-star all-inclusive resort.

More generally, the level of customer service was the biggest disappointment. While there were some friendly staff members, many appeared uninterested, unhelpful, and not particularly welcoming to either adults or young children. Hospitality should be a defining feature of a hotel of this calibre, but unfortunately it was lacking.

Another frustration was the number of sales approaches around the resort. We were repeatedly approached about purchasing photographs, spa treatments, and other extras. While this is understandable occasionally, the frequency became intrusive and detracted from what should have been a relaxing holiday.

A further annoyance was the ironing facilities. Rather than having an iron available in each room, the entire resort appears to share a single iron that has to be brought to guests on request. For a hotel marketed as five-star, this felt unnecessarily inconvenient. Providing an iron and ironing board in each room would be a simple improvement that would make a big difference to guests.

Finally, although there was an excellent range of activities available throughout the day, the music around the pool was often excessively loud. It created a lively atmosphere for those taking part but made it difficult for anyone simply wanting to relax by the pool.

Overall, the hotel has many strengths. The refurbished rooms, beautiful grounds, excellent food, and stunning beachfront setting are all worthy of praise. However, the inconsistent service, lack of genuine hospitality, and a number of avoidable inconveniences significantly impacted our experience. While the facilities are good, the overall service and guest experience felt much closer to that of a 3- or 4-star hotel than a true 5-star resort. With improvements in customer service and a more guest-focused approach, this could easily become the five-star experience it aims to deliver.

We had a fabulous holiday, 10 days of perfection. On arrival we were greeted with smiles, wine, roses, a scented cloth to freshen up with after our long journey and excellent service from the lovely staff. Our suitcases were taken to our room along with us by a nice young man in a little transport car, who then kindly carried them to our room, no walking for us it was such a treat after our long journey.
The sea view bungalow was well designed with very comfortable beds, everything was very clean, the bathroom had a lovely walk in shower. The hotel provides everything you could need. No need to bring dozens of bottles from home! The room also had a good sized fridge, tea and coffee provided every day which as we were half board guests was great. The room cleaning staff are the best we've ever experience our room was perfect every day. We had a lovely view from our room a great balcony, great for watching sunsets over the sea and beautifully maintained gardens. There is a fabulous choice of pools, beaches, and garden areas to be enjoyed by all. There is a lovely relaxed feeling to this hotel, the guests were from all corners of the world. Everyone was was well mannered, considerate and friendly, the small number of children were the nicest we very met and played happily together with the great childrens staff. Yes there are pool activites in the main pool but these encouraged all ages and abilities to join in if you wish too. The food was excellent so much choice it was hard to choose. All the different types of food seemed to cover the needs of so many different nationalities the combinations were endless. All the staff worked hard there was never a shortage of food, tables were cleared and it was very clean all the time. Excellent sevice. This was a wonderful holiday so much so that we are returning in a few months to experience perfection once again. Thanks to all the fabulos staff.