Atlantica Ocean Beach Resort

Spa Massage and pedicure. Therapist KAtarina excellent therapy. I will do it all over again

We stayed here in July for 10 nights (daughter, partner and my parents), while it was a good family-friendly hotel, I personally wouldn’t return due to a number of reasons.

I would say it is more of a hotel for families with younger children. Teenagers, probably not so much! And if you don’t have kids… well you would probably hate it.

Room: Very VERY small, I had read reviews about it before our stay but I didn’t think they would be that small. Although very modernised, they are just too small for a family to stay in. Very little storage space as well for a family of 3 so half our stuff had to stay in our cases. I also think being an all inclusive hotel too, the mini bar should be restocked every day - especially with fresh water bottles - so it was a shame it was just stocked once for our arrival. The maid cleaned our room every day, however, seemed to never replace our glasses or mugs for some reason. There is also no bath, just a shower, which wouldn’t suit a family with a baby. My daughter isn’t a fan of showers so she was quite upset that she couldn’t have a bath. We were located in the main hotel but if you get a room by the pool, be warned, it can be very loud in the evenings by the pool bar so if you have a young family, it probably isn’t suitable as we met another family who said it was really loud.

Location: Not much around, if you are looking to venture out the hotel, you will need taxis or the local bus. We got a taxi to and from Chania one morning and it was €50 each way. Although a lovely town to visit, it wasn’t very exciting for our daughter (age 3) as you can imagine and it was very hot (we went from 10.30am to 1.30am).

Staff: I found probably 80% of the staff fairly rude - especially the bar staff! I think there was only one friendly bar tender at the pool bar that actually smiled. The ones serving at the children’s disco were exceptionally rude. Maids wouldn’t really look at you to say hello and neither would the servers at the buffet really. My daughter was also not well for a few days and slept through dinner one evening so we just missed the evening buffet for her by 15 minutes so we asked at reception if we there was any way she could get a bowl of food as she hadn’t been well and was hungry to be told the evening ‘snacks’ would come out at 10pm… so we waited till then and just found biscuits and cut up vegetable sticks… which isn’t really a substantial amount of food for her and was starving. I thought with the buffet having just closed and considering my daughter wasn’t well, the staff on reception might’ve been a bit more accommodating and seen if there was anything in the kitchen like a bowl of pasta that she could have. I’m sure there’s lots of spare food after meal times that are probably reused the next day. Also one of the lobby bar staff one day was banging on the toilet door me and my daughter were in in the women’s bathrooms, she banged on it at least 3/4 times - I didn’t know it was staff until I opened the door and seen her standing there after we were done and she didn’t say anything to us just went into the cubicle. My daughter was using the toilet with me helping her… we shouldn’t need to be rushed, especially not by staff. I was quite taken aback by this strange behaviour.

Food: The food at the hotel was lovely but repetitive and lots of options at the buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, prepare for queue skippers, people pushing into you and rude people not willing to open the door for you and closing it in your face. Always able to find a table and no queues to get in - would’ve been nice if somebody did greet you at the door as this has always been the case for other hotels we have stayed at. The oregano restaurant was the highlight for us - food was amazing and the staff there were lovely. Wish we could’ve dined there again. The Jasmine restaurant was really good as well but 0 options for children so my daughter had to go next door to the buffet to bring back a plate of food. This restaurant is also a buffet service too so kinda takes away that nice vibe that the oregano restaurant had. We booked the restaurants before arriving at the hotel - I seen a review of someone else doing it so I just emailed the hotel. Not sure what it’s like to book at the hotel but I had also seen another review of someone saying they arrived and all reservations were taken so they didn’t get to dine at any so I didn’t want to risk it as being there 10 days, buffet food can get repetitive. Ice cream bar - it was good but I felt the chocolate ice cream tasted a bit weird. Wasps would be all over the sauces too. The ‘grab and go’ place by the beach was great for fresh pizza, never tried a gyros or burger there so can’t comment as I was a bit cautious of some of the meat with being pregnant as some of the chicken looked a bit grey and unappetising. I do think they should have chips (fries) as an option here though.

Drinks: I am pregnant and there were very little mocktails that I could have and the options on the menu weren’t great and the ones I did taste were just SO sugary I just couldn’t drink much of them as it made me feel sick. My partner and parents did feed this back about the other cocktails too that they were just full of sugar. They only show selected cocktails but we seen someone going around with a frozen daiquiri at the end of our holiday which we didn’t realise you could get so they really should add more to their menu so people know! Unfortunately, another one I couldn’t have - was told this a lot about the different cocktails. They should really have more 0% options for pregnant women (there were quite a few of us there) or people not wanting to drink alcohol. Soda machines were always available for people to use but always swarmed with wasps which was a shame for kids trying to get drinks as they were scared… staff didn’t do much about this! I didn’t have any coffee from the machines but my parents and partner said it was awful. Feedback from them was also that the beer and wine were very average.

Hotel: The hotel seemed very clean too. The lifts are very small and again, rude queue jumpers just going in the lift when you are waiting. The lobby is also very small compared to previous hotels we have stayed at but not a massive issue, just an FYI! I also noticed that some people seemed to be greeted with a glass of fizz or a drink… we did not get this greeting (arrived at the hotel at 3pm). Also from reading recent reviews, it seems people were shown around the hotel and got snacks upon arrival etc… again, we never received this service.

Bars: They really need to get more staff at the pool bar as it was always heaving and you would be queuing for a while. Bar beside the lobby we didn’t really go to but it didn’t look like it had a great atmosphere.

Entertainment: Some nights better than others. Have no words for the Eurovision night… it was very strange and we left, as did many other people. If you stay more than a week then it will be repetitive as it’s the same every week. Kids disco was 8.30pm to 9pm, while it was good for the kids, the same songs played most nights, and songs in other languages which my daughter wasn’t sure about so didn’t take part. We stayed at another hotel last year and they played games with the kids during the kids disco which I think this hotel needs so they are involved more. I also think more kids songs need to be played after the disco finishes so they can continue dancing, not music adults listen to, as the kids would usually stay after the disco was done and dance on the dance floor and stage.

Kids club and play park: The ladies were lovely in there and it was a lovely kids club - well air conditioned. We didn’t go very often so I can’t fully comment on the activities but when we did go my daughter got her face painted and did some arts and crafts. The play park really needs better lighting for night time, it’s too hot for kids to go in during the day - especially with metal slides! But then at night there’s very little light in there for them to go play in so it seemed to lie empty most of the time.

Pool and beach: Pool was clean enough but always very busy as you can imagine. Be warned, people put their towels out as early as 6am so if you go down any time after 8am, you will probably not get a sun bed together. My partner noticed this our first morning as he went to the gym when it opened at 7am. So we decided if you can’t beat them, join them and he would lay out towels out when he would go. I never went on the slides but other people seemed to enjoy them. The kids area was great for them too. Beach was nice although it goes from sand to pebbles so will need water shoes if going in.

Gym: I never went but my partner said it was very small.

Spa: Again, I never went but my mum did 3 times and they gave her a free facial for one of them. This is also where you get the towels - you change them every 3 days… however, one of the ladies there was very rude to my partner when he tried to get new towels. Also think this is a bit silly changing every 3 days considering you’re lying on them with suncream, chlorine and drinks can get spilled on them etc.

Excursions: We sadly didn’t do any as a lot were boat trips for at least 8-10 hours and this just wouldn’t have suited our daughter. We tried to look up half day ones but could only really find evening ones which again wouldn’t suit her. There were more options online than in the hotel for half day ones but you needed to sort out travel to get to a pick up location.

Overall, we did have a lovely stay and I do think it is a good hotel for families with younger kids. I just feel there are a few things that let it down for being an 5* hotel and for these reasons, it’s not a hotel I would return to and did feel disappointed considering the price we paid. We were over £10,000 for the 5 of us and although I know it is during the school holidays so prices are already high, I just don’t feel it is worth that amount of money. We were ready to return home by the end too, so I think if you were here for 2 weeks you would be very bored. If you don’t have higher expectations for being a 5* hotel and only staying a week then you will probably enjoy it more.

Directly on the beach. Amazing views. Three restaurants / bars in short walking distance along the beach if you’d like to go out. Bus stop outside hotel - cheap/every 10 mins into Chania (about 25mins) with another built up area with shops/restaurants/arcades about 10 mins away.

Excellent staff and service throughout especially Irene & team during the day at the Pool Bar.

Felt overall clean, modern and well maintained.

Room size better than anticipated though balcony tiny,

Multiple bar areas and various entertainment during the day and night including a fire / dance show on Tuesdays.

Due to different locations - were no noise issues. Was able to sit in areas away from entertainment if not interested.

Dining room is sort of split in to multiple areas inside and out and while busy avoided the big rectangle noisy, chair scraping, echo-y canteen feel room a lot of all inclusives have. Decent food quality/range.

Two onside restaurants to book into also included in package except wine. One Asian style buffet. One greek al a carte/proper table service.

Lost one star on review as one of the slides was not working for the period of out 14 night stay. According to the life guard it had not been in operation for the prior three weeks and there was no date known for reopening. There are three straight slides and two spiral. It was one of these two. Disappointing in peak summer when kids were looking forward to using it from the pictures.