Mayia Exclusive Resort and Spa

Fantastic massage from Jovy at the spa. Totally relaxed now.

Hmm not sure about this hotel ! It looks lovely staff are brilliant , definitely not 5* if you have to go and get your own beach towels .

Food in the buffet was very underwhelming! We managed to get reservations for all the Al acarte restaurants they were good,

Entertainment was very good !

House keeping very poor our room was never cleaned properly ! Reported it to reception still the same , Had to ask for the turndown service ! A few times we saw the cleaners just standing around on there phones .

Beach area was very disappointing !

We stayed at Mayia for our honeymoon and overall had a lovely week. The resort itself is beautiful, spotlessly clean and immaculately maintained throughout. The staff were consistently friendly and attentive, always offering a smile, and there was never any pressure or expectation around tipping, which we really appreciated.

Our swim-up room was lovely, kept exceptionally clean and had a very comfortable bed. The minibar was replenished every day at no extra charge, Wi-Fi was excellent throughout the resort and the swim-up pool was a great temperature — initially a little cool, but absolutely perfect once you'd been sitting in the Greek sunshine!

Food in the main buffet restaurant was genuinely very good. Breakfast was largely the same each day, but there was enough choice and everything was of a good quality, so it never really became repetitive. There were also plenty of options for lunch, including the à la carte restaurants.

The street-food outlets are a brilliant addition and gave the resort a little more variety during the day. The Mövenpick ice cream shop was probably my personal favourite!

We tried three of the four à la carte restaurants. The food was good, but we didn't feel it was quite at the standard you'd expect from genuine à la carte restaurants in a 5-star resort. In fact, we were probably more impressed by the consistently good quality in the main restaurant.

The spa was excellent. Treatments are fairly expensive, but I had a full-body massage with Jovy and it was genuinely one of the best massages I've ever had. She deserves a special mention.

One frustration was the apparent lack of availability for both the spa and restaurants. We visited the spa the morning after arriving and were told they were extremely busy and could only fit our treatments in during the final two days of our stay. However, throughout the week we regularly heard spa staff around the pool offering guests appointments that same day. Similarly, the online restaurant booking system showed very limited availability, yet when walking past the restaurants in the evenings there frequently appeared to be plenty of empty tables. It created an unnecessary feeling that everything needed to be booked immediately.

Sunbeds were difficult to get on our first full day, although after heading down slightly earlier for the rest of the week we didn't have a problem.

Evening entertainment was probably one of the weakest aspects for us. There wasn't a great deal happening and what was provided didn't always feel particularly high quality. The pianist in the Champagne Lounge was an exception and we really enjoyed that.

The private beach is a nice facility to have, although we didn't find the beach itself particularly appealing and were a little surprised by its award-winning status.

The resort is also fairly remote. That's not necessarily a negative if you're looking to stay within the hotel, as we mostly were, but it's worth knowing. We went into Lindos during our stay and even getting a taxi to the hotel took quite a while.

As this was our honeymoon, Mayia certainly provided a beautiful setting. However, perhaps because the hotel is understandably very popular with honeymooners, the occasion didn't feel particularly special or personalised. We had contacted the hotel beforehand, but there weren't really any additional touches or recognition beyond the complimentary sparkling wine and sweets.

Ultimately, Mayia is a very good hotel, and we thoroughly enjoyed our honeymoon. However, considering the premium price, there was just a little something missing for us. The resort is beautiful and polished but can feel slightly soulless, and those small extra touches in service, dining and entertainment that separate a very good hotel from an exceptional 5-star experience weren't quite there.

For us, it felt more like a very good 4 to 4½-star experience than a true 5-star one.

Would we recommend it? Yes.

Would we return? Probably not. Not because we didn't enjoy ourselves — we absolutely did — but at this price point there wasn't quite enough to entice us back. We'd personally rather try somewhere different or return to somewhere such as Dubai, where we've experienced that extra level of quality and service.

Overall: 4/5.