Rethymno Mare Royal and Water Park

Rethymno Mare Royal. I can recommend this hotel. It was the best hotel I've ever stayed at on vacation. The receptionists were great! The restaurant staff were perfect. The two brothers at the Artemis bar were great! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Apollon were excellent. A large selection of delicious dishes. Everything was spotlessly clean. No crowds or noise. Everything was tidy and clean. The rooms were spacious. My only regret is that I didn't remember the names of the hotel staff. I can't thank them by name. I can only thank Rahoul by name :-)

The hotel was very good for our holiday with our kids! The water park was good enough for our kids and even the kids club was lovely. The staff was really friendly and helpful all the time. We had the room with private pool and it was lovely. Beds are really comfortable, bathroom may need some upgrade but still ok. Food was also very good.

I am going to give an honest review. The sea and the beach were the best I have ever seen and experienced and I travelled a lot. Clear see through water and shallow for the family to play, very clean. The views are stunning. The old town, 15 mins in a taxi, is wonderful and full of history and great dining places and shops. The gardens around hotel grounds were beautiful and well looked after. Maris at the beach bar was very kind, attentive and did the best Pina Colada. Good slides for the kids in the kids pool.

However, apart from this, nothing good to share unfortunately. We booked a family suite with the sharing pool. When we arrived at night time, it dint look like the hotel shown on pictures online at all. Reception staff at night time was very rude. The door to our suite would not close, they suggested using a chain, but it fell off! We did not feel safe sleeping with the open door all night with a 9 year old child. After many upsets and tears, the manager came and somehow managed to close the door. They even said we would sleep on the beach and they would call police, when we complained at reception, which was very upsetting start to the holiday.

The rooms were very old, dirty, smelt of blocked pipes and tiny and this was a suite! They even failed to replenish toilet paper.

The pool outside our room (the sharing one) was nice. However, the main pool was very small and packed, nowhere to move. the water was not clean too.

The walk to the beach was across the local road, which was always busy and no driving rules followed by the locals so not safe for kids to walk. The hotel food was very bad and pretty much the same every day. They advertised resort with a few restaurants. there was only 1 buffet restaurant, which was very busy. The rest were just cafes with waffles and cold pizza and premade cold hot dogs. Main lobby bar staff was very rude. Very poor drinks and cocktails, they did not mix it at all. When I said that Maria at the beach does great cocktails and asked for the same Pina Colada I was told to go and get it from Maria, how rude! Bear in mind beach bar closes at 6pm so you are stuck with the guy at the lobby bar, who is rude and makes very poor drinks.

All entertainment is in French including day water activities and kids club. After many tears at the start of the holiday, poor accommodation, service and food, we still managed to enjoy our holiday as a family and made some great friends, who shared the same experience in the hotel. However, I would not recommend and would not go back there ever again!