Rithymna Beach Hotel - Rethymnon - Crete

Travelled with Thompson in May to the 5 star Rithymna Beach hotel. Flights to Crete were all good & our coach was found with ease with the help of our Rep. The journey by coach was not for the faint hearted - driver drove very fast around very bendy roads, one handed on his mobile phone!

We arrived at the Rithymna hotel after 40 mins & the reception had a real “wow” factor - beautiful marble floors among a quite stunning hotel & grounds. We were handed a much needed glass of fresh orange juice & had our cases taken to the room. Rooms don’t have this wow factor but the beds were massive & comfortable & the room has everything you need, with a lovely sea view in our case too.

The restaurant is massive hut note that they do not allow shorts for men in evening, they must wear trousers. Food is out of this world & thre is so much of it. There is something for everyone there is so much choice.

The beach at Rethymnon is lovely with a very well qualified guy running watersports although they are very expensive. 35 euros to ski 50 for jetski & 60 for parasailing. The swimming pools are also excellent and we never had an issue getting a sunbed. We chose the pool that overlooks the beach as this one is not salt water & is very peaceful.

My 12 year old son could probably have done with a few more things to occupy him. There is a pool table but the room where the team that runs things for the kids was nearly always locked with no staff around. I don’t know if this gets any better in July /Aug. There are tennis courts & the coach is fab and free to hotel guests!

The hotel’s location was OK - a main road that it’s on & the strip of restaurants and shops makes it an ugly looking road. There is one massive criticism that I do have of this hotel & that is the air conditioning - or lack of it. The hotel decides when they will put it on in the rooms as it is centrally controlled & we had 35 degrees most days we were there, yet the only time it was on was between 2pm and 4pm, the time when no-one is in their room! Many people complained that it was unbearable at night (which it was) but the hotel just handed out fans & said it was the manager who made the air conditioning decisions.

I think this will be a big problem for this hotel soon if they don’t review this issue & update the very old air-con. Even when it is on it really isn’t very cold. The hotel is full of very wealthy Russians who I think will stop coming if they don’t sort this problem out.  This is a 5 star hotel for service, food & suroundings but the air-conditioning drags its rating down.

We had a great holiday & would return without doubt but only if they have sorted the air-con out.