Have been looking on line to book Eliros Hotel again next year as enjoyed our 10 day stay late August/September this year (2007). If you are looking for loud music and disco nights go elsewhere and don't ruin this hotel's ambience. We were the only other English people at the hotel during our time there which is mainly frequented by Russians, Germans and Polish guests - a fact which we found refreshing as we didn't have to do a lot of chatting! First thing we noticed was that everyone's behaviour was exemplary - bearing in mind alcohol was available from 10 till midnight and whilst we were told the hotel was full it certainly didn't feel that way, always spare tables at meal times and never problems finding one to sit down to and didn't have a "crowded" feel to it.
Eliros had a number of families with small children present whilst the vast majority were couples with teenagers (11 to 16 or so). The hotel has its own beach too with sand and not shingle.
Older children took the time to play with my 6 year old daughter and, in fact, 2 older girls taught her how to dive and do handstands in the pool. There was no raucous behaviour in the pool although there were balls and lilos about which quite often people shared amenably. We spent the majority of our time lounging at the pool side and were never disappointed - no rowdy behaviour and the sunshine was pleasing (32 degrees). However, one had to walk a short distance to the snack bar near the beach to grab a drink - a small price to pay.
We noticed a wasp nest in one of the arches next to the pool and pointed this out to the poolman that evening and it was dealt with and gone the next morning alleviating a great majority of wasps that had used the pool as their drinking station.
Food is served at set times but if you wish to go out for the day you can arrange the day before for a "picnic basket". Ours consisted of water and sandwich (ham and/or cheese) each along with fruit, tomotoes and cut cucumbers wrapped in cling film.
We never went hungry and there was always something one could chose to have to eat. In fact we ate too much and came back with healthy waistlines! Pasta in different shapes was presented every meal with a red and white (ocasionally a meat) sauce, together with a fish and meat option. There was the occasional chicken nuggets to keep those inclined happy and chips were often available. Cooked vegetables was also there for the taking. Fish, red and white meat (lamb, pork, turkey, chicken) were also frequently on the buffet tables and the salad bar was extensive - make your own up (grated carrot, onions, diced cucumber and tomatoes, feta, black & calamata olives) or chose from a variety on offer already created for you (pasta, egg, sausage usually with mayo) . Desserts were a delight and a number of offer to chose from. Cake and croissants at breakfast (kept my daughter very happy) along with breakfast cereals, the occasional bacon, hot-dog typed sausages, various eggs in the form of boiled, "omlette", fried and scrambled. Always available was fresh bread (brown and white) and bread rolls at breakfast. A great plus was the fact that there were no flies in the food presentation area although it was not air conditioned. Sitting on the balcony overlooking a very quiet pool (no swimming at meal times) was an added bonus along with efficient waiting staff.
The staff were very congenial and friendly. We approached the cleaning lady on our first morning (having arrived under our own steam via a taxi in the early hours of a Friday morning) to ask for another pillow and it was immediately attended to and placed in our room. Bog standard room with balcony in the main block with 2 twins and a child's stretcher bed. The aircon worked 100% of the time and the room cleaned spotlessly daily (bathroom and sleeping area) - we were more than happy as we only used the room to sleep in having spent the majority of our time in and around the pool area, visiting Chania (45 mins by coach), Rethymno (15 mins by coach), local shops (5 min walk from hotel across a fairly busy mainroad however) which included tavernas, internet cafe and a chemist.
Whilst the resort was probably winding down (closes in October) we did have a Greek dancing evening and a magician one night too. Animation was open certain days of the week but my daughter decided she had come on a "family" holiday and wanted to spend time with her family. She loved the pool and enjoyed the children's play area which was by the snack bar and one could play cards and have a sundowner drink whilst keeping an eye on the little ones playing.
Hope to get a booking for 2008.

My family of 4 (one 1yo and one 5yo) booked a last minute holiday and were offered 3 hotels to chose from in Crete. My wife chose this hotel almost solely due to the fact it had freshwater pools - our 5 year old loves to swim and was disappointed last year when the main pool in Kos was salt water.

The reviews in English were poor to say the least but we did not let this spoil our expectations.

Overall the Hotel is great and would recomend it - especially after talking to other Brits who had terrible experiences with all inclusives elsewhere on the island!

Now for the facts - The hotel has been block booked by a German travel company who take up 80% of the hotel - the rest is mainly Russian and whilst we were there, there were only two 'British' rooms but, I have to say that the other family had been recomended by a friend and had booked the hotel directly!

Positives

The food was great and in the hot buffet there were always staples of pasta (different shapes each night) and a 'red' sauce and a 'white' sauce (always different). Additionally, there were always a couple of vegetables (e.g. garden peas, cauliflower, broccolli etc) and a couple of meat dishes (turkey, beef, chicken, lamb etc.) and a fish dish. We also had (not every night)langoustines, calamari and mussels and on two or three nights there was pizza, chips and burgers. The sald bar was huge and always had around 6-8 salads - pasta, vegetable etc and there were also big bowls of individual salad things like tomatos, cucumber, grated carrot, onions......it would challange any piza hut salad bar! The hotel also has a fantastic pastry chef as the puddings were great especially the chocolate eclairs! Our children always found somthing to eat!

The buildings were immaculately kept and always clean with cleaners on the go all the time and our room was cleaned and changed daily. The pool was one of the cleanest I have ever been in and it starts bout 90cm and slopes gradually to about 3m in the deep end. The childrens pool was equally clean. The beach was good 'sandcastle' sand but had a few stones but not enough to be a problem. The beach had a gradual slope from very shallow so it was waist deep about 50 feet out!

It was also the first hotel I have stayed in where (probably becasue of the children) that the told us to detach the card from the keys and leave it in the slot permanently so our room was always cool.

Beer and soft drinks (post-mix) were 'help yourself' at the restaurant and beach bar but served in the main bar. There were the main spirits included in the AI such as vodka, martini, gin brandy but all others were on sale if you wanted.

Outside the hotel across the main road were a selection of about 6-10 tavernas/bars and 6-10 gift/ tourist/clothing shops, one chemist and a 'proper' but small supermarket.

Negatives

Breakfast was always the same with fried eggs, some small bacon rashers, boiled eggs, omlette and NO toast - small complaint really as they did have coco pops and cold milk which was enough for the children!

We never saw the animation team once although there was a programme - maybe the Germans dont like that kind of thing? There was also no evening entertainment apart from 3 nights in the two weeks we were there there was a magician (okay) one night, a greek music night and an international music night - a man and woman with an electric piano singing very dodgily!!

During the day (outside meal times) the only bar serving was the beach bar so if you were around the pool it was a 2-300mtr walk to get drinks or ice cream.

The childrens pool was not very shallow (about 70cm) and unlike the adjoining big pool which had a water level side the side was about 10cm higher than the water level.

Overall we had a great holiday and would certainly recomend the hotel to any one who wants a quiet 'non-british' holiday.

My finace and I took my son for a last minute break to Crete and as always we tried Tripadvisor first but there was of course no review for this particular hotel. We reviewed the website and searched in vein for any review online but in the end gave up and thought we would give it a go.

I will start this by writing that we are not difficult to please nor are we very fussy when it comes to eating. In order to give you a good feel for the place I feel it is only fair to break up our holiday as follows:

Hotel - Oh the hotel - On arrival at 1am we were greeted by the owner who took our details and pointed us to our room. Before we left reception we were greeted by the lady who looks after the mini-cub for kids. She could hardly speak which is when we realised that she was completely legless. As soon as we left reception, we made our way down the steps just by the pool and couldn't believe our eyes when we saw a human turd floating along with a lightfitting on the top of the water. We moved on quickly but couldn't get over the state of the place...we even found broken glass on the pathway on arrival to our room. You can imagine that we are thinking "what the hell is going on here".....we decided to just get in our room and sleep and hope that by some miracle that everything would be okay the next day. How wrong we were!!! We woke at 7.30am and went to unpack the rest of our luggage to find that we were completely infested with ants. We shook off some clothes and left immediately for reception. We made a complaint and was told that they would get someone to us asap. We made our way to breakfast to be greeted with a German breakfast. We will eat almost any type of food. We are very multicultural but this food was horrible. To top it off at dinner we were advised to warm our food in the microwaves. We made several complaints to reps, manager and staff but all to no avail. We even priced other hotels but as it was so last minute they were very pricey. I simply do not have a good word to say about this hotel in any way shape or form.

All inclusive Bronze - This means warm beer locally produced, Raki (Pernod type drink but 10 times stronger) or Brandy. Soft drinks were palatable but only just. You couldn't even buy Vodka, beer or any other drink unless you went to the disco after 12pm. With no entertainment, little to eat and no drinks to numb the pain, we found ourselves back in the room way before 12pm.

Pool - Almost every tile was cracked in some way and the lightfittings were loose in the pool. Replaced again over night but loose again the next day. Pool was very cold but a nice relief from the warm sun. The pool bar always had ashtrays full of water to hol them down in the wind but also full of cigerrette ends too....totally disgusting.

Wind - The wind around the pool was unbearable. It blew sunbeds from one end of the pool to the other and we saw many 3-8 year olds get clean sweeped from their feet.

Location - Dusty, baron and nothing but an old supermarket and pub across the road. Everywhere was a good bus journey away. In fairness the supermarket became our sancturay as we were able to buy some food and alchohol that was palatable.

Beach - Very stoney, too hot to walk on and the wind was unbearable. Again the beach was absolutely baron.

Staff - 5 to 6 staff in the whole place. Rude, never around and we saw one chap clearing plates in the dining hall whilst being the only barman on duty leaving 10 or 20 people at a time waiting to be served.

What did we do - In order to try and salvage something from the holiday we went to IERAPETRA every day by bus. It was only about 2 Euro each. IERAPETRA is beautiful and the locals were lovely, bars and restaurants were very clean and well air conditioned. If it wasn't for IERAPETRA we would have paid to fly home after a couple of days.

Conclusion - If this review can be of help to one person then it has been time well spent. Please listen to me when I say that this hotel, location, food and staff were all appalling. We are not snobs and can ruff it with the rest of them but this place is not for anyone looking for any kind of relaxing or fun break. AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!

DO NOT GO HERE if you want to have a good holiday. This is my honest review and would not like anyone else to make the same expensive mistake that we did.

Just returned from one week at the Eliros and it was absolutely awful. Before we went there was not a review on tripadvisor so we did not know what to expect. As the other traveller said it is 99.9 % German and basically like a German holiday camp. Noone even smiles at you let alone say hello. The environment i think is pretty hostile and if you want to be stared at and get filthy by germans all day then thats fine.

The barman gets slowly drunk every single evening and then plays dangerous games with alcohol and a lighter. He almost set someone alight at one point when he pored alcohol all over the floor and set light to it.

The whole place smells of sewarage and dont use the toilets they stink! On our first day we didnt get the room we had booked and ended up in a noisy room for the first evening.

The hotels part of the beach is again very crowded and again you will get stared at by germans all day as if you shouldnt be there.

The hotel staff who are greek, speek to everyone in German even to the English and they are actually friendly to the Germans, however dont expect to get as much as a smile if you are English.

We ended up booking into another hotel along the beach for two days. This hotel "The Pilot" was fantasic and very friendly and just perfect in every way. However they only had a room for two nights so we had to return to the Eliros.

Worst holiday I have ever had and I am in the process of puting in a formal complaint.

-doesnt even deserve a 1rating and is noway a 4*