“Value for money”

Like many people, I was slightly apprehensive after reading some of the reviews, let me state that this was not our main holiday, just a cheap, no frills getaway to grab some sun and visit Knossos. For the price we paid (£600 each) I think it was value for money. The highlights for us were the food… more

Like many people, I was slightly apprehensive after reading some of the reviews, let me state that this was not our main holiday, just a cheap, no frills getaway to grab some sun and visit Knossos. For the price we paid (£600 each) I think it was value for money. The highlights for us were the food, which was all delicious Greek home cooking, and yes, it is mostly cold, but there is a microwave. Delicious bbq's and stone baked pizzas most nights. The local beer is fine but unfortunately the wine and soft drinks were poor quality. The staff are so friendly and helpful. We had a family room with a mezzanine floor, it was spacious and a fantastic bathroom /shower and lovely balcony, however, the beds were rock hard sadly. Main points to note, the hotel do not provide bottled water in the rooms, there is no tea/coffee making facilities. Bring your own tea and coffee, get a kettle from reception. Not much to do in Kato Gouves but local buses are excellent and cheap. Hotel beach needs a good clean up but the beach next door is great, although you have to pay for sunbeds €15 a set.

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“Not what it is cracked up to be!”

Not long come back from a 10 night all inclusive stay at this hotel and here’s our honest review. Let’s start with a few positives. From the outside the hotel looks very well maintained, nice looking building in a lovely area. You have a few supermarkets within reaching distance of the hotel, p… more

Not long come back from a 10 night all inclusive stay at this hotel and here’s our honest review. Let’s start with a few positives. From the outside the hotel looks very well maintained, nice looking building in a lovely area. You have a few supermarkets within reaching distance of the hotel, plenty of cafe / bars with good food options (which you will probably need, more on that later) The beach is just across the road which makes for a pleasant beach day and a nice stroll. Upon arriving to the hotel we were greeted by 2 members of staff at reception both seemed really pleasant. We did have an initial hiccup with the rooms as we had 3 but that was swiftly dealt with. Moving on….. Let’s start with the biggest fault I/we found Food: Very repetitive food options, and lack of choice in my opinion. A 4 star hotel this is meant to be and every meal time without fail the food was freezing cold, totally unacceptable. For a group of 5 with 1 extremely un-fussy eater, even he struggled. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all the same, cold! There is a snack bar which again has a very poor choice of snacks, more often than not left over cakes / jellies from the lunch time options with the occasional stale sandwich. Drinks: I have never known an all inclusive hotel offer so little in the way of drinks. There is a small selection of alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks available which are not the best quality. If you are wanting things such as vodka, gin or cocktails you have to pay for them, not what an all inclusive is about. Very poor. Rooms: Very basic but does exactly what is needed. Yes a bit of modernisation wouldn’t go amiss but still workable. The sliding doors can be a bit tricky to lock and some of the sockets and lights didn’t work in a couple of rooms we had. The showers in the rooms need looking at, every time you showered the bathroom would flood due to the shower curtain not going right to the floor. The shower cubicles are very small, it would make so much more sense just having wet rooms. They say kettles are provided but you do have to ask for these, they don’t come standard in every room. Beach / Sun-beds: The beach was nice, great to spend a few hours relaxing and in the sea. They could however benefit from clearing up the seaweed once in a while as this was quite a big problem on that stretch of the beach. As for the sun-beds on the beach there were plenty of them, however many were broken. They could do with more sun-beds around the pool in the hotel. WiFi: Yes they have WiFi but generally only usable in the lobby area / patio area. Very hard to get a signal when in the rooms. Entertainment: Not what was advertised. They say karaoke nights, Greek nights, cooking shows etc, in the 10 nights we were there we saw 1 Greek night and the same singer twice. Younger children would find it hard to occupy and entertain themselves in my opinion. Overall our experience has been very mixed. We ate out, drank in other establishments and even sought entertainment elsewhere due to the lack of these in the hotel. After paying money for what was supposed to be an all inclusive, ending up costing just as much being out all the time, not a great experience or service from a 4 star hotel. We have stayed in many hotels and have never endured these kind of things before. Would I stay at Diogenis Blue Palace again, probably not. Do not waste your time and your money here when there are plenty of other options around.

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“Disappointed”

Stayed 2weeks A.I. Room was lovely and hotel very clean. Beach across the road free sunbeds. After the first 2 days, we ate out. Food a big let down, always cold every meal. Drinks limited white/red wine, beer, ouzo. Spirits and cocktails to be paid for. Would not return, the food ruined it fo… more

Stayed 2weeks A.I. Room was lovely and hotel very clean. Beach across the road free sunbeds. After the first 2 days, we ate out. Food a big let down, always cold every meal. Drinks limited white/red wine, beer, ouzo. Spirits and cocktails to be paid for. Would not return, the food ruined it for us. Gouves is lovely.

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