What People are saying

Anglo-French relations...

ChrisBelindaon 06/08/2017 20:31

Ah... the Dimitra Hotel... well well.... I have noticed the distinct lack of reviews from the British on TA and wondered why, as on the whole, we had a wonderful stay here. Stayed two weeks from 20th July to 3rd August and we were the only English people in the hotel, not a bad thing in my opinion if you want to travel 1829 miles to escape the UK!.
Let's start at the beginning shall we... sitting comfortably?.. good..
I will skip the organised (?) chaos of Heraklion airport and the minibus that eventually got us to the hotel after an hour... we were greeted very warmly with a big "welcome" by the absolutely lovely Maria who owns the place with her brother Dimitra and she asked us what we would like to drink ( on the house ) so we sat at the bar in a cool reception drinking the first of many, many ouzo's and chatting to Maria about our flight and everything. We felt very much at home straight away and then we got the keys and were shown the way to our room...
Now... room 202... not the best.. ground floor with a balcony facing a dusty road at the side of the hotel. I don't normally complain about my room but within 5 minutes we decided to ask for a different one - no problem, Maria was extremely nice about the whole thing and promised us a fabulous room but not until Sunday morning - no problem for us - 3 nights and we would go upstairs to room 316 ( which turned out to be superb - mozzy nets.. light, sea view... perfect ). In the meantime we explored the room - have to say, the best showers ever experienced in Greece, powerful and plenty of water AND in a proper shower surround and not just flooding all over the bathroom -these were excellent. The balcony doors have a clever 2-way handle so you can choose just the top of the door open if you wish. Comfy beds and decent pillows - not the thin cardboard some reviewers had noticed from last year. Now... the first night was horrendous thanks to three German lads next door shouting and laughing till 4am. We banged on the door and told them to be quiet which they eventually did but they kept us awake for 3 nights until we moved upstairs. Maria and the wonderful other Maria ( who cleans the rooms and waters the gardens and gives you advice and directions and pretty much made our holiday ) acknowledged the fact and this made us think that other's had complained about the noise before we arrived.
Ok.. let me get the bad points about the Dimitra out of the way - there aren't many of them:
1. The Hotel is designed so that anyone closing a door at any time day or night means they SLAM shut and the sound echoes along the marble-floored corridors. Anybody talking is amplified because of this.
2. Unfortunately - and I don't think the Hotel is really to blame for this - there were numerous large groups of Dutch and German lads all hell-bent on drinking lager ( German only - hey.. why help the Greek economy? ) and ordering pizzas and kebabs and making their presence known from 10am till 5am. The trouble is, tour operators block-book hotel rooms in advance and you never know who or what is going to turn up so I can't blame the hotel - in fact the staff were clearly not happy about them and neither were we. The state of the rooms when they finally left the day before us said it all - and I saw them.
3. Yes, breakfast is not to everyone's taste, we got through - had an omelette twice in the two weeks and they provided hot-dog smoked style sausages, eggs,bread ( which you can toast yourself in the verrrrry... slow hot plate toaster ) , you can also have yoghurt and museli and honey and cereals and cake etc etc... so It was ok - on the last morning they had bacon which we destroyed in sandwiches.
4. There was no pool bar - no drinks or anything set-up which I didn't understand though they did have drinks inside which you can take out.
5. The safe deposit boxes are behind the reception and not in the room - some people might not like this.

So.. that's it for the down side... now for the good bits:

The hotel is up a gently-rising hill from the Theodoras Garden restaurant - 10 minutes and you are there - or even less. It's set in lovely gardens where we fed the resident cats and their gorgeous kittens every day. The pool is very clean though drops off deep very quickly so there is not a lot of room to stand and chat in the shallows if you are not a confident swimmer. But the area around the pool is spotless with lots of sunbeds, and, with the exception of one annoying girl at 8am for the last 4 days, nobody reserved them with towels ( something which drives me nuts! ).
There is a nice terraced area outside the doors of the breakfast room where you are free to sit and eat breakfast in the sun or just chill and read, this can be a real sun trap in the afternoon and it is from here you go up the few steps to the pool which is set up higher at the back of the hotel. There is just one room facing the pool with an arched balcony, the rest, with the exception of room 201 & 202 and the two above those all face the sea and the road in front.The bar area is really nice with plenty of comfy seats and a big TV showing whatever you want to put on if you want that kind of thing. There is also a PC for guests use but was broken when we stayed. We ate a couple of burgers from the inside bar one lunchtime and they were great ( although if you don't eat eggs like me - beware as they put egg in the salad inside the bun) and were good value.All the staff work extremely hard and very long hours making sure everything is just right for the guests and we really appreciated this.
We succumbed to A/C after 5 nights ( 5 euro a day ) and we really felt the benefit of it. We weren't offered a fridge but I saw them in a store room and they are 5 euro a day, we didn't really need one and took a travel kettle and bought some water and had a proper brew whenever we liked (PG packed in advance! )
When we stayed I would say that 80% of the guests were French and some of them were very nice and got chatting to us both in French and English, the rest were Dutch, German, Russian and a lovely couple next door to us from Cyprus who live in London.
In the afternoon everyday, at 4pm - the music starts up at STAR beach which is down the hill and can be seen from the top balconies - TBH this didn't bother us and we stayed away from it as Hersonissos turned out to be not our cup of tea and we got buses and hired a car and walked everywhere.
There are cats and kittens who give ZeeZou the dog a good run for his money, cicadas belting out their call all day, all kinds of birds,lizards etc... I really loved the hotel, it needs a few teaks here and there but I think it needs more English people to give it a try - it has a real cosmopolitan feel to it and I like that.
I want to thank Maria, Maria, Dimitra and Yelana for making us laugh so much, for the directions to Sfendilli ( a photographers dream! ) and the bus info, for everything, the humour the craziness the smiles and the warm welcome they gave us every single day - you will not be forgotten. I am not sure If I will return to Crete again - but if I ever do I will visit this wonderful hotel again. Efheristo.

Would not recommended for solo travellers or for British parties

Francesca Mon 19/07/2017 09:25

I returned from my holiday yesterday and generally I had a good time but I felt the need to report on my experience at this hotel. I booked through onthebeach and found that Hersonissos is to the Russians and Malia is to the British.

Firstly, the good points: This hotel looks lovely from the outside, there is a nice swimming pool area and the bar area is well kept, although was empty for my entire stay. My bedroom has a nice bathroom with a good shower. There is a nice big supermarket nearby and the local museum (which is really worth a visit) is only a ten minute walk away.

However, there are many grumbles I have about this hotel:

Firstly, the breakfast was not good. I stopped going down for breakfast after day three as I just couldn't eat it. I couldn't even recognise what some of the foods were. I'm not picky with food by any means but I felt the need to purchase breakfast elsewhere.

Secondly, noise was a big issue. It is located near an open air club which thuds music until midnight. You then get drunken groups of lads coming back and banging the doors and shouting in the hallways until the early hours.

Finally, the owner made me feel quite uncomfortable as a solo traveller. He kept commenting my 'early bedtimes' as I was returning at 10pm. I tired to explain that having been out travelling since 9am each morning, I was quite tired by this point but he continued to mention it. This sounds petty but when you are alone in a foreign country, it just made me uncomfortable and I ended up trying to avoid contact.

Pleasant people

bulrushes5on 22/10/2016 19:38

The room was adequate, the pillows really spoilt it by being as thin as a slice of bread and very small, I had to double mine over all the time, the bed was on the hard side but this wasn't a problem for me. It was quite clean unless being very picky like 'Four in a Bed', there was significant dust in the grooves of the furniture. Maria and Dimitra were very nice and helpful, the night I arrived at 1am, I was taken to my room and while trying to get hot water the shower room was flooding, Dimitra came and gave me another room for the night and said all would be fixed in the morning, I do not know when he sleeps, he was there bright and early smiling at breakfast. Shortly after I was taken back to my room and all was well. the breakfast served was quite tasty especially the yogurt and honey. I enjoyed my stay there and would go back if the pillows were changed.

Friendly staff and loving dog

maplethorpepaulon 01/10/2016 20:42

If you are looking for a nice friendly hotel on the outskirts of Hersonissos and and able to walk a mile or so into town, or are prepared to take a taxi, and are reasonably fit, this could be your hotel - If you are disabled and unable to walk far, then this is definitely not your hotel. Access to hotel is by climbing up around a dozen steps Very friendly staff, but beds, as indicate in the brochure, are traditional and very low - staff willing to provide extra pillows on request - Towels sadly are changed around every three days
Breakfast menu is somewhat boring. but if you want a nice sea view looking across the med, this could be your hotel

Lovely!!!

Vicky Son 06/09/2016 10:47

We have no negatives about this hotel. We paid for a weeks all inclusive and we were pleasantly surprised. The food was good and different every day (chips were on the menu daily for those choppy lovers). The hotel was kept very clean and the staff were wonderful.

Special mention goes to the barman. A very hardworking man who had a smile and a laugh for all guests despite working 12 hour shifts daily. He is appreciated by both guests and staff and certainly made our holiday more fun!

Fab location (we were poolside and heard no street noise). Shops, restaurants, beach (stones) and bars were on our doorstop and excursion pick ups were close to the hotel also.

One of our favourite holidays and would consider returning!