Lyttos Beach Hotel

The hotel is great, the facilities in particular outstanding. Our 2 year old loved the hotel water park (there’s a separate area for small children), the daily disco, and evening events.

The food was good, 4/5. Some of the same food across different restaurants, with fresh ingredients. However often lacked seasoning and flavour, other than the Asian restaurant.

The element we felt let the rating down is the cleanliness / operations. It took over 2 hours for the hotel to clean up when a child was sick on the floor outside. Our rooms didn’t receive a deep clean each day, more like a quick tidy with new towels. For a 5 star we would expect better here.

Overall very pleased, our family had a great time, but some areas that didn’t quite live up to other 5 star hotels. Would consider going back if we could find a better price.

Hotel grounds - clean, beautiful flowers. Cats - loved the cute cats that roam around. On a flight path - the noise didn’t bother us. Superior Family room - in one of the few quieter areas, nice big balcony, fridge stocked for arrival, bottles of water delivered daily, friendly cleaning ladies. Beds - hard mattresses, uncomfortable after 11 nights. Room layout - didn’t work for teenager - parents had to walk through it to reach bathroom. No privacy. Noisy fridge & air-con, so air con was switched off each night - woke up sweltering. Main restaurant - busy but found a quieter adults-friendly hall & enjoyed eating outside in a pretty garden area. Food - well-presented, some freshly cooked in front on you. Good choice. Made cooking on this scale look easy and efficient. (A staff member at the pudding station would be beneficial as we saw children eating bites then returning food here.) Plenty choice - food available all times of the day. Restaurants - don’t have to be booked. I missed having a special restaurant with waiter service though. Asteri bar and pool bar - efficient staff (although I saw one being rude to a teenage guest). Good-quality cocktails freshly made, premium brands rather than syrupy or watery. No waiter service at all for drinks. Queues not too bad though. Sunbeds - always got 3 (of the less comfortable ones) together by heart-shaped pool or at beach, with a welcome breeze & lovely sea view. Indoor pool - nice. Supermarket - well-stocked, reasonably priced. Massage at spa - good - started 20 minutes after the arranged time, felt the girl was a bit bossy that I should come back for another. Day trips - hotel is on a bus line (with a 10 minute walk along the driveway). Efficient bus service to Heraklion and Spinalonga. Taxi to the aquarium. Check-out time 11am - spent a considerable amount to have a different room till 6pm on our final day.

However: Previous hotels of this quality have sent bottle of wine/cake on husband’s birthday/wedding anniversary - missed that personal touch at Lyttos Beach. Teens Club - daughter didn’t go as not into sport games in that heat. Perhaps offer something for teens who like swimming/art/craft/animals. Hurt her elbow coming down a slide so gave up on them. Liked the lazy river. Plenty of seats.

Evening entertainment - a big part of how I choose my annual holiday… Shows at the amphitheater at 9.30pm - good costumes, lighting, sound, dancing, lovely silks & trapeze work, some impressive, athletic skills. Choreography got a bit samey, so was nice to do the interactive quiz and the movie quiz. Then it went wrong…

Magic Mike - underwhelming, no impressive tricks. Acrobat comedy show - skills used in an out-of-date, slapstick way. We cringed and left. Karaoke and Greek night - on the schedule but didn’t seem to happen. Bingo - hotel charges each guest 10 euros to buy a strip - a money-making activity, not entertainment, four nights of Bingo in 11 days, prize is a bottle of wine - at an all inclusive hotel!

The Ouzo Ouzo night - what a horrible game/quiz. Parents repeatedly forced to drink a shot of ouzo if their child gets an answer wrong. I was pleased that I knew a correct answer so tentatively sat in the chair - unfortunately the ents rep then berated me into drinking 2 shots of ouzo (“every last drop”), helped by the rep girls, before telling me I pronounced the name of my favourite musical wrong and making me drink a third. An extremely awkward social situation - how very difficult to say no in front of everyone. Realised I had in fact become the entertainment - rep was using me for the amusement of other guests. Felt humiliated, drank 3 glasses of water, ruined evening, stomach wasn’t right for the rest of the holiday. Rep told other guests to teach their children how to speak properly. Where was the respect for ‘the guests? The game may work on an 18-30 holiday but not at a five star, all-inclusive resort. We have an expression “Bullying or banter? Know your boundaries.” I’d encourage the ents staff to ‘read the room’ better. Alcohol is not a game. Guests should be able to judge their own alcohol consumption, not feel belittled and pressured into drinking by reps. It felt mean.

Entertainment is on a weekly schedule so after a week there is nothing new to look forward to in the evening. No incentive for guests staying longer. Resorted to games of Uno in the bar, which I could do at home. Saxophone in the bar - good but too loud - violin and singers - nice but not what I’d choose to listen to.

So would I return? No. I have had substantially better value for money over the last few years in Rhodes and Corfu where the entertainment made us giggle - this didn’t. However, I do wish all the staff who were friendly to us and working hard all the best.

The entire experience was excellent—the atmosphere, the treatment itself, and the therapist was highly professional