Lyttos Beach Hotel

Lyttos Beach

We’ve had a wonderful holiday at Lyttos Beach. This is our 2nd year in Crete (we were at Nana Golden Beach last year which we loved), however we all feel Lyttos Beach was better.

ROOMS: we were in block 601-696. Really well positioned. Every room has a balcony with table and chairs. We had a microwave, tea and coffee and making facilities. Fresh water and white towels every day (they also knock early evening asking if we need more). On arrival our fridge had been filled with salad, fruit, cheeses etc. HOWEVER, no one told us this and we didn’t check the fridge so all of this sadly went to waste. It would’ve been nice to have been told this had been prepared for us. We also had a bottle of red waiting for us and a few soft drinks.

FOOD: The main restaurant is superb. The food changed on rotation each evening. We had Indian, Italian, Mediterranean, Around the world nights. Try the bespoke starters on the little plates, so delicious! It is all self serve but there are plenty of napkins available to use to hold the serving spoons - highly recommend to avoid germs. Some people on other reviews said the food wasn’t all that, we completely disagree, the food in the restaurants are plentiful and delicious. They also have a section for kids (chicken nuggets, pastas and doughnuts etc) and an area for those on plainer / special diets. The restaurant is super clean and the staff were excellent. It does get busy around 7.30/8pm but there is always somewhere to sit so don’t worry. There’s even a quieter adult area. We used Kalypso a lot as it’s really well positioned near the main pool, we ate here for breakfast a couple of times but it does get hot (unless you sit under the central fans) and theres not as much choice as the main restaurant. It’s self serve drinks too, all soft drinks available plus beer and wine. If you want a cocktail or other drink with dinner, simply get one from the main bar on your way through and take it in with you.

DRINKS: The cocktail menu is huge - so much choice. My wife made a plan to work her way through it but she got stuck on the Amaretto Sunrise and this drink was her holiday choice! I loved the Aperol Spritz and my son loved the Blue Penguin’s. Bar staff are super speedy and so friendly. In other reviews people mentioned long queues at bars, we only experienced queues at around 10pm (the end of the main show/ start of the 10.15pm entertainment as naturally everyone is moving over to the Main Pool area) but it’s not a long wait. They use main brands for all drinks.

ENTERTAINMENT: The entertainment programme is superb, something for everyone. Get the app on arrival as it will show you everything going on each day. The Animation staff are brilliant. So friendly and encouraging without being pushy. My son joined in with Teen Water Polo most days and some of the games of the day. There’s never really a prize for winning - it’s all about taking part which is great. For the adults, there is Water Polo, Drinking Games etc. We didn’t join in but enjoyed watching them. Lots of fitness classes in the pools etc. the evening entertainment is so good, the shows are brilliant. TIP: get a drink from the pool bar and take it with you. It gets busy so make sure you’re seated by 9.05pm and you’ll have a good seat. Adults: if you don’t want to get dragged up/ join in, don’t sit in the front couple of rows! The acrobatics, circus and silks / acro girl are really superb.

POOLS: We preferred the main pool as it was so central to the pool bar (cocktails!) and Kalypso restaurant for lunch. All of the entertainment happens here (water polo, games etc). There’s music playing throughout the day so if you want a quieter environment, you should choose a different pool - the heart pool is lovely.

SUNBEDS: this is a late rising resort, you rarely see anyone in the pools before 10am ish. You don’t need to get up to reserve a bed, there are plenty for everyone at every pool. If you want a front row bed next to the pool, as long as you’re down by the pool by 9.30am/10am you’ll find one. Take some bulldog clips and a fabric wrap or extra towel to clip on the umbrella to shield the sun if you need some shade as it’s not always easy to move the beds.

WATERPARK: It’s brilliant! So much to do here, there’s a lazy river (take your own inflatables for this - or you can just swim round). There’s a huge slide area with 1st level open slides and the higher level with more slides (about 7 on this level) of Open and tube slides. Then there’s a Helter Skelter type area for the super fast tube slides - there 3 of them here. There’s also a children’s area with smaller slides etc. something for everyone. NOTE: although the main slides say 8+ /120cm or over, this isn’t enforced at all. All ages were using these slides (including the really little ones). However, the little ones don’t have the weight to get down the tubes so we noticed them getting stuck in the tunnels on the way down. On separate occasions, my wife and I went down a tube (when on a green light) only to bang into a child who was stuck or slow moving in a tube. I really kicked one poor little boy, he really shouldn’t have been using the slide, he must have been around 5years old and still had arms bands on. Parents, please assess these slides before sending your very little ones down there, don’t rely on the pool staff to police it!

SITE: It’s a huge resort and was very busy but it never felt crowded as everyone is spread out. We only really noticed a lot of people at dinner and the Evening show. We didn’t use the sports area as we favoured the pools.

NEGATIVES: Pool towels. My wife made a separate review about one situation (see ‘TOWELS!!’, thank you for the response from the hotel, apology accepted). No one tells you this so here is the info: You have towels in your room on arrival. Use them in the day and take them back to your room. In the morning, take them to the towel station by the main pool, by the Meat and Grill restaurant and swap them for clean ones. You are ONLY allowed 1 per person and the towel station closes at 1.30pm so if you want a clean pool towel for the afternoon, that’s not possible. The towel guy really enforces this. I do understand that the hotel is trying to reduce towel usage but for an all inclusive hotel where you can have whatever you want, whenever, this feels really restrictive. Maybe just my opinion..

The beds are soft and we slept well but the duvets don’t fit the duvet covers at the bottom end and the covers are ripped and old and not of the standard expected.

The lift in our accommodation block. The porter took us to this lift in arrival. It’s grim, it’s like a multi story car park service lift, it smells too. Not the nicest thing to encounter as soon as you arrive. I would advise keeping this lift for staff only and not letting guests use it.

IN CONCLUSION: We want to come back next year. We had a lovely holiday, we have amazing tans and feel very refreshed- thank you Lyttos Beach.

Kivikali. Great treatment from the beginning to the end. I enjoyed the whole time, thank you!