Petra Mare

Fantastic hotel. Especially for kids. The hotel is quietly located on the southcoast of Crete. There is little traffic and not too much activities around, but it is a lovely place to relax.

Service at the hotel is what we would highlight the most. Everywhere from frontdesk, to bars and in the kitchen, then people are super helpful and very friendly.

Childrens club was also very nice for the small kids. Daily events which you could take place in - though timing could be a bit off from time to time.

Food in the restaurant was really good at all meals. There was an extremely big variety for an all inclusive restaurant and quality was super good. Only issue here was that I would recommend to open 30 minutes earlier for dinner in the restaurant. There were often a huge line, when going for dinner at opening time and I think that could be avoided by expanding opening just a bit earlier.

All in all, then we had two lovely weeks here.

Location: Petra Mare hotel is situated in the town of Ierapetra in the South coast of Crete. The town is right on the hotel's doorstep, and it is well worth going out and exploring the local area. There are lots of very nice shops, cafés and bars around, especially along the sea front, and the local people are very friendly and welcoming. Just like anywhere else, I would always recommend visiting these places as it's important to support local businesses.

The Hotel: I couldn't fault any of the hotel staff; the receptionists, the cleaners, the shop assistants, and the restaurant/kitchen staff all work incredibly hard to keep the hotel running to a high standard, maintaining a clean and hygienic environment throughout the hotel.

We booked for 10 nights with my parents in one room and myself and my husband and our two young children in another room. While our rooms were lovely and spacious, we did have to ask to change rooms after our first night just because we needed a bath tub in our bathroom and our first room had a double shower. The reception staff were so approachable and accommodating that this was sorted out very quickly for us. In fact, whenever we had any little issues, they sorted it out so fast, I was honestly very impressed with the quality of customer service.

I didn't even notice much noise in our room, from our neighbours or in the corridor from other hotel guests. The double glazing on the doors leading to the balcony was good at muffling the noise from the evening entertainment too - although it did mean we couldn't sleep with the balcony door open (it took us a while to work out how to use the air conditioning in the room).

The only downside to the rooms was that we tried to lock our bedroom door to the corridor because our eldest son is a flight risk, only to find that the door still opened from the inside, so we had to barricade the door whenever we were in our room otherwise he would escape.

The hotel amenities were also very good. There is a very nice spa on the lower ground level - my only complaint there is I wish you could have longer than 30 minutes after your treatment to relax and enjoy the indoor pool, the steam room, sauna and rainforest multi-shower feature. There is also an indoor gym, a couple of shops in the hotel, a brilliant kid's club with an outdoor covered play area, a covered sand pit on the beach, an AMAZING heated splash pool for kids with waterslides and a tipping bucket, a poolside bar, and a deeper adult pool with an infinity section looking out over the beach. There is also a variety of activities they do like yoga, aqua aerobics, including one aimed at very little kids (so cute!), and water polo, as well as an area that has table football, a couple of table tennis courts and a dart board! In addition, there is a lovely outdoor amphitheatre where a lot of evening entertainment is held, and there is also a piano in the main bar area and a ballroom on the lower ground level by the spa and gym.

Overall, it is a very family friendly hotel with something to suit everyone of all ages and we even managed to do a day trip to Spinalonga island. I would only caution, that if you travel with Jet2 Holidays like we did, there's very few excursions that they offer from this hotel. Other than that though, we had a fantastic time and I will definitely be booking again in the future!

I can’t speak positively enough about this hotel. We came as a family of 4 with a 4 year old and a 20 month old and everything about the hotel is so carefully thought about and children are really really well considered.

The pools are lovely with the main pool being big enough to swim lengths etc and have plenty of room when it’s busy and the children’s pool was fantastic for our girls and I’d imagine children up to at least 10-12. There’s a mini Astro to play football on and the steps down to the beach right next to the pools. On the beach there’s a dedicated play space with a climbing frame.

The kids club was fab, indoor and outdoor space one for babies and then one for 4-12 year olds. Our little girl did crafts, had face paint and made mini pizzas as well as playing games. She’s very very shy and they were so gentle and kind with her that she wanted to go back again and again.

The food was phenomenal, lots of choice at each meal and rotation of meals - no evening or lunch was the same twice in a row.

I can’t speak highly enough of the staff. Every single staff member, whether they worked behind the desk or cleaned or worked in the restaurant or the kids club etc greeted us with a smile and had a chat etc and showed a lot of patience towards our children.

Plenty of indoor and outdoor space - you never feel like you’re on top of other guests. The whole hotel is spotlessly clean indoor and outdoor.

I did read another review which said the Mountain View isn’t great. To be honest, it’s not - it overlooks a car park with the mountains behind however we didn’t pay extra for this and could’ve paid extra if we wanted a sea view. We didn’t travel to sit in our room though so really didn’t mind about the view!

All in all, we loved our stay in this superb hotel, would rate it 10/10 and will return.