Ikaros Beach Luxury Resort and Spa

Beautiful location, nice very clean rooms, helpful staff, amazing pool and beach. Ten days full of sunshine and clear sky.

We stayed at Ikaros for 10 nights in early July 2026, in a Classic Sea View Bungalow on the All Inclusive plan. For those that don’t want to read the full length of this review, the two most important things I’ll say are: would I recommend it? Yes, definitely! And would I stay again? Absolutely! However there are a few small things which I think could be improved upon which are covered below. The booking included free airport transfers from Heraklion which saved us some money and took some of the stress out of organising the trip. The transfer was smooth and comfortable and we arrived at the hotel within an hour of our flight landing. The resort is beautiful; the buildings are stone and the alleyway style between them gives the impression of a small Cretan village, with wonderful gardens filled with flora. The resort is a bit of a maze and takes a few days to get your bearings. A paper map is provided at check in, but perhaps an interactive map within the hotel app showing where you are and information about the restaurants/bars etc would be useful. When we arrived to our room I was glad we had booked a sea view as this meant we were located at the edge of the resort as I had noticed many of the rooms were located facing inwards and often near the bars/restaurants. We were on the first floor near the main pool with a beautiful view of the sea to the north and west. The room itself was spacious and well equipped, with air con, tv, large fridge, tea and coffee making facilities and a safe. I would say the bedroom itself was a little tired due to some minor scuffs/coffee stains on the walls and the furniture looking a little old, particularly the upholstered furniture which looked like it needed a refresh. The balcony was excellent and spacious, with modern, comfortable furniture where we could sit and enjoy the sunset with a drink. The room is very quiet and is equipped with an excellent blackout curtain to cover the large windows. However, there is a small window in the bathroom with no blind or covering so unfortunately the light does pour in the room from sunrise. We managed to get around this by hanging a hand towel over the window each night to block some of the light out. The bathroom was very modern and looked as though it had been refitted in the last year or so. It had a large rainfall shower which didn’t disappoint and the toiletries provided were pleasant. My main criticism of the room would be that there wasn’t much storage space and staying for 10 days we would have liked to have unpacked properly, however had to live out of suitcases which didn’t feel very luxurious. There was a large wardrobe with hanging space and a few shelves but not enough for two adults and not enough space to store two suitcases as well. The daily housekeeping visit was excellent and discrete, with fresh towels and bottles of water provided. Our housekeeper, Catarina, was really lovely and every day on our way to breakfast she would come out from wherever she was working to wish us a good morning and check whether we needed anything. The resort has two medium sized pools for all guests, as well as a private pool for those with a swim-up room. They are extremely clean and have ample modern loungers, though despite rules being clearly in place about reserving loungers, some guests still do this every morning and seem to go unchallenged by staff, so it can be difficult to get the ones in the better positions. Fresh pool towels are provided daily and very easy to get hold of, and there are showers and a small changing cubicle at each pool and on the beach. The main beach is beautiful, with golden sand and crystal clear water (the website should definitely have more pictures of this gem!). The hotel provides plenty of sun loungers and we never had a problem finding somewhere to sit. Being a public beach there are sellers who walk up and down the beach each day but are not pushy. Additionally there are families on the beach so if you are going for a true adults only experience the beach may not be for you. Swimming is possible most of the time, although the sea can get rough but a lifeguard is on duty all day and will be quick to let you know if you shouldn’t swim. The resort has 5 restaurants - the main buffet restaurant is exceptional in terms of quality and variety. Each night there is a different theme - don’t miss Asian night! The other nights generally are quite samey, however AI/HB guests can visit each of the other à la carte restaurants once for free. Sunset (the Asian restaurant) was our favourite and the food was delicious with excellent service. Ayeri is also very good, serving Mediterranean fine dining with a beautiful view over the water. We found the service and food here to be excellent. We found Ammos Beach restaurant in the evening and En Lefko (Italian) quite underwhelming. All of the restaurants only have 2 waiting staff so service was extremely slow and you’re expected to order drinks and all 3 courses at once, you can’t just order a drink while looking at the menu which I found odd. In Ammos for dinner we sat at our table for 15 minutes and weren’t offered a menu, so I went and collected them myself only to be later told they were the incorrect menus! The service was similar in En Lefko. The food in En Lefko was a bit disappointing, it seemed like an attempt at Italian fine dining but really just didn’t hit the mark. We would have preferred more simple, hearty food usually found in Italian restaurants. Tables in the à la carte restaurants must be booked at least a few days in advance through the hotel app, and annoyingly once you have had your “free” visit it doesn’t allow you to book a table again which is frustrating. There is a self service computer in the main restaurant but when we tried to use it it wasn’t working and were told to come back in the evening when someone could manually book. Breakfast is buffet style and was generally very good, with various hot and cold options. My only complaint was that we were only offered tea and coffee on 2 of the 10 mornings we had breakfast which was disappointing. Lunch options are limited, you can either eat at the buffet again, have bar snacks such as salads, burgers or wraps but we found these to be underwhelming and a bit confusing in terms of where and when they were available. Lunch is offered at Ammos Beach restaurant which both times we went were excellent and much better than the evening service. There is a restaurant on the beach which is not affiliated with the hotel which opens for lunch which I’d definitely recommend visiting as the food and service is very good and is really reasonably priced. They also offer take away boxes so you can take your food to your sun lounger on the beach. There are 2 bars and a pool bar at the main pool. All offer takeaway drinks which can be taken to loungers. I’d say the bar menu is good but cocktail options are limited and what’s included in the AI is also a bit limited. I do think all cocktails should be included as a minimum but some were unfortunately chargeable. The cocktails are all premixed rather than freshly made so certainly could be a little better quality. Also we found the house wines to be a bit too sweet for us and think it would be good if there was a sweet and dry option included to suit most tastes. However bar service is very good and all the bar staff are great! The main bar gets quite busy in the evening especially when entertainment is on but we usually had no problem finding a seat. Car hire is available which can be booked in reception. The lady there was fantastic and gave us some really good advice on where to go and what to see. Equally the hotel arranges excursions and boat trips - we did one to Spinalonga which shouldn’t be missed. The app provided by the hotel is useful but a bit clunky in my opinion. The information you need is all there you just have to find it, and as I said above restaurant booking can be a challenge. The location of the hotel is excellent - just a short walk from Malia with plenty of bars, restaurants and things to do. We walked there 2 of the nights and had dinner and drinks. Overall I’d say our stay was excellent and while my negative comments are only minor, I do think these things are what makes this hotel very good, rather than exceptional. The highlight for us was the staff who made us feel nothing was too much trouble. Thank you for looking after us and we look forward to coming back again some day!