Nautilux Rethymno

We stayed for one week. Family of four, 2 rooms. From arrival to departure it was an absolute pleasure to stay here. We were attending a wedding, guests stayed at a number of hotels, bit on visiting it here, declared it 'wow'. Spotlessly clean and smells great. Two pools to float around in. Excellent poolside service with a smile and a selection of great cocktails. We stayed B&N as we wanted to eat out. Breakfast buffet had literally everything you could ask for, inc iced and other coffees on request. We tried the dinner buffet twice and it was a very high standard and continually replenished. 35 euro each was reasonable given the quality and choice. We stayed in a verdant room which was roomy, and made up every day with fresh towels, bottled water & chocolates provided each evening. Shower was powerful & hot. King-size bed and no sleep disturbance. There is a private beach which is blissful although stoney. (The hotel cant help this!). We visited the spa, had facials, massages, body wraps - all lovely and quite reasonably priced. We walked into the old town a lot, its a very nice walk along the sea front. And only 8 euro in a taxi back. Lots of choice for dinner. We highly recommend 'Alana' beautiful resturant and delicious food. Only one minor point that didnt bother me as I'm not a gym goer but 2 of our party are. There is not a 'fitness centre' there is a small room beside the spa that you have to pre book with literally no equipment. Our party quickly found the 'Kenesis Gym' nearby. 30euro for the whole week and visited daily, problem solved. We had a fantastic time & will defo come back next year. Thanks to all at the Nautilux.

Overall, Nautilux is a nice, modern hotel. It’s generally clean, the property itself is attractive and most of the staff are friendly and helpful. We enjoyed parts of our stay, but unfortunately, for a hotel charging at this level, there are simply too many basics that aren’t quite where they should be yet.

Breakfast looks very good at first glance, but we had a recurring issue with the food being extremely oversalted. We raised this several times because for someone with high blood pressure, this isn’t just a matter of taste. Even when we specifically asked for a fresh omelette with no added salt, it still arrived very salty. Shocking that “no added salt” is so difficult to accommodate. The orange juice was another surprising disappointment. For a hotel in this price bracket, I would expect fresh orange juice as standard. We were initially told it was fresh, then on further enquiry we were told it was some kind of mixture of fresh and packaged juice. Either way, it wasn’t what I would expect at this level.

The rooms are modern and clean, but the lighting is extremely poor and the lack of storage is honestly baffling. There are virtually no drawers, no proper wardrobe space and very little room to put toiletries or other belongings in the bathroom. For a six-day stay, having nowhere to unpack and fold your clothes becomes very disruptive.

The bathroom design is also very impractical from a privacy point of view. It feels almost like a communal bathroom rather than a properly enclosed private space. Because of the positioning of the door and the lighting, if one person needs to use the bathroom during the night, turning the light on effectively illuminates and disturbs the whole room. It’s a strange design choice and not particularly comfortable if you’re sharing the room with someone.

The balcony was another missed opportunity. The outdoor chairs are extremely uncomfortable and had no cushions at all — it genuinely feels like sitting on hard steel. We had a lovely view and there was evening entertainment we would have liked to sit outside and enjoy, but there was simply nowhere comfortable to sit for any length of time. Again, it feels like such a basic detail for a hotel in this price category.

We also had a jacuzzi, which should have been a lovely feature, but using it became an unnecessary daily exercise. We repeatedly had to call reception to have it switched on, were told it needed several hours to heat, had to specify particular operating hours, and then the next day everything seemed to reset and the process started again. There was also a lot of discussion about needing maintenance to come and switch or reset it. Eventually, we worked out ourselves how to operate the relevant panel, and it really was not complicated. For a hotel at this price point, staff should ideally be trained to handle something this straightforward without the guest having to repeatedly chase it.

The gym could also use some attention. Nobody is expecting an enormous fitness centre, but even a few inexpensive additions such as resistance bands or some extra basic equipment would make a noticeable difference. There was also no usable mobile signal or internet connection in the gym.

Wi-Fi more generally was patchy at best. There was a power cut during our stay, after which getting the internet working properly again became a real headache. Both my husband and I were working during the trip, so reliable internet was important and the disruption was frustrating.

Most of the staff were pleasant, although a small number could be a little abrupt in their manner. Nothing major, but in a hotel at this level, a slightly warmer and more polished approach would make a difference.

There were also a couple of smaller things that stood out precisely because of the standard the hotel is aiming for. On one morning, our breakfast table was sticky and clearly had not been cleaned properly. Once we mentioned it, the staff moved us immediately and dealt with it, but I was still surprised that a table in the breakfast area of a hotel of this calibre had been left that way in the first place.

The departure experience summed up some of the service issues quite well. We called for someone to help with our bags and waited around 20 minutes, but nobody came, so in the end we took the luggage ourselves. On the way, we happened to run into a member of staff and asked if he had been coming to help us. He said he was actually heading to another room, but offered to help us anyway. At that point we declined, as we were already on our way. This wasn’t his fault at all — if anything, he was helpful — but it felt like another example of the operation being poorly coordinated. For a hotel at this level, luggage assistance should not require the guest to chase it or end up doing it themselves.

Finally, there is a €15-per-day environmental fee, which is an unpleasant extra cost on top of an already expensive stay. I appreciate this may be related to local or government charges rather than something entirely within the hotel’s control, but guests should certainly factor it into the overall price.

So, in summary: this is a nice looking, modern and generally clean hotel with many friendly staff, and there is plenty to like about it. But at the price being charged, expectations are understandably high. Too many relatively basic details fall short of what I would expect from a hotel in this category.

With some attention to these details and better operational consistency, it could be a very good hotel. At the moment, however, it just doesn’t quite justify the price.