Glaros Beach Hotel

Jet2 rate this hotel 3.5 stars, I rate it a 4 star. I wasn’t expecting the hotel to be as nice as it was. It was very modern, clean and bedrooms were very spacious (we had two balconies too). Upon booking with Jet2 I requested a ground floor room, which was granted by the hotel, no questions asked. The cleaning service was good.

The restaurant food was really good, again I wasn’t expecting it to be that good. Breakfast had everything you needed, lovely selection of nice breads and always fresh pancakes made. The only negative with the restaurant is from me personally, I feel they do not have enough staff, it would be better to have someone on the door taking you to your table, to ensure there is a clean table ready, instead you are walking around trying to find a clean table, and 8 out of 10 times there are none, so you have to sit at a table full of plates and try and hassle a staff member to clear the table and set it again, and it’s not because the staff are not working hard enough, they are working flat out running around, there are simply just not enough staff for the number of quests staying at this hotel at prime time, during the school holidays! One thing I would like to address is the tea spoon issue, why is it so hard to get one, they are locked away like the queens jewels!

The pool area was lovely, but impossible to get a sunbed, which I wasn’t overall bothered about as I would go to the pool for an hour or two a day so would not be selfish enough to reserve beds all day and not be like there many tourists! There were some pool side chairs and a top deck with chairs on, so there was always somewhere to sit for a bit before you go in the pool. The hotel have a pool bar by the beach as you take a right out of the hotel near the beach, there was always sunbeds there and that pool got more sun than the hotel pool, but you need to buy drinks to use it obviously!

We stayed as half board, the hotel allows you to change your evening meal to lunch, but you must request this the day before, we did this once and it was good as lunch was less busy and a more calming experience than the evening meal times.

The hotel is in a really good location, there are some fancy restaurants close by, but you do pay for the view in drinks and food, we personally did not eat at any of them as I wanted to at least get a bit further than next to the hotel 😆 we did have drinks at them though and they were lovely relaxed vibes. The more you go up the beach towards the port the more lively it gets, especially around 10.30pm it was pretty busy, and the parties go on until 4am so we were told, but as we had a 7 year old with us, the latest we would be out until was 12!

We got the bus to Stalis, Malia and Nikolas Agios by using the local buses, it was a great service, the bus stop is on the main road the opposite side of the road by the shop. Stalis is great to go for a nice beach day as you couldn’t get sunbeds on the beaches near the hotel in August and the beach is much nicer in Stalis.

If you have children, go to Star Beach, it is a short 10 minute walk up the road, you buy wristbands when you arrive for 15 euro each to go on the slides, and sunbeds were 20 euro for two with an umbrella, you can move around and use any sunbeds once you pay this, including the beach on site. The beach is really nice too. They have a nice restaurant on site for food and a swim up bar which was fun.

I don’t think I would return back to hersonissos again, but I would return back to Crete, probably stalis due to the beaches, as I spend a lot of time on the beach.

If you are looking to eat out I recommend eating at Sokaki which is lovely traditional home cooked Greek food and the family who run it really look after you with complimentary starters and deserts. And another if you want some plate smashing and Greek dancing is Yamas, both great food.

Location was really great, easy access to everything. Nice atmosphere, different age groups. Rooms were spacious, we were in a room on the 6th floor and had an amazing view. We found that the food was good and different each night. We stayed a week so I imagine if you were there 2 weeks it would be repeated, but lots to choose from and the staff were lovely, especially one young chap in the restaurant (didn't get his name) but always cheerful and pleasant, big smile on his face. Room was really clean as was the hotel itself. Definitely value for money and would definitely stay again.