Elounda Ilion Hotel

“Amazing stay”

Visited for nine nights June 24, yes there is a walk uphill to reception but wow was it worth it, after arriving at night we will never forget the view when we opened the curtains. Food was plentiful and hot, never had to queue and another spectacular view over the pool and out to sea. Elounda is... more

Visited for nine nights June 24, yes there is a walk uphill to reception but wow was it worth it, after arriving at night we will never forget the view when we opened the curtains. Food was plentiful and hot, never had to queue and another spectacular view over the pool and out to sea. Elounda is about a half hour walk but it’s not difficult, a taxi is only €10 euro. There is no entertainment at the hotel but the atmosphere and chilled vibe with music playing in the background led to pleasant evenings with new friends. Staff are always polite and you can see how much everyone who works there enjoys making guests happy. We would be more than happy to book again.

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“Wonderful weeks”

Fantastic place to spend Your holidays. Beautiful views, hospitable staff, clean rooms, tasty quizine, quiet and peaceful hotel. I strongly recommend for active vacation. We had wonderful time: long walks, sightseeing and sunbaths on amazing Kalokhita Peninsula. Thank You ❤️

“Elounda”

Some of the nicest views I've had from a hotel. Was a little concerned about the location after reading reviews but if you don't mind getting your trainers on and having a walk it's fine. My tip to anyone staying here when you arrive to the left at the bottom of the hill under the trees. There's ... more

Some of the nicest views I've had from a hotel. Was a little concerned about the location after reading reviews but if you don't mind getting your trainers on and having a walk it's fine. My tip to anyone staying here when you arrive to the left at the bottom of the hill under the trees. There's a white wooden box with a phone in ring reception get someone to come pick you up. We didn't see it till the following day. I wouldn't say this is 4star more 3+ The staff here though make this hotel. Especially the ladies in the restaurant,Gregory in the bar(the most smiling pleasant man)and Albert who worked tirelessly around the pool area always had a smile and always very helpful. The food...we always found something to eat at times it was a little bland but edible. Sometimes staff were a little slow at restocking but a polite word and it was sorted straight away. Let's not forget they work long hours and in the heat. Manners and a smile go a long way. The pool area...although someone was always going round cleaning it felt some days as if there weren't enough sunbeds especially if you wanted one with an umbrella. We found this out in a very unfortunate and nasty way due to a group of polish visitors. Spoke to the lady on reception (sorry don't know her name). She was lovely and sympathetic. The manager on the other hand. Although he spoke to the people in question who suddenly could only spk and understand polish. 🤔 Nothing was resolved. So we spent a lot of our time after this out of the hotel because of intimidating looks and comments from said guests. Not once did the manager take a min to check that we were ok even though he knew one of us had been physically assaulted. Having said that I would recommend this hotel. There was talk of a takeover next year. I really hope whoever takes over keeps on the ground working staff they are a credit to the hotel. Maybe rethink some people in higher positions

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“Improvements Required, not 4 star”

To start with I would say overall the hotel is just okay, I think 3 stars is fair, considering the price in comparison to other hotels in Elounda. However, there are many things the hotel needs to improve. I will start with the positives: - The views make the hotel, they are stunning over t... more

To start with I would say overall the hotel is just okay, I think 3 stars is fair, considering the price in comparison to other hotels in Elounda. However, there are many things the hotel needs to improve. I will start with the positives: - The views make the hotel, they are stunning over the sea, peninsula and mountains to the front and back - The staff, especially the bar staff were all friendly, especially Georgios - We stayed in a room at the top of the hotel and views from the balcony were great - Drinks as far as all inclusive goes were also okay, but nothing special and very basic - Elounda is a 30minute walk, or 10 Euro Taxi each way, at any time and Elounda itself is absolutely stunning with great restaurants right on the water - Agios Nikolaos is well worth a visit and is only a 16 Euro Taxi or 10 Minute drive each way, amazing restaurants and bars - Plenty of parking available (highly recommend a hire car for this location if you plan to leave the hotel) - Clean - Access to sea opposite hotel with great snorkeling and a few sunbeds, but no beach - The most nearby towns and villages, as mentioned above are amazing, the restaurants are all great and right on the water Now for the negatives: -Sunbeds and the Pool Area The biggest problem we encountered here is that the pool area is not big enough for the size of the hotel, and there are not enough sunbeds whatsoever, and its like a free for all to get one, not what you want on holiday. People reserved sunbeds for hours and hours (the worst we saw was from 7am to 2pm) and people are nowhere to be seen, when we complained about this to staff, they said this wasn’t allowed, but refused to do anything about it!! We got up multiple times at around 7:30am and ALL beds were taken already with towels, books, clothing on them to be 'claimed' almost every day, but no one to be seen!! I spoke to others about this, and they said they get reserved from 6am onwards and they had witnessed multiple arguments between people moving towels, you go on holiday to relax and when you can’t do this in your own hotel it really impacts your time away. We were lucky to have a hire car so could go explore Crete on the days this happened, but if we didn’t this would have caused a real issue for us as I am sure it has done for many others. You come on holiday to relax, not to fight for a sunbed or to have to wake up at 5/6am to ‘claim’ a sunbed, it was ridiculous. - The food we had a few major problems with food, which were dealt with through Tui, so I don’t feel it is fair to comment on this. However, besides this, things were not labelled, there was not much variety, and the quality was very poor. We paid to be in an all-inclusive to use all inclusive, but the food was so poor we ate out every night and lunch apart from one evening. The breakfast was okay, but again no variety and very basic all-inclusive food -The room We stayed in a standard double room and requested a sea view. We are aware we booked this room type, but the photos are quite deceiving. We felt it was very outdated and could have done with a full makeover. The Air Con ‘worked’ but not properly, it just lightly pushed out slightly cool air and was never cold, which in 32-38 degree heat was not comfortable and made it hard to sleep at night. The room also has a fridge but didn’t really work, which was annoying when trying to cool water or drinks. These issues were not helped by the fact you only get one room key during your stay and power only works when the key is in the door, so the room was constantly warm, the fridge was never on, and you couldn’t charge devices when you weren’t in the room. Maybe this is a Crete thing, but we hadn’t experienced this before. - Another maybe minor but very frustrating thing is that there is no Iron or Ironing board in the room, there seemed to be one Iron in the whole hotel and you were only allowed it for half an hour at a time before reception would call and ask for it back. When I questioned how I am meant to use it without an ironing board I was told to use the bed, not quite sure how that would work and surely that is a big fire risk? - It is remote, the nearest shop is a 25-minute walk round trip, and Elounda village is a 30 Minute Walk, again this didn’t affect us too much but may affect other people so thought it was worth a mention. Although the hotel is happy to call you a taxi which is a 5-10 minute drive and 10 euros each way, this can add up though. Overall, the hotel is okay for the price in comparison with other hotels in the area. But there are a few big and a few minor issues that do really really need to be addressed. I wouldn’t call this a 4-star hotel and unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend this to other people until these issues are resolved. Although I would like to mention, as I said above, we did raise some of these issues with the hotel and we were offered to move hotel as a solution, we didn’t leave feeling angry, but just a bit disappointed. The area is the most picturesque place I have been, it is just a shame the hotel didn’t live up to expectations.

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