KING MINOS RETREAT Resort & Spa

“Returned for a second time!”

We have just returned from a weeks stay at the King Minos hotel- our second time! We went in September 2023 and loved it so much we had to return. This time was even better. Last year we had a sea view room with whirlpool. This year we had a signature suite with the most stunning sea views and la... more

We have just returned from a weeks stay at the King Minos hotel- our second time! We went in September 2023 and loved it so much we had to return. This time was even better. Last year we had a sea view room with whirlpool. This year we had a signature suite with the most stunning sea views and large terrace. From the staff, to the cleanliness, the food, everything, we personally couldn’t fault anything. If you are looking for a holiday of pure relaxation, then this is exactly what you get. Never any hassle for sunbeds in the morning. The staff at this resort are amazing and was one of the main reasons for us returning. Maria, Panos, Erol, Dimitris, Manos and everyone else. We had the most amazing time & can’t thank king Minos & their staff enough. Hope to return again!

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“Gorgeous stay😍”

We arrived to the hotel just after midnight and were greeted with a drink and an easy check in. Sandwiches and drinks in fridge too. We were all inclusive not sure if you would get drinks if not. We stayed in the room with a whirlpool. Which was absolutely lush however if you’re planning on sta... more

We arrived to the hotel just after midnight and were greeted with a drink and an easy check in. Sandwiches and drinks in fridge too. We were all inclusive not sure if you would get drinks if not. We stayed in the room with a whirlpool. Which was absolutely lush however if you’re planning on staying in the room to sunbathe I would just let you know the pool got very warm and felt more like a bath. Which we didn’t mind as we spent the day time around the main pool. The cleaners came every day and left fresh water in the fridge too which was great. Was controlled by a light system if you wanted room cleaning or not which worked amazing. The food was delicious always stuff to pick from however it was very repetitive which was fine but if you’re a fussy eater there’s not a lot to go off. I would recommend to get a drink before food when you go as sometimes it takes a while to be seen and end up finishing food before even getting a drink. The staff at the pool bar were amazing could not fault them always served with a smile and were super quick as it was only two people making the drinks. The one thing that really put us off returning was that we stayed all inclusive and on our last day our flight wasn’t until midnight and we asked to extend time of room but wasn’t available which was fine as we were able to book into the showers and the staff kept our cases during the daytime. However when we were checked out at 11 we didn’t get to have any more all inclusive benefits which I can understand however we didn’t arrive till after midnight on first night so didn’t actually get to use our benefits then so we technically paid for 7 day holiday and only got 5 days all inclusive which was a bit disheartening. We even asked if we could pay a fee to extend all inclusive and were told quite abruptly ‘no’. But on the other hand everything else was too notch the staff attended to all of our needs and was a gorgeous chilled stay.

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“Family of 3 with a 5 month old baby”

Still here, writing around the pool! The resort is stunning. We chose a classic double room with a private pool, wonderful view, we had a garden view of the pool area. I feel like I'm splitting hairs here, so do bare that in mind when reading :) ( we stayed at dreams corfu in September so basing... more

Still here, writing around the pool! The resort is stunning. We chose a classic double room with a private pool, wonderful view, we had a garden view of the pool area. I feel like I'm splitting hairs here, so do bare that in mind when reading :) ( we stayed at dreams corfu in September so basing our comparison from this!) Room- Cleaning service is amazing, don't forget to use the panel to switch to green! A tad on the smaller side than we'd hope with a baby, not a great deal of draw space. All the cute baby accessories are such a lovely touch, albeit our little one is a bit too small for them. If like us you are used to a bassinet or high up cot, reaching down for a baby is hard on the back 🤣 The sink doesn't have a plug, so we weren't able to fill up the bowl, we brought a collapsible bowl for washing and used Milton tabs for sterilising. Local area-( not the hotels fault, just something to consider) The pathway that leads to the subway, isn't as convenient as advertised! With a pram the stairs are unmanageable, so you will need to go the long way. No pathways! Serious concern for us with the baby. Food/drinks- This for me is the hardest part. The quality is better than Dreams but choice is lacking. Felt that cocktails and general options for beer and wine were better at dreams. If you want a strawberry daquri, it's 13 euros. Snacks at the pool bar are very limited. Food is great quality, however limited choice if you're fussy or have young children, it could be a struggle! Have not tried the al la carte or spa so cannot comment. Resort- So, for us with a baby the music at night is a pain. Stopped at 11 so not hugely bad but, its loud 🤣 Overall, I'd come back and recommend the hotel, just with a few minor tweaks or considerations. As I said, splitting hairs.

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“3/4* experience at best”

My partner and I stayed at King Minos for 14 nights and whilst the overall experience was nice, there were a few issues that took away from the experience and as a result we wouldn’t return. On arrival we were really impressed by the hotel, it is very modern and clean. We were checked in and rec... more

My partner and I stayed at King Minos for 14 nights and whilst the overall experience was nice, there were a few issues that took away from the experience and as a result we wouldn’t return. On arrival we were really impressed by the hotel, it is very modern and clean. We were checked in and received a welcome drink at reception which was a nice touch. We arrived quite late at night but they had kept the restaurant open so that we could have something to eat before going to our room. They had also put some sandwiches in the mini fridge in the room which we appreciated. We stayed in a garden view shared pool room. These rooms are new and done to a really nice quality, overall we were pleased with the room. We were told that the pool was shared between 10 rooms however it was never at capacity. It was often used by only 2-3 rooms per day and sometimes we had it to ourselves for most of the day. You do look out onto a huge pylon from the rooms and the pool area which wasn’t ideal but can’t be helped. Most of the rooms are on the ground floor which have sliding doors leading directly out to the shared pool and there are two rooms on the floor above. We were in one of the upstairs rooms and we were initially disappointed as the website says all shared pool rooms are ground floor. Initially we were concerned about using sun beds directly outside the ground floor rooms and how awkward that might be, however this wasn’t an issue because of how quiet the pool was throughout our stay, this may be a problem during busier periods though. The pool was easily accessible to anybody and there is nothing to stop other guests using it despite not staying in a shared pool room, this only happened on 1 or 2 occasions during our stay as it isn’t monitored (picture of shared pool attached). The main pool is lovely however it gets very busy and they play music quite loudly for most of the day so it is a very different vibe to the small shared pool which was nice and quiet. The rooms have a green/red light system for daily cleaning which is good however there were a couple of occasions when maintenance knocked once and immediately walked into the room without waiting for a response despite the red light being on. The mini fridge was restocked daily with water, soft drinks, sparkling wine and beer. The main buffet restaurant was nice and the food is lovely. The selection is quite a lot smaller than other hotels we have been to but the quality of food was much better so we didn’t mind too much. The only issue with the food is that it can be quite cold even if you arrive just after the restaurant opens. One of the biggest issues we experienced was the drinks service. You seat yourself in the restaurant and waiters come round and take your drinks order. The issue was that there were always only 2 or 3 waiters servicing the entire restaurant and so it was painfully slow to get a drink. You would often finish your entire meal before someone came over to take your drinks order, then you have another long wait to actually receive the drinks. The waiters and glass collectors were all lovely and clearly working very hard but there just aren’t enough of them. There are always 2 or 3 maitre des stood by the entrance to the restaurant however they pretty much just stand there greeting guests and chatting whilst the waiting staff are rushed off their feet, this made no sense to us at all. Especially at dinner times you look around the room and you can see how frustrated the majority of guests are at waiting to order/receive drinks. We would recommend sitting down and ordering a drink before going up to get food however bear in mind that you will likely be waiting 30 minutes just to order. Unfortunately the pool bar situation was considerably worse. It is quite small and is the only bar in the entire hotel. The selection of all inclusive drinks was actually pretty good but the service is absolutely awful to the point where it nearly ruined our experience at times. There are usually 2 people working behind the bar and another 1 or 2 waiting staff at night. The bartenders were always lovely to us but it would take almost 30 minutes to get a drink at times. Sometimes you can order drinks from the bar and other times you are told it is table service only. During our stay the waiting staff mainly consisted of one young lady and one slightly older lady. The older of the two would often comment on how many drinks we had/how fast we drank which is outrageous given that we would often only have between 3-5 drinks in an entire night because the service was so slow. Frustrated guests often went up to the bar to order when they hadn’t been acknowledged for a while, we did this sometimes and the same waitress just said “no” and gestured us to return to our seats on one occasion. We appreciate that they are extremely understaffed (just like the restaurant) but we don’t expect this sort of treatment when we have paid a significant amount of money to visit the hotel. We ended up leaving the hotel on a few nights just to get a break from this waitress (the other waiting staff and bartenders were really nice but again were so overworked). There is entertainment by the pool bar 5 nights a week but to be honest it is all pretty naff. There is only one a la carte restaurant at the hotel by the pool. We got one free meal during our stay. The food was fine, there wasn’t much choice and the restaurant is always very quiet with not much atmosphere. We wouldn’t recommend paying for a meal here to be honest. We received a free 10 minute spa voucher at check in and booked for a 1 hour massage. The spa and the staff are lovely, we would recommend having a treatment. The area surrounding the hotel is not very nice, it is full of grotty sports bars and souvenir shops and not much else. The area is really not in keeping with the hotel at all. There is one nice restaurant by the hotel called Avra that we would recommend. There is a big spar shop next to the hotel which is very convenient. The beach is close to the hotel but you have to go under some dodgy underpasses which often have homeless people sleeping in. The beach is sandy which is nice but the beach itself and the surrounding bars and restaurants are very rundown and give off a Benidorm vibe. Overall our stay was good but there are some big issues that the hotel needs to work on. It calls itself a 5 star hotel but we would put it at 3-4 stars at best. Although everything looks nice on a surface level, it is definitely not worth the money and for this reason we wouldn’t return. P.S. whilst we appreciate this isn’t an adults only hotel, we were surprised at how many children/babies there were given the lack of any children areas/pools. Just something to bear in mind.

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