Giannoulis – Cavo Spada Luxury Sports & Leisure Resort & Spa

“Great hotel in a quiet location”

I have to say first and foremost that this is not a beach hotel. Although it is strategically next to the beach with sunbeds on the beach, the beach is not the priority for this hotel. You will see why when you step onto the beach as it consists of large pebbles, making it uncomfortable to walk o… more

I have to say first and foremost that this is not a beach hotel. Although it is strategically next to the beach with sunbeds on the beach, the beach is not the priority for this hotel. You will see why when you step onto the beach as it consists of large pebbles, making it uncomfortable to walk on and a steep drop into the sea. It is geared up more for sports and fitness. The day time entertainment is carried out by fitness staff, basically aerobics, yoga, paddle-boarding and at the pool you have aquarobics, though not every day. The sports team also offer tennis courts, a paddel board court, a running track and boules court. The hotel also has a fully equipped gym and a spa with pool. The staff were friendly and hard working, but seem very happy in their work with a cheery “Good Morning” from staff at all levels and very helpful and considerate. Vasso, the customer services lady was always checking if we were OK. One lunchtime, as we arrived back from a morning trip into Kolymbari and we obviously looked hot and bothered after the walk from the main road, that she dashed over to us with a bottle of water each, so we did not have to wait till we had got to the bar - so very thoughtful. The hotel manager was more like customer service than a formal hotel general manager. Always helpful and concerned when a customer is unhappy, passionate about his hotel and what it offers, he is the most personable and approachable hotel manager I have ever come across. The hotel, though does offer an all inclusive stays (and premium all inclusive for those who want the premium minibar in their room), it also offers a full range of board arrangements. So you will find various extra charges to cater for the different pricing categories, for example, a drinks charge for the al a carte restaurants. Charging a cover charge per person for drinks, which can be obtained free in a different location, does not make sense. Antonis, the Maître d’ or restaurant manager, he always greeted all guests when arriving in the restaurant and then escorted you to a table of your choice. The restaurant staff, were always cheerful and quick to supply you with a drink, being hot drink at breakfast or cold drinks at dinner. In general the food was much better than average, for all-Inclusive in fact, the food was excellent may be the best ever. For the size of the hotel, the food choice at breakfast was ample, more than the normal fayre of hot food. A cookery station for the supply of freshly fried eggs or omelettes to order and a section with hot food, (bacon, fresh mushrooms, hash browns, stuffed tomatoes, vegetable omelette, baked beans). A cheese and ham section with crusty fresh bread, yoghurts, a selection of fresh & dried fruit and nuts and a range of cereals including hot porridge. At lunch, you can either partake in the main restaurant and with a similar choice to dinner, or you can eat from the Sea line snack bar. Three hot snacks like pizza, souvlaki, hot dogs or hamburgers etc. are on offer each day (No day’s snack were repeated during our stay). There are sandwiches too, less variety here I’m afraid, mostly cheese, ham and tomato on three types of bread). There is also various cakes, and ice cream on offer. For non-all inclusive guests you can purchase a choice of 2 different cooked meals like Gyros and kebab with salad. In the main restaurant at dinner, the highlight of dinner delights for us were the soups. Home-made and full of chunky, tasty ingredients, a couple of bowls would fill you. The cookery station supply freshly cooked pasta and sauces, along side a selection of freshly grilled meat & fish, leading on to a selection of hot food, which always included meat free and vegan options. The salads do not look anything special, but were always fresh & regularly replenished. Then we have the desserts, so cute are the individual pots of deliciousness, the tiny pots or shot glasses never failed to raise a smile. Cheese cakes, tiramisu, profiteroles and jelly along side the full size cakes waiting to be cut. A further option in the evening are three special nights at the Sea line of Italian, BBQ and Sea food. I cannot review the al a carte restaurants. as we enjoyed the buffet restaurant that much we saw no reason to partake in these establishments and pay the surcharge. The bar pool, run by Panos, though busy at times, staff were never flustered and always cheerful. Christina, in the main bar remembered my name, even though I only told it her once on our first day. For three nights during our stay there was entertainment on the terrace outside the main bar, a saxophonist, a duet of singers and a very good violinist. There was also a night when a disco played from the pool bar where people danced. The music was loud enough to hear very well on the terrace. All entertainment finished at 10.30pm so as not to disturb the guests, although the rooms themselves are well soundproofed that we never even heard people outside our room despite being by the main pool. I have to mention the cleaning service. The hotel does not scrimp on the costs in this area. Cleaners come round twice per day, a full service in the morning & a further top up around 6pm for fresh towels or an extra bottle of water. Beach towels can be changed once per day free of charge (though an initial deposit of 10E for each is refundable). Beware of the mini bar - it is not part of your standard all inclusive (the bottled water is the only free item). We calculated the total cost of the contents at around 180E. We took a taxi into Kolymbari (9E each way), though you may not get a taxi back when you want one, better to ask the taxi driver to pick you up at a certain time or expect a long wait for one. Alternative the service bus runs every 20 minutes from the main road at 2E each way. The route is circular in the town (don’t look for a return bus stop on the opposite side of the road). You need to allow 10 minutes walk at least from the hotel to the bus stops. The same bus goes the opposite way to Chania at 3.80E. This service is extensive running from 6.00am until 2.00am. All in all a great holiday for us – lovely hotel in a nice, quiet location.

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“Spa services”

Whilst enjoying a lovely break at this hotel I decided to treat myself to a lovely hot stone massage with the lovely Katarina (sorry if I have spelt it wrong) it was so good I booked myself another one before I have to go home. Had it today - bliss!

“Excellent Hotel .”

Had a wonderful week here. All the staff were so helpful & friendly. Would definitely return. Food was varied and very good. Rooms spotlessly clean. Pool was lovely in a beautiful location. Beach however is rather rocky so shoes required there.

“Nice resort but some issues”

We had a nice short break here, with a few smaller issues. The resort is clean and well laid out, the pool is nice and large (it's not over 1.1m anywhere, which I didn't love but would be better for families) with a good pool bar and nice sun lounger area. As others have mentioned there is a beach … more

We had a nice short break here, with a few smaller issues. The resort is clean and well laid out, the pool is nice and large (it's not over 1.1m anywhere, which I didn't love but would be better for families) with a good pool bar and nice sun lounger area. As others have mentioned there is a beach and there are loungers out on it for the hotel, but it's not a particularly pleasant spot and we didn't go there at all. Beach towels are provided but you have to put down a cash deposit for them, and they're far too small - this could easily be improved by getting proper beach towels and allowing people to borrow them for free, only charging them if they lose them to their room. The buffet restaurant is a real highlight, the food was excellent, the mealtimes easy to access, the wine and drinks provided there were great. We went to the a la carte, they ask for a 18e minimum spend per person on drinks which was a bottle of wine. We didn't love that place and I wouldn't make an effort to spend extra money going there unless you're getting bored of the buffet. Compared to other inclusive resorts, the snack bar for food outside of mealtimes was disappointing, usually quite sad looking sandwiches or very cheap pizza or cakes. This would be another easy improvement to take it to a 5 star rating. The all inclusive drinks were good, I liked the wine and the beers, the cheap cocktails were what you'd expect. It's a shame they buy such a poor tasting cheap coca-cola substitute for the bar drinks, it stopped me getting my usual rum and coke! I had a massage at the spa which was great, would recommend booking in there. We didn't make much use of the sports stuff but there were plenty of people enjoying yoga and aerobics classes or using the tennis courts. The room was nice, maybe slightly dated now but perfectly acceptable and very spacious, good amenities. We went for garden view and I'm glad that we did, I think the pool-view ones looked quite noisy in general. What was really disappointing here is that on our last evening the toilet stopped working in our room. I can completely accept that it may not be fixable outside of working hours, but I really did think they would allow us to move to a different room, which they did not. The hotel was only half full, there must have been dozens of rooms available, but being told that basically you're going to have to just live with no toilet in a hotel room is absurd. I mentioned it to 2 members of staff that night, and again at reception the next day when checking out, and there was no offer of compensation (eg we'll knock off the minimum drinks charge you spent at the a la carte since you had to walk 4 minutes down the hallway in your pyjamas to use the bathroom). I've complained through our travel agent. So I've ended up knocking the review down to 3 stars, I think without our toilet and customer service issue on the last night it would have been 4 or 4.5.

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