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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“Not for us”

Positives Food was lovely. Not too much of a rush at mealtimes. Could still find sunbeds anytime of the day. Room was spacious. Negatives We arrived early hours of Friday morning, so was shattered and was looking for a nice peaceful day. Went to bed, woke up in time for breakfast. Apparently Fr… more

Positives Food was lovely. Not too much of a rush at mealtimes. Could still find sunbeds anytime of the day. Room was spacious. Negatives We arrived early hours of Friday morning, so was shattered and was looking for a nice peaceful day. Went to bed, woke up in time for breakfast. Apparently Friday is disco day. The music starts about 10am and gets progressively louder until it ends just before 11pm. It’s non stop and was noise overload. You can’t hear anyone speak at the bar. You could still hear the music in the sea. We tried to go to the furthest areas to avoid it (looked like quiet a few people tried to do the same) but then you could hear the hotel next door playing conflicting music. Had earphones in but to block out the noise they had to be at an unhealthy level to attempt to block out some noise. If you want this then great, if you don’t it was awful. We tried to get in touch with the rep to move hotels as we really didn’t want to be there Rep was useless, rude, passive, aggressive and lacking in customer service skills. Maybe she is new as she was very inexperienced in holding a group meeting and lacked skills in dealing with people and complaints. It did get a bit quieter after Friday but we were on edge the rest of the week thinking the music was going to be as bad again. Just not the holiday we were looking for Beach is pebbly, definitely need shoes to get in and out of water. Transfer back to airport took hours, not the transfer time we were led to believe We left feeling extremely disappointed with this hotel and would not return.

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“Nice hotel but never 5 star luxury - don't go half board and beware of added extras!!”

Firstly this is a nice hotel that is clean and everything you would expect. The staff are friendly and if you're a sports fanatic (we are not) then you can gym, run and yoga away to your heart's content. The hotel location is right by the sea (although far too rough when we went to go in it) and t… more

Firstly this is a nice hotel that is clean and everything you would expect. The staff are friendly and if you're a sports fanatic (we are not) then you can gym, run and yoga away to your heart's content. The hotel location is right by the sea (although far too rough when we went to go in it) and the pool is spacious and pleasant enough to swim in. I have to say that the food was superb. Plenty of choice and some really delicious dishes for all tastes. Both breakfast and dinner options were spot on. But sadly this is where the positives end. We went half board for a change as we thought the all inclusive package was a little pricey when booking. When we arrived late at the hotel we asked whether there was any water in the room only to be told there was none but ample drinks in a well stocked mini bar. So we bit the bullet and consumed 4 small bottles of soft drinks to the tune of 16 euro. We booked a junior deluxe suite. Nothing deluxe about it but there was a desk in there with a chair so I suppose that constitutes a suite. All in one room. One of our boys had a sofa made up but the other had to make do with a creaking camp bed which was disappointing. Not something befitting a 'luxury 5 star spa resort' The room was ok but a little tired - one plus is that it opened up to the pool on the ground floor. Now onto the drinks... A plastic half cup of cretan lager will set you back 6 euro and a mailbu and coke an incredible 11 euro. My children had a mocktail each one evening which consisted of half a lemonade and a dash of blue curucao - an absolutely shocking 17 euro for both!! The mini bar was astonishing where a miniature whisky or vodka will set you back 10 euro and a small sparkling wine 12 euro. Such importance is placed on the contents of that mini bar that there is a person assigned each morning to visit each room to check it - nothing is left to chance! Normally a task for housekeeping, I've never come across this. We removed the temptation by going to the supermarket to get some supplies. But there was a polite note saying that the mini bar contents was not to be touched. And this is where this hotel lets itself down. It's permanently looking to screw a little more out of its guests - even themed nights like BBQ's and Italian were charged as extra - even to all inclusive guests. We enquired about upgrading (just to escape the eye watering drink costs) only to be told it would be an additional £1200 for 2 adults, 2 children! And if you're all inclusive don't think about helping yourself to the ice creams in the fridge by the pool bar - they're for'ultra' inclusive guests - so guess what? - there's a cost for that as well. The weather was mostly cloudy with some sun in the afternoon but bear this is mind when booking later in the year as the hotel was closing at the end of the week we were there. Most guests here are a combination of gym rats and super fit bods who spend all day in the gyms or running around the hotel or elderly couples - not a great hotel for the kids. There's also huge swathes of middle aged scandanavian women meditating all over the place. All in all it was ok but it was heavily tainted by the need to rip guests off and this leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The only plus we got is that the pool bar people must have thought we were all inclusive (as most were) so we got the majority of drinks for free as there's no wristbands here. That probably clawed a few hundred back so cheers guys! Cava Spada thinks it's a 5 star resort but it's not - it's a 4...at best. We have holidayed mainly in the middle east for years where they work to the principle that if they look after you and you enjoy your stay then you'll return - and it works. The brief at this hotel is to grab as much from you as possible and I don't want to feel that way when I'm on holiday. For that reason we won't be returning to Cava Spada - there are much better resorts to spend your hard earned cash on.

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“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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