Grecotel Villa Oliva

I stayed at this hotel as a single parent with my two daughters for 6 nights. We arrived very late on Monday evening & were greeted with drinks and food. Our room was clean and comfortable & we had a ground floor room facing the pool which I requested before we arrived. Breakfast was lovely each morning, greeted with friendly faces. My daughters loved the Greek yogurt, fruit and pastries. We spent our days by the pool. The loungers were very comfy and we had the pool to ourselves a lot of the time. A very quiet and peaceful location despite being next to a road. We had lunch most days at the pool - the pizzas were lovely & my youngest loved the banana smoothies. The bakery next door was great for gelato and cakes, and a good coffee! We visited a few of the tavernas and food quality and price was excellent. The beach is just over the road but we didn’t spend much time there just because we prefer a pool. Overall this holiday was so lovely - so chilled and relaxing. The staff are really friendly - my daughter hurt herself on the first day & they called a doctor over to get her checked out. Nothing was too much trouble & they were always so friendly and kind. I paid an extra 20 euros for us to have our room until 6pm on the last day due to our late flight home. I thought this was very reasonable. Thank you for a lovely stay! We will be back :-)

A lovely place to stay! The staff was very kind and welcoming. They are interested in there guests and have great recommendation adapted to your holiday wishes. The rooms are very nice. Great accommondation to stay, thank you for being our hosts!

We have just arrived back from the most wonderful stay at Villa Oliva. 21 nicely decorated room with all the essentials required to make for a fantastic stay. We were the first guests of the new season and we were treated like royalty from the moment we arrived until the minute we left. The staff are out of this world especially Dora,Stella and Anna. They made the whole holiday superb with their advice, chats and nothing was too much trouble for them. Breakfast is fantastic, fresh eggs to order however you like them with great selection of pastries, fruits, cereals and all types of coffee whilst sat in a shaded area next to the perfect pool and sun loungers. The hotel is on a road where some traffic noise can be heard from the pool area but it didn’t bother us one bit. There are a good selection bars and restaurants close by for a low key relaxing stay. We have been all over Greece and don’t usually return to the same areas but for the staff alone we will be back to see them later in the year.

Accommodation: this hotel is a real gem; a boutique hotel that came as part of a package holiday but wow, what a find. The staff are exceptional - Nikoletta, Dora and Arrass in particular but all were friendly, attentive and helpful. We went with our twin sons, 19, so had two separate rooms. Ours was 1st floor with an enormous double bed, the "boys'" was on the ground floor with a big double and a single. Both rooms have a small kitchen area with a fridge, hob, kettle etc, and the bathrooms / showers have that thing that so many don't seem to - a shelf to put things on! Both rooms overlooked the beach rather than the pool and we had some lovely later evenings sitting and chilling before bed. The rooms were perfectly airconditioned. There are towels provided for the (very comfortable) sun beds - and if you want to take them to the beach, that's more than fine, in fact it was even encouraged. The variety of parasols meant that we didn't need to sit in the sun. Transport: we eventually decided not to hire a car; the staff were super helpful (of course) and pointed us to the supermarket where we bought €2 tickets to get on the bus into Rethymno (bus stop literally right outside the hotel for both directions) and, as an aside, we'd highly recommend the open deck bus tour round Rethymno as it goes round the town and up into the mountains, including around a steep gorge (interesting view from the top deck trying not to look down!) Food: breakfast is a selection of fresh fruit, cheese and ham, plus bread and pastries, and a selection of fruit, yoghurt, juices, treats etc. Apparently the coffee was amazing, I recommend the local teas. We were offered eggs - 'any way' so we tried fried, scrambled, poached and omelettes, all with a range of ham, cheese, tomato, mushroom, bacon etc. There are boiled eggs also available on the self-serve part. This hotel is part of a family owned chain, I believe, who also own a farm nearby; we took a cab (€12 there, €15 back, for 4 of us) on the Sunday evening (you need to book the day before) for an amazing evening. A restaurant overlooks the valley with incredible views out to sea, and there's a tour with a cheese, wine, olive oil and honey tasting, a small animal collection (donkeys, ducks, sheep, goats, rabbits etc) before a fabulous meal with so much food. Definitely recommend trying for a special meal. There are several eateries both left and right out of the hotel, all walkable, all more than fine, and some decent bars, too. Location; the hotel is on a road but this isn't a problem and with the patio door shut, there's very limited noise at night. The beach is over the road - it's a 'gritty' sand and leads to a rocky and uneven sea base. Many people were wearing beach shoes / wetsuit type ones to go into the sea. There are beach bars with umbrellas near by in both directions - we ended up preferring the pool in the end, with the lifeguard also being very friendly and helpful. I believe that the