Mare Garden

We stayed at Mare Gardens in Georgioupolis for two weeks, expecting a relaxing, well-run 4-star holiday. What we experienced instead was a frustrating, exhausting, and at times deeply disappointing stay that was poorly managed and left us questioning how this hotel holds its rating. To start with the few positives: the two ladies who worked at the beach bar were absolutely lovely – always smiling, polite, and genuinely kind. George, the barman by reception, was also very friendly and made excellent drinks. We ended up spending most evenings at the bar near reception, as it was one of the only areas that felt remotely functional or enjoyable. The beach itself was beautiful, but we were surprised to find that even guests staying in the Mare Garden section were charged extra for the use of sunbeds – something we found unreasonable given the hotel claims to be all-inclusive. Unfortunately, that’s where the positives ended. On our third night, we discovered that the LED light above our bathroom mirror would not switch off. We reported it to reception, and someone came to the room. We were told the only solution was to turn off the entire power supply to the room via the fuse box. This felt completely inappropriate – we would never expect to deal with a fuse box at home, let alone be asked to do so while staying in a hotel. It was not something we felt safe doing, but desperate to sleep, we followed the instruction that night. Turning off the power meant we had no electricity at all – no air conditioning during a heatwave, no lighting, no working fridge (which spoiled food we had purchased ourselves), and no power to charge our phones or use sockets. It was a completely unliveable situation. We were told the issue would be resolved by maintenance the next day. No one came. The problem continued for four full days – three nights of sleep lost – and the lights remained stuck on, except for the toilet light, which had by then stopped working entirely. We ended up sleeping with T-shirts over our heads to block the light. Each day we asked reception for updates, and each time we were met with vague responses: either that someone would be coming soon, or that the cause of the issue was unknown. Eventually, we asked to be moved to another room or even to a sister hotel. We were told the hotel was fully booked and that there were no other properties available. However, later, when we tried to speak to the hotel manager, we were told she manages five or six different hotels in the area – which contradicted the earlier claim that there were no sister hotels. It felt increasingly like we were being dismissed without any real attempt to resolve the problem. We contacted Loveholidays, our travel provider, who called the hotel on our behalf. The hotel gave them the same non-answers they had given us, and said they didn’t know when the issue would be fixed. Loveholidays offered us 5% compensation for the hotel portion of the trip – an amount that didn’t begin to r

We have just returned from Mare hotels and have to say what an amazing place this is. To be honest we couldn't fault it. The hotel is brand new beautiful, rooms are super modern .The food was excellent from breakfast to our evening meal had no complaints from my two girls ...The grounds are stunning and spotless with so many beautiful flowers everywhere you go ....

Stayed here with a friend from 1st-10th. Arrived late at night and was just directed to the room which was in a separate building. A clear map and explanations of the layout and dining situation would have been really useful. We had to go to reception every time we needed advice on where the restaurant and pool etc was and felt like a bit of a nuisance! Rooms lovely, modern decor and very clean Pool is a great place to relax but clearly not enough sunbeds to accommodate. I was under the impression that the facilities at Mare Blue were also included but we were told that there was a fee for beach sunbeds which I thought was quite unreasonable (€25 each for the day from memory). Food was basic but lovely, always fresh grilled meat and plenty of options. I wasn’t expecting a huge amount for the money and I think the quality is reflected in the price we paid overall. We chose to eat out for variation and there are lots of lovely restaurants close to the hotel. Frequent buses to get you all over the Island. We went to Chania and I would recommend getting the bus, it was clean and air conditioned. Taxi back from Chania was around 50 mins and costs €60. Overall good value, I probably would stay here again for the price but I think more should be done to welcome guests and orientate them to the layout of the hotel/ surrounding area. This is not a luxury resort and the amenities are great for the price you pay. Luxury was costing around £500- £1000 more

All inclusive, 6 nights, July 2025, 12 People. Conclusion First: Barely a 3 Star hotel masquerading as a 4 Star, attempting to look like a 5 Star. Canteen is a 3 minute walk away and is shared by a few other hotels. It is chaotic and not a pleasant dining experience, to the point we ate out the last 3 days. Pool area looks lovely but on closer inspection it's not great. Generally nice and pleasant staff but reception and the canteen staff need some training to say the least!! Well decorated but not finished and dangerous steps and edges. NOT SUITED FOR DISABLED OR IMPAIRED PEOPLE!! No lifts, handrails and slippery tiles. Can't decide if this is a very clever money grab or just a poor setup. The drinks were small and poor quality, food was barely average, not enough beds around the pool. A combination of these things made our group go elsewhere - Win for the hotel budget!!! Bummer for us expecting a decent All Inclusive experience. Positives: Random sized rooms between the 6 couples but all clean and well furnished. Huge beds but a tad hard for me. Excellent Air-Con. Towels changed daily and bin emptied. Wonderful pool bar and cleaning staff. Breakfast eggs were very good! Good Disco at the Pool twice. DJ Pier clearly enjoyed this and played to the crowd. Lovely location and amazing scenery. 5 minute walk from the beach and main town. Good selection of food to suit most tastes. Very small desserts but they were the highlight. And the rest: Pool - Filthy water on closer inspection, load of tissue and other 'bits' floating around. Chlorine was either not added in enough quantity or was spent cleaning the filth. The single bottom drain was virtually blocked with hair so it only filtered what was on top that entered the high level drain channel along one side. Almost as much sand at the bottom as on the beach. Wasn't cleaned or netted all week (although the tide mark was washed once) Very slippery steps into it. The deck area was mopped with only 1 (occasionally 2) buckets of dirty water in the morning, There is a gap around the pool in a 'pattern' but has sharp edges and could be a trip hazard. This is the only pool for at least 2 of the Mare hotels and only 50 sunbeds (25 doubles) and 12 tables (seats 4) Sunbed 'A-Holes' were out in force from about 0630 putting their towels down then buggering off for hours! Right next to the septic tank and very smelly very often! People were gagging on the Saturday. Poor selection of poolside snacks, Coleslaw wraps, watermelon and occasional pastry. Hotel - VERY SHARP EDGES on all steps and walls!! Some steps have the metal edge loose - One of our party slipped and sliced the bottom of his big toe. No handrails on any staircases. Reception didn't seem confident in their rolls. Random holes in walls and ceilings, some still had cables hanging out of them. "4 S

We arrived at our hotel at 2130h. On arrival, we were met by reception staff who appeared to be confused and not confident regarding the check in process. We checked in and had paid 21€ for a safe for our week stay. Once we got to the room we had noticed that we were given a room with a view of an abandoned car park when we had paid for a pool view. We also attempted to utilise the safe which was not working. We went back to reception and waited for an hour to speak to someone regarding these issues. They appeared to not understand what our issue was and we were told to come back in the morning. When we returned to our room and got into bed, we went to turn the lights off, only to realise that the bedside light switch was broken and unable to turn the side light off. We again returned to reception and they advised they would come up and take a look. My partner was also told that the reason we had no pool view was because we had ‘been upgraded to a sea view’ which we had not asked for. When one of the staff had come up to have a look, he could not work out how to use the safe nor how to turn the light off. He left the fuse box open and told us to flick the fuse to turn the power in our room off, leaving us with no air con. When we explained about the room we had paid for, he merely laughed at the ‘sea view’. The next morning we returned to reception in order to be changed rooms. The same lady greeted us from the night before and told us to return later as she was not sure if it would be possible. We returned to reception later in the morning and was made to wait for 45 minutes for them to check what rooms were available. A lady took us to our room to ensure that we were satisfied of which we were. When we queried if the safe in this room worked, she told us that she would give us a key for the safe. I asked if that’s how all the safes are powered of which she told me they were. The previous night when we had paid for this safe, no staff had informed us we required a key from reception even when we had stated that it was not working - which we now know was due to no one giving us a key. When we booked this trip, we had decided to go all inclusive. We have been extremely disappointed by the food and drink offered by this hotel. Food has been cold throughout the week and zero variety. We have resorted to eating out every night and spending additional money that we had not planned to spend. We’ve grinned and bared the food during the day to avoid additional costs. The drink selection was minimal and they often ran out of beer. We did not bother getting a drink at any point when we got lunch due to there being a huge queue each time and only one person serving. If I could give the food zero stars I would. One thing we cannot fault is the pool area. Each day we were able to get a sun-bed for the day. On one occasion, we came back to our beds to find that everybody’s towels had been removed by the cleaner during 10 minutes that we had returned to the

To begin, I found the staff at the reception very unwelcoming. We arrived early hours of the morning and it was quite weird. Very limited conversation simply just making us fill out a form and grabbing our hands to put wrist bands on. However, The hotel is nice, the pool is well maintained, rooms are clean and up to standard. However, the bedding is not changed, each morning it was a cold shower and the sink is located outside of the bathroom. Furthermore, the bar -although very clean and aesthetically pleasing, i found it confusing that customers are paying for an ‘All inclusive’ package but served cold drinks such as Fanta,Coke etc in plastic party sized cups…. The main issue with the hotel I would suggest is the food - Not only was it extremely busy at peak times due to being shared with 3 other hotels, food areas were unclean, limited options, and frankly not very nice especially the stale bread every single day. There is one functioning bar at the hotel dining area, clearly unable to accommodate demand as syrups often ran out meaning soda water it was or they ran out of glasses etc. The dining area was also around a 3/4 minutes walk from the actual hotel. The surrounding area is okay, there is a shop right next door which was off much use due to the inedible dinner. The beach is nice and there is independent trip companies which run a train right near the hotel. Overall, I think this hotel is beautiful and in a very nice area however, there are issues with the operations within.