Filion Suites Resort & Spa

Location The views are absolutely beautiful. The hotel is surrounded by mountains, yet few km fron the sea. The nearby village, Bali, is ok, not stunning, but adequate. There are few stores, a pharmacy, doctor, 4 beaches with watersports and plenty of car hire rentals and travel companies offering excursions. There are few things to visit nearby, within an hour drive, Margaritas village (where they make pottery), a monastery, a cave and Kournas lake, where you may go for a swim and if you are lucky you may see a turtle. Most big and famous attractions are further away. A beautiful town of Rethymno is 40mins drive away. Stunning. Cannot be missed A car is a must in my opinion. There are minibuses bringing guests to Bali, we never used it, but I cannot imagine being dependand on them, it is a big hotel and an 8 seater every half an hour cannot possibly be enough to accomodate people. The hotel itself is on a slope. There is a lot of stairs, but a lift will take you anywhere, so not as much of a problem, as I anticipated. My 70yo mum was with us and her knees are bad and she had no problem. Villas We stayed in a villa (a group of 8). There are 3 smaller villas within the resort (2 bed I think) and 2 large villas outside (Sugar and Angel). We stayed in one of those. These villas are large and comfortable with sizeable private pools, very private, but they are a good bit away from the complex. Upon booking we got a message from a hotel saying 1km away, however it is actually 1.5km to walk and it is up and down kind of a road, so not the easiest in the sun (nor in the evening, as the road is not lit). It has pros and cons: we could never stay in the bar after dinner for drinks, the hotel should really offer some transport options for the villa customers. We only went to an evening when a magician was on, our 9 year old absolutely loved him and he was very kind to her. For teenagers though the location of the villa was an obstacle, they wanted their independance, but could not just walk to the hotel and the hotel's minibus did not swing by the villas (which I think is peculiar). Gym If you plan to squeeze in some excercise, forget it. The gym only officially opens at 9 am (it is above rooms), there are no showers, the equipment is old (the resistance setting do not work on cross trainer and a seat on a bike could not be adjusted until a handyman was called). I once went in earlier, however was told not to use treadmills, cause they are too loud. Facilities Most toilets have no locks, which is crazy. Soap dispensers regularly empty. The rest is fine and the hotel is clean and has a nice cosy feel to it. The restaurant is lovely, the terrace sitting offers great views, especially at the sunsets. The pools are clean (I have no idea where other's comments come from). The water is most definitely not cloudy, with the exception of when the dust from Sahara came, but that was unavoidable. I could see people going round and cleaning every morning. The onl

NOT 5 star. If you’re looking for the wow factor and 5 star do not book here as you will be disappointed. Landed late at night, dropped off at Bali Mare which is down the road. Random place at 1am which was a bit odd & unsettling. Picked up 5 minutes later in the hotel mini van. Then to my surprise as I hadn’t had this experience before I had to pay €105 euros hotel tax. €15 euros per night as the hotel is classed as “5 star”. Got taken to our hotel room & it was pretty bog standard, entry in and out the room was via a sliding patio door….. The bathroom was average, but the shower head in the shower was mouldy and disgusting. My partner was not happy & did not want to wash her hair using the mouldy shower head. The restaurant was nice, but the food was so repetitive. Everyday same stuff for breakfast, most nights the evening meals dishes would be the same. For 5 stars it was poor & disappointing. The weather was nice until the last 2 days we had sandy rain, which made the pool water dirty. Did they clean the pool? No they did not, the whole week we were there the pool was not cleaned once. We found the pool & tiles to be green & mouldy on the sides, it was not pleasant. It should be cleaned & regularly checked for bugs, leaves, chlorine levels etc. The staff though I will say were great, very accommodating and polite. They made the stay more pleasant. So overall I would say 3.5/4 stars at a push. Whoever runs the hotel needs to have a serious look at themselves and pull their finger out. Things need to change to be able to class this as a 5 star hotel.