Solimar Aquamarine Resort

Typical all-inclusive resort… average food, pool too cold, basic service, too far from everything (far from the beach, far from Chania). The room is clean and well equipped. 1F ‘garden’ rooms feel a bit like a basement.

We originally chose this hotel because it seemed quiet and relaxing – exactly what we were looking for on our first holiday together (we’re 18 and 19). We were so excited to stay here, but our arrival was really disappointing. We got to the hotel just after midnight, having received an email confirming our booking, only to be told there was a “problem” with our room and we couldn’t stay. The woman on reception was rude, dismissive, and showed no care for our situation at all. She didn’t offer any solutions or alternatives within the hotel and just said we’d have to go to another hotel they had arranged. I asked about the new hotel – what it was like, how many stars – and she told us it was 5-star. That turned out to be a lie. It was a 4-star hotel, and definitely not a good one. The taxi she booked was supposed to be a 5-minute journey, but it took around 15, and the driver didn’t speak any English. He dropped us off on a busy street and we had no idea where the hotel entrance was or if we were even at the right place. The hotel they sent us to was run-down and dirty – black mould on the walls, cracked tiles, and generally in a poor state. We were so upset and couldn’t believe this is where we were expected to stay for half our holiday. We rang the original hotel to explain, and again were met with rudeness and a complete lack of understanding. Thankfully, the next morning we got a call from the hotel manager, and she was absolutely lovely – finally someone who actually cared. She arranged a taxi to bring us back, and by midday we were finally given a room at the hotel we had booked. As compensation, the manager kindly upgraded our all-inclusive package to their best tier, which was a really thoughtful gesture and made a huge difference to the rest of our stay. The hotel itself is stunning and the waiting staff were absolutely brilliant – friendly, helpful, and made us feel very welcome. Just a warning to anyone thinking of staying here: the hotel is amazing, but the front desk staff are hit and miss. Some were fantastic, but others were incredibly rude and unprofessional. And if anything seems off with your booking, don’t be afraid to speak up – if we hadn’t, we would’ve spent half our holiday somewhere awful that we didn’t even choose.

Me and my bestfriend have just spent two weeks at Solimar Aquamarine. We booked a double room with private pool and we loved it! Every summer we book a girls trip and travel for two weeks together. This has to be the two most relaxing weeks we have had. As mentioned we had a room with private pool so we did not use the shared pool area at the hotel, but we did notice that it is not that big. Our stay was to weeks from the start of and to the middle of june, so not in high season. All the sunbeds by the main pool was taken our three last days so we are wondering if there is enough beds in july and august(?) Don’t know how full the hotel was when we stayed there, but we know that it’s 104 rooms here so it might work out well. Also the kids pool is located a bit by itself and it’s an okay amount of sunbeds there. We only used our private pool but the shared pool area at the hotel looked clean and nice. Every night when we ate dinner in the all inclusive restaurant we could see while sitting outside that there was staff cleaning the sunbeds and tables by the pool, it always looked good and clean in the moring when we went for breakfast. The all inclusive buffè is clean and the staff there is nice and friendly. For lunch and dinner they serve water, wine, soda and the drinks you want (those who are included in the all inclusive) to the guests table. We really liked that and it made the meals feel more «exlusive» instead of in hotels where you have to go get your drinks on your own at the buffè. The food might be one of the few things we are a bit disapponted with. Some days it was good! for example when it seemed like there was a theme like mexican (taco, burrito and so on) and greek night (gyros, both self made and ready-made) but some days we did not find that much that tempted. We are not picky and we usually like the most of food, but unfortuanately we were a bit disappointed.. if there had been more focus on themes it would have been easier to put together a meal. We think there is potential for improvement with some small changes :) However the desert is really good! Two times we ordered food to the room, this was not good. 5 euro for delivering it from the restaurant to the room and 20 euro for a small burger and soggy fries.. hate to say it but that was not worth the money. The beach is a three minute walk away and it’s nice and quiet. Free sunbeds and many days there were just a few people there. Sand by the beds and almost down to the sea, but be aware of stones just in front of the water. If you travel to Gerani you should know this if you do a tiny bit of research, so we can’t understand the negative feedbacks on this from other guests.. we liked it. Sometimes it could fill up with a lot of small insects in our private pool, but as soon as we told the staff in the reseption they fixed it within and our. We would like to say a big THANK YOU SO MUCH to Bruna! The lady who cleaned so thoroughly and made our room, and with a big smile