We stayed here for 2 weeks from the 11th Oct and had a great relaxing break.

Positives: Both the room and all public areas of the hotel were kept spotlessly clean by a small army of staff.

You will already know from other reviews to book a sea view room, well worth it.

Plenty of space around the pool, I have to question the eyesight of the reviewer who also visited in Oct and said you had to reserve sunbeds by 9:30am as this was simply not the case!

Staff friendly and helpful, the animation guys were very good at sussing out the 'joiner inners' and while we were not in this category they still took the time to say hello each day.

I can't understand the reviewers who criticise the location of the hotel. You can clearly use the internet so do your research! We chose the hotel precisely because it wasn't right in town. Bus stops are right outside as well.

I would class the food as ranging from really nice to mediocre. We loved the freshly made crepes at breakfast, there was also bread, toast, eggs, cereals etc as well as other choices. At lunchtime you could see where some breakfast food had been reused e.g. cold meats and eggs in the salads and the croissants given a touch of cream and hey presto! Dessert! I have to say this didn't bother us and we played spot the food quite a bit but I can understand why some people would be unhappy with this. The white and rose wines were actually ok.

Negatives:

We used to book the tennis court most days and on 3 occasions we went to collect the balls to be told the animation team were using it, appeared to be no.communication between reception and animation staff which was disappointing.

The gym is tiny and poorly equipped; one treadmill is unsafe. It doesn't open until 10am.

The pool and loungers inside in the spa area looked lovely however you could only use them between 10am and 2pm and they were consistently used by shrieking children. I'm aware its a family hotel however there was a separate kids' pool and I think the spa pool area should have been kept as adults only.

As mentioned in the positives we were pretty OK with the food but don't expect gourmet standard although to be fair we only saw chips served about 3 times. The 'live' cooking corner was only used once in 2 weeks for dinner which I assume was down to it being low season. This was a shame as I would agree with other reviewers about the food sometimes being only just warm so we would have liked a fresher option. I have had a better standard of food elsewhere and it did get a.bit repetitive by the end of the holiday.

I would not like to stay here in high season though - it had only half occupancy while we visited so we never really had to queue for food or drinks and as stated there were plenty of sunbeds. I think it would be a very different atmosphere packed to capacity.

I hope this gives a balanced view - we wanted a cheap and cheerful all inclusive and were really happy with the general standards here. We also wanted somewhere not in the main town. Would definitely recommend this hotel although I would agree that its a 4 rather than 5 star.

We stayed here as a couple for a week in October. We had about 3 days of nice weather but the rest of the time was a bit drizzly and grey however, I am very glad we did not stay during the high season in the middle of summer as I can't imagine how awful and busy it must be! I also share the sentiment of others on here about how ridiculous it is they don't open the main bar when the weather is bad - it doesn't open until 5PM and fills up quickly before emptying again at 11PM because noone wants to have to pay!

We read reviews about the rooms after we had already booked so ended up with an inland view but this really wasn't as awful as some reviews have made out....yes its a wall but its a very pretty one and it was extremely quiet and secluded where we were whereas I imagine the sea view rooms were a little noisier and less cosy as they are directly over the main pool. The room is very spacious and theres a large balcony. Its worth noting theres a DVD player in the rooms and I strongly suggest you take some with you as there was only one English channel which played the same news bulletins over and over again!! I have to point out the bathroom was the worst hotel bathroom I have ever seen! It was essentially a wet room, the shower curtain sticks to you so I had to hoist it up out of the way and it is attached with a chain, there were marks all over the walls, random holes and bits sticking out and the soap dish etc was all rusty. Also I should point out there are no toiletries.

The receptionist was friendly enough but generally the staff were sullen and disinterested. And as for the animation team - they were just awful, after experiencing one afternoon watching their 'entertainment' and listening to terrible euro pop from tinny pool speakers, we went out in search of somewhere to actually relax. We walked for about 3KM towards the main town until we came across a lovely, very quiet beach - it was only 5 euros for a sun bed for both of us. (The hotel charges 10 euros for 2 sun beds on the tiny rocky beach next to the road and it didn't look very well looked after). I would recommend the trek down there, it was so peaceful and just what we needed to chill out.

If you want to go into the town of Agios Nikolaos its 6KM away and the cheapest way is by bus - we went in once and it cost about 3 euros for both of us (although I don't speak Greek and have no idea if this was a return ticket!). We stayed and had drinks and food and the taxi back cost us 9 euros. We only went the once to escape the smell of the 'toilet truck' that arrived during our stay which was absolutely horrendous!!

There is absolutely no way this is a 5* hotel, its miles off! But as I have said, you get what you pay for here, we grabbed a cheap last minute deal all inclusive and it was ok. The food again, was average, we never ate anything particularly exciting and the nicest part was having fresh salad and fruit as part of the every day buffet. Its a shame because even the 'Greek' food was bad. But we drank plenty of ice cold beer which helped!! The restaurant was pretty unwelcoming and resembles a school canteen so we couldn't really just sit and enjoy a meal there. We couldn't get into the A La Carte restaurant - all booked up apparently but I can't imagine we missed much.

Overall we had a nice break but we wouldn't go back!

We came for a week, 23-30th Oct 2011, and had a really lovely time. Weather was ok, a bit cold when the sun went in, but in the sun was rather hot. The hotel is not as bad as some people are saying. The rooms are lovely (we had a sea view, I can see it not being very nice if you were facing the rocks), the receptionists were lovely and so helpful, and the indoor pool was really nice. The food was ok, not excellent but ok, not loads of choice but it was ample, the hotel closed on the day we were leaving so the selection of food did decline nearer the end of the week which was disappointing. The a la carte restaurant was really nice, food was top notch.

The hotel is on a main road and not in walking distance of any town. We hired a car which was great, we went out and visited lots of lovely little Cretian towns such as Agios Nikolas, Krista and Plaka. We drove around in the mountains which had spectacular views. We drove to the Archaelogical Site of Lato which was amazing, we went to Knossos and also to an island called Spinalonga which was beautiful.

I would recommend this hotel, but not at end of season as we were left on our own on the last day without a lot of food and once the sun had gone round the back of the hotel around 3ish we had to just sit in reception waiting to be picked up. I would definitely recommend hiring a car as the buses weren't very reliable at all.

We stayed at the Blue Marine in for a week in October. We were dropped of at the hotel and suprised to see straight away that it was nowhere near to Agios Nikolaos. It was literally off the side of a main road, not a 5* location. It would be fair to say this hotel would be better suited to a 3* star rating.

The food was extremely disappointing, the professional photo is not a fair comparison. The hotel had theme nights in the main restaurant and on Greek Night served mousaka with no mince? The fish looked very questionable. We would spend no more than 30 minutes eating dinner and there was no atmosphere in the main restaurant. The wine was appauling and non-drinkable. Glasses provided were child sized. We then looked forward to our inclusive meal at the Olive Tree, difficult to find, poor waiting service and basic food. When I asked for the lamb I was told no as it had sold out and when I asked the waiter what is the fish for today, he shrugged and responded 'I don't know'.

We didn't even visit the beach, very poor and the photos do not represent a real portrayal of what this actually looks like. Barely any sunbeds. So we were confirmed to the pool and you had to be out by 9.30am to get a decent space around the pool. By 3pm the sun disappears behind the hotel and you do not have to expect to fight for sunbeds when you visit out of season.

We would not return to this hotel and would not recommend.