Petra Mare

Perfect holidays for families with small children. Loads of activities for the little ones. A small town 20 minute walk away. The beach is not great, but it is what it is. The pool is good with astunning view. The food is great, with loads of variety. Staff is really nice apart from one annoying guy that wants to take pictures of you. Overall, we really enjoyed the stay in Petra mare.

Its been second time in this hotel along with my family. Hotel is situated in very peacfull place. Variety of food. What was very important during night arrival hotel was serving cold cuts. I was very impressed with animation team "LIFE" for their show and engagement on day to day activities. Special thanks for proffesional and very enthusiastic approach for Julia, Federico, Samba,Alice, Cristina, Veronica and Max. Those guys were lead by very experience leader Salvatore. Thanks guys.

This hotel offers a fantastic experience, especially for families with children, thanks to its prime location, excellent facilities, and exceptional animation team.

Location and Beach:
Petra Mare boasts a prime location with its own beach. The entrance to the water is flat, making it ideal for kids and adults. A picturesque promenade right next to the hotel is perfect for relaxing walks.
Unfortunately, the most historical places and famous beaches laying a bit far away from a hotel.

Grocery Stores:
The hotel has its own grocery store with reasonable prices. Plus, there are additional grocery stores nearby within 100m where you can pick up toys, snacks, and other essentials.

Rooms:
We booked a family suite, expecting separate rooms. However, the suite featured a "movable wall" that only partially divided the space into two areas. It wasn’t a true separation, which might be a consideration for some families. Our room was on the roadside, which was very windy, and we experienced items being blown off the balcony multiple times. Despite this, the room was well-equipped with all necessary amenities.

Bars and Drinks:
The hotel offers several bars, including a pool bar and a beach bar, with a good variety of drinks. The drink quality is  good, nothing special, done of "cheaper alternative" engridients, if you're after branded cocktails, they cost between 7-8 euros at the bar. Various chilling areas throughout the hotel provide perfect spots to relax.

Entertainment and Activities:
There’s daily live music at the bar in the evening, various external shows, and a daily kids' disco. The animation team is incredible and deserves an own review. They are friendly and enthusiastic members who are always around, smiling, chatting with guests, and making sure everyone is having a great time. They organize daily sports activities such as water polo, beach volleyball, and darts, along with group fitness sessions like water aerobics. Cocktail games, dances, and other fun activities are also part of the daily schedule.
There is a special place for a kind with a lot of activities like puzzles, board games, drawing etc. as well as a daily face paining and bouncing castles!
Every evening, the animation team makes a kids disco where they are really throwing a party :)

After the kids' disco, there are adult dance sessions where the talented girls from the animation team show some moves and even teach guests to dance. Their energy and enthusiasm truly enhance the holiday experience.

The hotel is literally on the beach. Nearly all of the rooms have a beautiful view to the sea. Ground floor is very spacious with plenty of places where to rest. Hotel restaurant have big roofed terrace with 180° view to the sea. You can sit more outside or inside, as you wish. We had all inclusiv and we really enjoyed the meal and the service. In the evening there is a bar opened, also with another roofed terrace with view to the sea and also inside space with grand piano. Drinks were really good. On a lower level there is a spa and a gym. Outside the hotel there is shalow pool for kids with tobogans and other water atractions. For adults there is a spacious swimming pool with salty water and infinite edge over sea. Next to the pool is a snack bar and chill zone with ping pong. There is even an amfitheater, where concerts are arranged. And the BEACH, with a lot of sunbeds and beach bar. Beach if partly sand partly stones, there are big stones in water along the beach making it a little uncomfortable to enter the water, but its worth it, water is crystal clear and there is a little bit of sea life for those, who like snorkeling. I used to swim along the beach twice every day and I have really good time. Surroundings: Ierapetra is a small fishing town, but along the beach there are nice restaurants and souvenir shops. On the east of the hotel, there are kilometres of natural beach with almost no people, for those who need a getaway. There is something for everybody, old, young, families, couples, friends. Petra Mare hotel is a perfect spot to stay all holyday or a base camp for exploring Crete.

This is the first place where my daughter said “This is paradise!” And indeed it is, just make sure to take care of yourself and don’t get a sunstroke as I did, it can ruin everything 😑 Other than that, this is a great family hotel and many families come here, so if you are looking for a quiet place, this is not one. We still have 3 days to go, but I can already say that one I’ll recover from this damn situation, I’ll make it up to my wife and daughter 🤗

This is what a 4-star hotel for children should look like. Everything was perfect.
A small suggestion for the staff - a good practice would be to confiscate towels placed on sunbeds before 9 a.m.

Nice hotel with everything you need. Right place for you if prefer a holiday factory. Staff maybe not as attentive as in some smaller places. Some customers look like they are unhappy, maybe cannot relax as having to look after kids. All inclusive means you will not go hungry or thirsty. Not the most authentic experience but serves the purpose well. Perfect if you have small children.

Paradise for Families.

Petra Mare hotel is simply a paradise for families. For me, there is nothing better until now, and I've already been to a couple of hotels with my family.
It is directly on the beach. So, we cherished sitting on its lovely terrace while enjoying an all-inclusive dinner with nice drinks. Being a family with two Children, that’s exactly what we did throughout our stay. We sat there every evening, enjoying the beautiful sunset while having our dinner. There was more than enough to choose from, from the variety of foods on the buffet, and they were as lovely as they were tasty.

The hotel itself is huge with one side overlooking the sea-side and the other the town/mountain. We were lucky to have booked the sea-side since it offered us an endless view of the ocean and horizon. For us, this was another highlight having come from a mountainous area. Our suit is spacious enough for us and our two children. There is a slide door that gives it an optic of two rooms, which separates us from our children in case we wanted some intimacies while the children were asleep. The air conditioner comes in handy as the month of August is pretty hot (about 32 degrees Celsius)

There’s a supermarket at a 3 minutes walking distance where one can buy things one might need. A 10-minute walk along the promenade gets you to the town centre, where there are many restaurants and bars. Here you’ll find most of the shops and pharmacies as well.

All the Staff was very helpful and friendly. A hotel porter awaits you right in front of the hotel upon arrival and relieves you the stress of carrying your luggage yourself. There are many animators who organize and carry out programs not only at the two swimming pools during the day but also at the theatre at night. There’s also a football area where people who are interested in soccer can have their fun. It was a great pleasure swimming at the pools during the day and even more pleasurable watching shows at the theatre at night. We also enjoyed swimming and basking in the sun at the beach. Because of these numerous goodies and entertainment, one can’t help but notice that the management spends a lot of money in order to make their guests happy; whether it pertains to the variety of food, numerous Staff or the many programs offered.

Petra Mare is the hotel to stay in if you are in Ierapetra. We’ll definitely be staying there next time.

My husband and I came for one night with our 8 month old. The staff were very friendly and let us check in early.

We had a great day and the kids facilities are fantastic.

Our room was very clean, spacious and we had a lovely view of the sea.

I left my handbag in the room by mistake once we had checked out. Stavros on reception went above and beyond and arranged for it to be taken by bus to where we were staying that night. I am so grateful to him for this act of kindness. Thank you so much, Stavros.

My family and I will definitely be back to visit the hotel again.