Aelius Hotel & Spa in Kato Gouves

The staff at the hotel are amazing, so friendly and helpful, very attentive. The spa team can be a little pushy, but if you politely decline a few times, they'll leave you be, and the spa services are good, so maybe give them a listen.

The rooms are a little dated, but the beds are comfy, the air-con works, and the balcony is a nice option. They are cleaned daily too. If you can, book a room away from the main pool, evening entertainment goes on til after 11pm and many guests stay after drinking and chatting, which you can hear.

There are lots of sunbeds around both pools, and you can't reserve them, so there's no early morning fight to find one. You can get drinks served poolside, but it's just as easy to go to the poolside bar (and you might get extra Ouzo if you do). The pool isn't heated from May so can be a shock to the system, but by late afternoon, you're glad of the refreshing dip.

The restaurants are where the real problem is. You can only book the Kritamos restaurant once during your stay, and it's not open every night, so book when you first arrive for an evening you want. The main Erontas restaurant is not good at all. The food isn't very varied so you eat the same thing all day, every day. It's really hard to get drinks served whilst you are eating, so take a bottle of water. Unfortunately, I also got food poisoning on the penultimate night. The food had been making me feel unwell all week, but I'd recommend staying away from the seafood, which I think was the culprit.

Whilst being all inclusive was handy for the drinks, I'd recommend eating offsite as much as possible if you want authentic Cretan food, varied meals, or to avoid food poisoning - I know many guests suffered whilst we were there. I wouldn't return unless updates have been made to the rooms and restaurants, which is a shame because as I said, the staff are amazing.