Atlantica Creta Paradise

Our holiday at TUI BLUE Atlantica Creta Paradise hasn't ended yet, but I'm writing this review 4 days before leaving as I'm sure nothing will change and maybe this information will help someone before deciding whether to book a stay here or not. We wish we knew all this before booking.

We booked a 10-night holiday with TUI because it seemed their hotels are family-friendly and our almost 3-year-old would enjoy it. Unfortunately it's definitely not what we expected and paying thousands of euros / pounds for this is ridiculous.

See my full review on TripAdvisor.

- It's absolutely impossible to have a restful night sleep or a lunchtime nap. We got a ground floor room and the noise is constant. The housekeeping ladies are extremely loud, constantly shouting, laughing and talking outside the rooms. They seem to spend more time having fun than doing their job. They start at around 6am and finish after 4pm. The trolleys they use to carry towels, bed sheets and cleaning supplies are extremely noisy because the wheels don't have any rubber on them. We complained twice to the front desk staff and they mentioned they'd talk to the housekeeping manager, but nothing changed. We asked for a room change hoping other areas were better, but apparently there were no available rooms (but we believe they just didn't want to help). Most people go on holiday to rest, right? Well, it seems TUI disagrees. If it's not the housekeeping staff, it's the staff bringing the luggage to the rooms or the loud guests shouting at crazy hours. We've travelled a lot throughout the years, all over the world, and stayed in all types of hotels. It's the first time we haven't managed to sleep properly / rest. Our toddler was always awakened by the noise. Today, my husband got out of the room when our daughter was having her lunchtime nap to ask the cleaning ladies to be quiet. The noise continued, so there's absolutely no respect for guests.
- On our first morning here, we were awakened by the fire alarm at 5am because someone smoke in the room. I guess it says a lot about the type of people who come to this hotel.
- The housekeeping staff don't clean the rooms properly.
- The coffee is horrible. It's not real coffee, but the instant type. If you want to drink real coffee, you need to buy it from their coffee shop - again, ridiculous based on how much money you pay for a holiday here.
- TUI advertises the private beach as being sand-and-shingle, so we expected small pebbles. There are some quite big stones, for a large portion before going into the water (and also for a portion in the water), so not suitable for young children. Something to keep in mind if you want to spend most of your time at the beach.
- The pools open at 10am and close at 6pm, so if you have a baby / young child who doesn't spend much (if any) time outside between 12pm and 4pm, you get minimal pool time.
- The evening entertainment for children is extremely loud. We, as adults, find it loud, let alone our daughter. If your children are always listening to blaring music in the car / at home, they'll enjoy it. Also, it's very much focused on using big, bright screens. If you avoid using screentime with your children, it's not a suitable hotel for you.
- The hotel prides itself with its healthy eating initiative for children, but the types of food they offer in the children's buffet are definitely not healthy or of good quality. There are much better options in the adults' section.
- There's so much scientific evidence that when it comes to children, rewards don't work (to the contrary, they're completely not recommended). Yet TUI came up with a reward card as part of their healthy eating initiative so children can get stickers for their eating habits. After seeing so many children with these reward cards, we had to get one for our daughter although we never use rewards with her. Not ideal.
- The furniture in the rooms is outdated and there's a very bad smell in the wardrobe, drawers etc.

Definitely wouldn’t recommend. Arriving at the hotel the gentleman helped us with our bags and check in was a breeze. On arriving at our room I noticed the floor hadn’t been hoovered there was dust everywhere. Never mind I can sort that I wiped the floor and proceeded to the bathroom nice clean but the hand cleaner bottle well it looked 10 years old and even had mould inside the bottle. That went straight in the bin. The tap and a thick coat of green stuff when I lifted the tap to turn on yuck! The cot provided was disgusting something from the 80’s maybe with ripped mesh each side stained and the mattress was a heavily strained, brown piece of foam with a sheet wrapped round it. The form wasn’t even big enough to fit the cot with large gaps top and bottom. My little girl wasn’t going in that no way. For a TUI blue 4+ star resort I would hate to think what a 4 or 3 star would be like. Atlantica Creta Paradise, worn out suite with private pool not worth the money. The food was uneatable tasteless and cheap buffet slop ok I suppose for someone without taste buds, and the a la carte restaurants are fully booked. Day 2, shower handle broke off in my hand, air con didn’t work had to keep resetting the switch board yes they said I can play with electrics if we stops working!!! Hair dryer wouldn’t dry the hair on a hairless person and shorts after just 2 minutes. Having long hair that is frizzy if left to dry naturally meant I had to tie my hair back for the rest of the holiday very attractive :( Thank you to my wonderful husband that bought me a hair dryer in Chania :) a short lived happiness as that same day I opened the mini fridge door to get a semi cold drink as it didn’t work well and the fridge door came off it’s hinge and hit my foot and my big toenail ripped up and was only still attached by a little bit of nail, blood everywhere and the pain makes me shiver just looking back at it. All in all not worth booking with TUI and definitely save your money and go else where even the furniture is crumbling at the bases