Gouves Waterpark Holiday Resort

We booked for 2 adults 1 child (teenager) for May school holidays. When we arrived waited an hour to check in as massive queue. Room for us was tiny, block 500 overlooking wasteland. Clean but very basic. Asked for another room and was told would have to upgrade at €400 more so declined. The hotel is in a good location, 5 min walk to beach, 20 mins from airport, 5 min walk to touristy shops and restaurants. Food is ok, what you would expect for 3* hotel. After 5 days hotel room manager asks us about our room after leaving a note under our door and we explain we complained at start of hols. He says he will see what he can do and will find us. He never does. Check out is 11am so we asked to have the room for longer as a sorry but told no unless we pay an additional €100 euros although our room was not booked for anyone else! Not great customer service… Reason for 3* rating; +Good Location +Ok Food +Pretty clean +Plenty of pools and sunbeds ~Watered down drinks, cocktails poor ~Have to pay for drinks in some restaurants ~Entertainment mediocre. Karaoke but children not allowed and adults don’t want to do it ~Always have to queue for a good few mins to get a drink Tip 1: get the €2 bus into the town rather than taxi. Tip 2: if you’re used to luxury and good service, book somewhere else

We had a great holiday here. We booked a family suite, which was lovely. I think the bathroom could do with extra lighting, as it’s quite dingy in the shower area. I heard from other guests that the standard rooms are very basic, so maybe be aware of this when booking. Other than the bathroom lighting; our room was lovely, clean and comfortable. Gyros and pizzas at lunch time were fab. There were plenty of options at the buffet, however not very hot. I think this is to be expected though with the amount of people catered for. The staff were mostly friendly. The entertainment staff were fab, our daughter loved the mini disco. I’d definitely recommend this hotel to families. We did get a taxi into hersonissos twice as there’s not much around the hotel, if you like to go out sometimes. So I’d be wary of this when booking too.

Overall a very good holiday experience. I would argue against the 5 star rating but perhaps reflects the standard of accommodation across Gouves. Food good, drinks very average, great swimming pools and splash park. Rooms very comfortable and light with high cleaning standards daily. Entertainment team never stop and go above and beyond. The mgmt who walk around the site need to learn to smile and always look fed up. The gyros, pizza and burgers from midday to 18.00 are excellent. Highly recommend the Asian resteraunt on site with a great choice and good service. Check in was slow with just one person on reception, however he was very informative. Look after the cats around the hotel, they deserve it. For 2 euros you can buy cat food from the nearby supermarket.

In May 2024 we visited Crete for the second time. This time we flew to Heraklion and tried the spa at the Gouves Resort; it was amazing! Maria did a fantastic massage for my daughter Ava who is 9 years old. Lovely strawberry scent and very relaxing. Thank you :)

Definitely not a 5 star resort! Isolated position with not much to do outside! Uneven and dated track leading to the beach. The pools are nice and warm. The drinks, wine, and beer are very poor quality. Food is never hot. Poor housekeeping, rarely top up milk in the room, and free water! Overall, we were not impressed with this place!

We’ve just arrived home from a week at gouves water park and what an amazing time had by all. The hotel was beautiful and clean and all the staff was friendly and always happy to help making you feel welcome. There are so many pools for everyone to enjoy so never struggle to get a sunbed, although we had a swim up room so used that most of the time but when we went to the slides every afternoon we never struggled to get beds. The snacks bars was amazing, gyros pizza burgers and chips all day every day. The food was good quality but not much variety we ate the same things the few times we ate in the dining hall, but the À la cart restaurants was really good and deffo worth booking the Asian one on site was our fav! We found a lovely steak house down the road which we really enjoyed the Greek food was amazing and the atmosphere was unreal. BIG shout out to the barman stavros who worked in the little bar next to our room, this man was amazing, so happy and friendly and became our friend!! We would deffo recommend gouves, it’s an amazing family resort which is for all ages from baby to teenagers/adult with the slides. Thank you for a fantastic week!!

We had a fab family holiday here during May! The resort is spotlessly clean, the cleaners all work very hard to keep it clean. The pools were still really quite cold but my children loved the water park! The entertainment team were really good and they too work really hard- Micky, Noah and Alex went out of their way to make sure everyone was having lots of fun! It was a shame that the children cant be included or have separate games for football/darts/water polo though. The food in the dining hall was good, plenty there even for the fussiest of eaters but the queues both there and at the bar were quite long each time. The Pizzas and Gyros station were amazing as was the Umami restaurant!! The lovely, sandy beach is just a 5 minute walk! They have an onsite photographer to take family photos if you wish which we did! There is some lovely sunsets here. At the end of your stay you can use the luggage room where there is lockers, showers and hair dryers you can leave a deposit and use clean towels for showering too which we found great as had a late flight home. If we come back to Crete we would return to Gouves Water Park but for abit longer as our time here flew by too quickly! Thank you for great memories made! ❤️

We had an amazing time on our holiday. I’d read various reviews before coming and to be honest I was worried before coming. But we loved it. I don’t think it can be classed as a 5 star but it’s definitely a good 4 star. The pools are sooo clean and think we found about 11 in total, to be honest the whole hotel is spotless. All the staff go above and beyond especially the cleaners, the pizza and gyro guys and the restaurant staff who work long days and are always so friendly. The animation team work so hard too and really make an effort to learn about you and make conversation while keeping you informed of all the things on that day. We had a family suite above the swim up rooms and it was beyond perfect! It was such a nice room and love that the kids had their own space rather than a sofa bed or extra beds in one room like most other hotels. People complaining about storage I’m not sure how much they are packing but we had plenty of room to unpack everything. Free safe with a key, mini fridge, amazing walk in shower, huge balcony overlooking a very private pool area. We were block 7000 and really happy here, our own bar, close to the street food, water slides and entertainment. The lady looking after our room was so lovely and did an amazing job and again so friendly. I’m not sure who people can complain about the food. We didn’t eat lunch in the restaurant only had the street food which was amazing and available from 12-6, but breakfast and evening meals were always good, so much choice. It’s not the uk so don’t expect a full English but there is so much lovely food you’d have to be beyond picky to not find something. The soft drinks aren’t the same as ours again but after a couple they taste fine and we still drank lots of them, didn’t love the cocktails but never do on all inclusive, rise wine was good and enjoyed the gin and tonic and beer. Ice cream was brilliant and in cones my kids loved this. The hotel was huge and we didn’t manage to explore half of it. From where the bud drops you off there’s a road up with shops for floats, snacks etc, and a few roads down to the beach with more shops. I didn’t love the area but I knew this before booking that it was quiet nearby. We did go to aqua city booked with the jet2 rep was really fun and the food there was lovely. Really enjoyed it and would definately come back. My kids made friends with our neighbours and they loved every second.

Just back from a 7 night stay at this hotel. Everything was great, no issues whatsoever. Great selection of pools to choose from and our 5 year old absolutely loved the slides in both the kids splash park and the bigger slides. Pools were a bit cold first thing but I put that down to the time of year we've gone. Food selection in the restaurant was always good and none of us ever struggled. The gyros and pizzas by the pool daily were really good. We never made use of any of the a la carte restaurants to comment on how they were. Good variety of evening entertainment 9.30 every night with a kids disco beforehand which our daughter loved. Also had a kids club which always looked busy but we never used. Beach is only a 5 minute walk away. 2 beds and a parasol was €8 for the day and there was a good selection of restaurants to choose from down there. On site supermarket was a bit pricey so we opted for walking down to the beach and using the ones along the front instead. We made use of the late checkout so we could enjoy our last few hours by the pool knowing we could get ready easily afterwards but you can use the showers down in the gym/spa I believe if needed. Our only criticism is that the children's splash park operates 11-6 and we felt it should open earlier, 10-5 would have been better but that's just being picky as we were always down by 9am so would spend time at one of the pools first instead. Every staff member we encountered was friendly and helpful of any questions etc. Added bonus of only being 15 minutes transfer from the airport too. Already starting to look at returning next year :)