Phāea Cretan Malia, a member of Design Hotels

Ok for young kids but not ideal for teens |-underwhelming kids club, they seem to run out of ideas, every day it's arts and crafts or face painting, no outdoors activities or swimming etc. Our 6 year old was fine with it but on the cusp of being incredibly bored by the lack of variety. You get what you pay for I guess (it's free)...|- young kids activities are similarly unimaginative, there's a disco but it's a bit rubbish, there's an outdoor games area with a pool table and table tennis but no toys or anything else for young kids outside of the kids club.|- the outdoor pools... one is heated but still on the cold side for our 2 year old. The other is unheated and practically unswimmable in Oct. Freezing. |- the worst part is the deck beds situation: all the nice ones are reserved for specific rooms so the cold pool which is nicer to sit by than the kids heated pool is basically out of bounds unless you have a room with a specific sunbed attached to it. All the nice ones are in the sun and reserved. By the kids pool there are v few sunbeds that are in the sun or a location where you can watch your kids in the pool. It's too busy and there's nowhere to sit. When we tried taking one of the (many) sunbeds from the trees area and bringing by the pool we were told off rather rudely by the staff and told its not allowed.|I've never stayed anywhere where it's so hard to find a sunbed and when you do actually find one, it's impossible to use due to ridiculous rules. This one reason almost makes this a 2 star rating for me, and I'm actually still pretty angry about it.|- but, the food is actually pretty good. Not so much the buffet which is as good as they tend to be in these types of places, but the other restos are actually pretty decent. It costs a bit if you're not all inclusive though and overall with the other issues mentioned this I'd only stay here if your budget dictates it's best. There's a lot better places in Greece if you're willing to spend a bit more though.

My partner and I came to Crete for 10 days in September, and stayed at Cretan Malia Park. We had a wonderful time – the room was beautiful and the whole resort was gorgeous. Incredible food, we tried every restaurant and particularly enjoyed the Cretan one. The staff were so lovely and friendly. One thing for future travellers to be aware of – it's a VERY family-friendly hotel. I'd say it is a family hotel first and foremost, honestly. We were one of the only parties there without children. But, the children were all pretty well behaved and it certainly didn't spoil our stay. The music in the bar in the evenings was so lovely, especially the beautiful setting over the pool with the light. And we had a great time on the beach too. My top tip would be that the best sun loungers by the main pool are by far the orange beds, they have shade you can move around and aren't on the grass which can become muddy. It would have been nice to have more of those. Only downside for us was that the quieter River pool, with signs asking children not to play or be loud and so was more adult-only, only had poolside beds dedicated for particular bungalows/rooms. Some days they weren't used all day, but they were designated as for those rooms still, so we couldn't use them. This was a bit frustrating when the main pool was full of kids having fun, and the river pool was beautifully quiet and peaceful. We could still use that pool, but we couldn't relax by it. I'd love it if the hotel would rethink that policy. That really was the only downside, otherwise we had such a wonderful stay and would definitely visit again.

This hotel is a delight, with beautiful design and friendly staff, perfect for a stylish family holiday. The pool areas offer both lively and calm spots, while the beach is stunning, though not ideal for small kids due to frequent red or black flags during our stay. The three on-site restaurants—Italian, Cretan, and Levante—are all excellent, with Levante being our favorite. Room cleaning was impeccable, and it was always a pleasure to return to a fresh, tidy space. The kids club was also great and our kids loved hanging out there. ||We took the cooking class which was one of the highlights of the trip. We spent an afternoon in their beautiful garden picking veggies and then cooked with head chef. The kids and us loved it! ||The beach shack was decent but overpriced and lacked a strong concept. The gym was the biggest letdown—small and poorly equipped, especially for strength training, with limited and low-quality weights. A proper free weight rack would be a great improvement.||Overall, we're already planning to return and hope they make some adjustments to make this our new favorite resort.

An honest review - the hotel is smaller than it seems on the website. The rooms are ok - our family of three stayed happily in a sea view room (although the balcony made it impossible to see the sea if you were sitting on one of the chairs outside - so not sure if the extra cost was worth it at all). Make sure you book half or full board as you will be crippled by the cost of the food if you do not. Average price for us (we didn't do half or full board unfortunately) was over 100 euros each meal. They charge 75 euros for a portion of red snapper or bream - over 10 times that of M&S - daylight robbery. 6 euros for a portion of french fires and 4 euros for a bottle of water. Ridiculous. Cleaning staff of the rooms were great, hotel staff so-so. They have a lot of temporary staff from various universities in Europe doing work experience for three months which means there is no feeling of pride in the island or the hotel, it makes it feel transient. Malia itself is not really worth going to unless you need the supermarket. Do not go to the restaurants advised by front of house - they are average at best and not worth the money. Great hotel if you stay put and do not want to explore. Beware - if you are not out before 8am/8.30am on the beach all the beds are taken or 'reserved' with towels etc. so if you want to go to the beach you need to join in that madness.

This was our second stay at Cretan Malia Park, and once again, it exceeded our expectations. The hotel is on a beautiful beach, surrounded by lovely gardens, pools, and various dining options. The beach has two small bays, one is a bit rockier and the other is sandy. The sea was very calm, perfect for children. ||||What sets this hotel apart is its ability to cater to families without sacrificing comfort or style. Our daughter loved spending time at the Kid's Club each morning, allowing us parents to relax and enjoy the beach or other hotel amenities. ||||Despite the hotel's size, it has a charming boutique feel and never felt overcrowded. For example, we always found available lounge chairs at both the beach and the pool areas, even during mid-August, which was a pleasant surprise. We also had no issues with the service or wait times at restaurants. At times, it seemed that we had some areas to ourselves.||||We also appreciated that while the hotel is family-friendly, it doesn't go overboard with flashy attractions like large water parks or loud discos. Everything is done in a way that creates a serene atmosphere for everyone. ||||We had the half-board with daily buffet breakfast and dinner—it was perfect for us and our 5-year-old. Both had a rotating menu that kept things interesting. For more variety, the hotel offers several bars and restaurants. We particularly enjoyed lunch at the Beach Bar. One suggestion would be to have more snack options besides sandwiches in the beach lounge area. ||||Finally, the staff was consistently helpful and accommodating in all areas of the hotel. For example, we had an issue with our room that was promptly addressed, making for a more enjoyable stay. We're really pleased we decided to come back again this summer and plan to return.

Rating: 2/5||The hotel has a nice interior and design, but unfortunately, the service was lacking. We were disappointed to find that the pool and hotel shop had no swimming equipment for kids, which made it less family-friendly. The sunbeds near the heated pool were always occupied, so relaxing there was almost impossible.||The kids’ cinema and disco sounded like a great idea, but it turned out to be just music playing from a tape, and the “disco” was essentially an open stage where children could dance if they wanted. It felt a bit underwhelming.||As for the food, the dinner buffet was disappointing—poor selection and quality. Breakfast was okay, but nothing special.||The hotel is fine if you’re just looking for a place to sleep, but it’s not ideal if you’re planning to hang out with kids. Despite advertising bikes, there weren’t any available on-site. Instead, they offer to take you into town to rent them, which was inconvenient.||Overall, we expected more for the price.

Very nice looking hotel with poor service levels. More of a 4*, not 5*. Messed up our reservations, tried to overcharge us, also made lots of small mistakes, and were not very apologetic, even the manager. When I shared feedback the staff did not welcome it, instead being defensive and saying "this is how we do things". No desire to listen and improve. Not value for money. Also loads of children - a lot more than we expected.

NOT WORTH THE PRICE. DEFINITELY NOT A 5 STAR HOTEL. 🛌Rooms: As the hotel claims to be member a member of Design Hotels, we expected a well furnished room. Instead it was pretty basic and not design at all. Maybe you just need to put a FAKE FlowerPot VP1 pendant light from &Tradition in the room. Furthermore the furniture within the room looked pretty used and as they have their best days behind them. 🚽Cleanliness: We expected also 5 stars when it comes to cleanliness, but here we clearly need to say it was max. 3 start niveau. There as a lot of sand and hair in the bathroom when we arrived, we expected that during the next day somebody would clean that during the morning routine. Did not happen. After the second day, we had to go down and mentioned it specifically. Afterwards it was clean. BUT only for one day. Nothing changed and we were pretty frustrated and tired of mentioning it every day. Furthermore we had a lot of ants in our room. We had to mentioned that twice. It changed after that, and we now had to live with a graveyard of ants on front of our door. 📢 Noise: Be careful when you choose a room. I would not recommend to have one in the main building. Reason is that the rooms are super clairaudible. In the early morning you can hear the busses arrive to pick up or drop off new guest and night until 22:30 / 23:00 PM you will have a DJ live set banging. Afterwards if you are lucky, the people at the outside bar will laugh and talk, which you will hear in your room. 🍔Food: The food was okay. Also here, the expectation for a 5 star hotel is higher. In the main restaurant you will have a buffet. The nice part is that they prepare plates for daily specials, which look restaurant like. You can also eat in one of the other restaurants. We had half-board, and therefore had to pay these meals. We went 2 times, it is super expensive and the quality is more or less like a pretty normal restaurant in a bigger city. 💸 Price: The price for one night was for us approximately 350 EUR, and in a nutshell it was not worth it. Additionally you need to consider as another commenter mentioned the day-light-robbery. I attached the pricing sheet of the restaurant and bars. As you can see a normal beer will cost you 6,50 EUR and an Aperol 13,00 EUR. But no worries you can also eat bread for 9 EUR or pretty basic pasta for 19 EUR which will come with almost 10 mussels. Wow 10 complete mussels…