Grand Blue Beach Hotel

The location of this hotel is brilliant for accessing the centre. Hotel has a steep incline to the restaurants so the buggy carts a necessity. Pools nice and no problem getting sunbeds. Rooms spacious. Unfortunately the food a let down for a hotel of that standard. The snack bar food non existent. There is nothing to eat from about 2.30 till 7. The warm items such as pizza bits were there that long they were rock hard and inedible. Sandwiches dry and also inedible. Once gone nothing replenished.
Staff slow to set tables and not quick to fill up empty dishes in the restaurants. Food not child friendly. A first for us being hungry in an all inclusive. If travelling with young children I would definitely take snacks with you. We were told when complained that the chef would prepare something of choice but required 24 hours notice. Some drinks premium but also own brands were used a lot. The entertainment on a plus was very good. The stage however where they hold the kids disco a nightmare if you have toddlers as quite a big drop so a little unsafe.
The park is nice but on sand so gets very hot till later on in the day. Hotel does offer a free visit to the waterpark.

My family of four including two teenage lads have just returned from a week at the Grand Blue Hotel and below is our honest review.

Location - The hotel has some of the best views we've ever experienced, it's 15 mins from the airport and 10 mins stroll along a beach road into Kardamina. It's situated on a very steep hillside but the hotel offers buggies to transport guests around.

Rooms & Facilities - The rooms include tea & coffee and are very clean. Facilities include gym, tennis courts, table tennis & 3 pools.

Sunbeds - Amazing !!!! Didn't have to set the holiday alarm for a sunbed, there were plenty available upto 10am and even midday.

Staff & Entertainment - All the staff are extremely friendly and speak English very well. Nicolas in the bottom pool bar made fantastic cocktails. Daytime was general games, darts water polo with a kids mini disco and main act at 21:30, these acts were of mixed standards.

Restaurants - There are two main restaurants and an Al-a-Carte. We had food allergies within our party and Mrs Dimitra was fantastic with looking after us.

Drinks - This was the biggest let down, the only premium drink is coke cola. All decent beers, ciders, spirits & cocktails (eg mojitos) you have to pay for. Also the coffees & drinks are served in paper & plastic cups. Other bars & restaurants are glass.

Overall my family had a fantastic relaxing time and would definitely return.

I am going to be completely honest here, there are pros and cons. We arrived at around midnight with two children who were very tired. Check in took a short while, but we were given a mocktail while we checked in, and handed a bag with sandwiches and apples in before we went to our room. The receptionist, I felt, did not explain how the hotel worked very well which I will go in to later. After check in, a buggy drove us to our room which we a fun perk, and definitely better than dragging cases down a huge hill. On arrival, our rooms were well presented, clean, tidy and modern. The pool and pool bar was very close to our room, which we loved. I believe wherever your room is you’re close to a pool which again, is a good perk!

The food - the hotel has 3 restaurants, two at the top of the hill, and one near the bottom close to the “quiet pool” the food is basic at best. There were little to no option for children, no chicken nuggets, pizza wasn’t on daily, and we did not see fish fingers more than once, so our children really struggled. The panorama restaurant has a theme night which was ok, not amazing and not 5* or even 4*, pork chops were impossible to cut or chew through for example. The lunch menu at the restaurant is poor. The restaurant by the quiet pool did offer a late breakfast and lunch time menu, sandwiches, a few pasta dishes and salad which was lovely, but we obviously did not want to eat that every day, they could benefit from a few more options maybe? The pool bar snack menu is the absolute worst I have ever come across. There are options available to grab, sandwiches (on hard bread), salad, and a few pastries but that’s pretty much it. One of the chefs comes down for around 2 hours and makes something but there is only 1 option eg, hot dogs one day, burger the next - and again, it is on hard bread. My kids could not chew through the bread. After 2/3pm (can’t quite remember the time) there is no hot foot available until the evening, so if you have small children they have to wait until evening for a meal. In previous places we have usually fed our children before going to the room to get ready which has kept them full, but this was not an option here. Overall, we were disappointed in the lack of children’s options, and even for adults and the lack of choice of hot snacks at the pool bar. Around 4/5 days in I did go and speak to reception about the disappointment in the food, they said we could speak to a chef and they’d make something for the kids, so I did this and was told I needed to give them 24 hours notice. On one occasion they brought a pizza to our room but it was not the same quality we had seen in the restaurant. The next evening the chef made a pizza for us using the pizza oven and it was great, the kids loved it. So I was glad that although it took a bit of messing and back and forth, we finally had a solution.

The first 5 days of our stay, our room was “cleaned” once which was barely cleaned. We did have to call during this period and ask for bedding to be changed as one of our children spilled a drink, and they did come and do this straight away. After that it was cleaned daily or almost daily which was great.

Buggy - To save walking up the hill all the time, you can call a buggy to get around.

The entertainment - Two fabulous ladies do the entertainment for the whole hotel, they do 2 one hour sessions for kids club which my eldest loved. They do aqua gym, Pilates, killer darts, and a kids disco. They work so hard and are an asset to the hotel. The stage area is elevated from the concrete and there is no safety area around it, or fence. We believe this is an accident waiting to happen as the kids are running and dancing around there in the evenings for the disco etc. It is the least safe stage we have come across and needed to address this. The park is covered with sand, sharp bits of shell, rocks and shrubbery growing through it. We even found bits of broken mirror AND glass. I reported this to reception but they did not seem concerned, and I’m not sure if it was dealt with. So if you take your children there, do so with shoes on feet and caution. (This was on the last day did so did not get brought up when I spoke to management initially)

One evening after we had been out, our room was full of ants, we called about this and was told someone would be down in a few minutes, 40 or so minutes later we called back as we needed to put the kids to bed, so we told them we would sort it and could they come back in the morning, they said yes, but no one came back. After this I did go and find a manager to explain the issues we had faced during our stay, she was so nice, and apologetic, and helped us with sorting food for the little ones. She did say that after I had gone to reception the first time, she had asked for a letter to be delivered asking to meet me but I didn’t receive this so not sure if it was sent, but it didn’t matter too much as she was very good at dealing with the issues I raised.

Overall, If you’re a solo traveller or couple, then this hotel would be good, the town is a very short walk away, there is a quieter pool area and the entertainment in the evening is great. If you have children (especially smaller ones) I would avoid this place, due to food and safety concerns.

The grounds are beautiful, rooms are lovely and modern, drinks choices are great, but that is unfortunately where the positives stop for me.

It is worth noting that MOST of the staff are incredible, the manager we spoke to, the lady behind the pool bar, Yanis, the buggy driver is a great person and the reception staff were always very friendly.