Ammar Hattab
Review for Silva Beach Hotel, Crete (7 nights stay in August 2025):
The hotel could easily have received 5 stars from me, but there were a few details that held it back.
Location & Facilities:
The hotel is very well located, right in the middle of the shops and markets, with many cafés and car rental offices just across the street. The building itself is old, and so are the rooms, bathrooms, pools, and the sunbeds/chairs. Everything feels dated, but still clean and functional, so it doesn’t really affect the overall experience.
Cleanliness & Housekeeping:
In general, the hotel is clean and the housekeeping service is good. However, I had to ask personally for fresh towels, which wasn’t a big issue.
Restaurant & Food:
The restaurant offers a wide variety of dishes, mostly European cuisine, which should satisfy most guests. Sometimes you need to wait around 5 minutes to get a table, but this is actually well-organized since tables are assigned according to the number of guests—unlike other hotels where two people might occupy a table for six. Drinks are fine, but not everything is included in the “all-inclusive” package. For example, iced coffee and mojitos are extra. There is a clear list of what is included and what comes at an additional cost. Drinks are available until 23:00; after that, even soft drinks like cola must be paid for.
Room & Comfort:
The room had air conditioning, which worked well. The TV didn’t work, but honestly, who cares about TV when you’re on holiday?
The safe in the room has to be rented by the day. I think it's 3 or 4 euros per day.
Staff & Service:
This is the main reason I would return to Silva Beach Hotel. The staff are very friendly and go out of their way to make guests feel welcome. However, there was one negative exception: an older man working at the second pool bar (near the beach) on Sunday, August 24, 2025. He was extremely rude. When I reached for sugar placed above the coffee machine, he shouted at me and made me wait 10 minutes in line just to get sugar—something freely available everywhere else in the hotel. The same man was also impolite to four other families that day, even refusing to serve drinks without reason. Honestly, this person is a disgrace compared to the rest of the hardworking and polite staff. He should be placed in a role without direct contact with guests.
Overall:
Despite this one unpleasant experience, I had a good stay. The hotel is clean, well-located, with good food, and staff that (with one exception) are excellent. Without that negative encounter, this hotel could have easily earned 5 stars.
Amanda Morling
Beautiful hotel with accommodating staff, pools are excellent and food is good with lots of choices. It’s very typically what you would expect from an all inclusive. It was situated in lovely location, loads of shops . I had a lovely stay .
Gibeon Wijlaars
It is the people that make the place lovely. Although the rooms could use some maintenance, the employees are very friendly and open to the guests so you feel very welcome.
The food is good and we didn't need to reservate the Italian and Burger Restaurant long before. In the Minoan Restaurant all the meals are buffet.
The only anoying thing is made by the guests by the usual towel blocking from chairs at the pool. We still could come at 10am and had a choice where to lay down. It totally didn't make any sense.
Although the entrance in the sea is small and steep, the seawater was very clear and a little bit out, there is the home of a big turtle that lives there.
This hotel is at least in Cretean Style instead of concrete modern style.
Stan Servat
Don’t bother upgrading your room to the most expensive spec. Payed an extra £360 and wasn’t even better than a standard room which other family members were staying in. We did ask at reception but they told us we can’t move rooms as hotel was full. I would also would like to say how miserable the older chap at the beach bar was and this was mentioned by everyone we spoke to on holiday. We have payed for all inclusive and at times would only let you take1 drink max. I was asking for 2 orange juice one for my partner and one for me and was told I was only allowed one but served the person after me 2 drinks. Hotel location was good and had everything you needed near by. Overall with the rooms, food and some staff I won’t be coming back to the hotel as I had a poor overall experience.
Jasmin Mcphillips
Unfortunately, this experience was not a very good one.
Immediately upon checking in we were asked to give €100 per person deposit due to recent “destructive behaviour” caused by other young guests. This was not stated upon booking and a very rude way of being welcomed at 1am.
The hotel itself is in a lovely location next to a stunning beach and not far at all from other shops and restaurants, which was a lucky bonus.
There are three pools, one saltwater pool next to the romantic bar. One normal pool further down near the beach and next to the pool bar. And then down on the beach there was an ocean pool surrounded by rocks, but still with access to the ocean. These pools were all lovely, however it was very very difficult to get sun loungers as people would leave towels on them all day, and a fair few wouldn’t even show up but we were too nice to move them ourselves.
The food was shocking most days which we were very disappointed about. There was mostly no variety and the quality of the food was mostly poor, forcing us to eat out most nights, which when you’ve already spent so much on the holiday it’s not ideal to have to eat out every night.
The drinks were good and they had a decent selection of cocktails and were not made weak. However, the beer was not very good.
The rooms were just about adequate, however the bathroom is tiny and barely any room in the shower, which caused me to have a few bumps on the shower handle as there really was no space.
The staff were mostly nice and welcoming, and engaged in conversation often. There were only a small variety of staff who were a little bit ignorant and rude, however this was not too big of a deal.
The entertainment at this hotel was poor, which made the evenings drag a little bit and resulted in a fair few of early nights. And there was very limited seating which was not ideal.
Despite the hotel itself being disappointing, we still had a lovely holiday as we made the most out of it that we could. As I said before, there are loads of bars, shops and restaurants within a 20 minute walking distance both directions from the hotel which were all lovely.
This hotel is ideal if you are planning on being out and about most days, but I definitely would not recommend if you are looking for a hotel-based holiday as it just does not seem worth it.
My Booking
