Minos Ambassador Suite Hotel & Spa

Had a week at this hotel. Every meal was delicious. The staff are all brilliant. I’d like to name a few that were the best; firstly Argyro as she was the first waitress we met and she looked after us at every meal time whenever she could. Secondly Kostas, a delightful man who takes pride in his work and likes to help his guests. Finally, saving the best for last, Maria. She was just always happy, constant smiles and someone who (with her language and education skills) could do really well long term with her career at the hotel. She would be brilliant with things like guest relations and other management areas of the hotel if given the opportunity. The hotel is exceptionally clean and every day the bedroom was serviced to a really high standard that you could tell the team here really care about their guests. There was a fridge in the room as well as tea and coffee facilities along with water bottles replenished each day. Nice touch. Location is about 1hr 40 mins from Chania airport on coach transfers. We stayed half board so at lunch time made use of the near by supermarkets for lunch type snacks alternating with a walk into the old town (20 mins) to dine at one of the many cafes/restaurants there. This was a beautiful setting. The hotel is on a busy road which is one road back from the beach / promenade road. It’s a 5 - 7 mins walk to the beachfront. Lots of cafes on the beachfront close to the hotel that cater for all needs. Inside the hotel at basement level is a lovely indoor pool and spa. The sauna you had to pay for but the pool and gym was included in our stay. The gym was small and basic but did what I needed to do whilst on holiday. Massage treatments were available at the spa which were priced fairly competitively to those other spa shops around. Don’t leave it to trying to book for one on the day as they were always busy. Book ahead and speak to Georgia at the spa for that. I would recommend the hotel to anyone visiting this part of Crete. The hotel is adults only.

Stayed here beginning of May, didn't like our room, it was on the ground floor, like to have patio door open at night and wasn't happy doing that in the ground floor,phoned reception and they said they would move us the next morning with pleasure. Rooms are lovely and spacious with a good sized balcony, we could see the sea at the end of the road from ours. We had a bottle of bubbly and a baguette left in the fridge for us as we arrived at 11pm. The room was cleaned every day and fresh towels supplied. Moved to 1st floor after breakfast, the staff were lovely, polite, very accommodating and couldn't do enough to please us. Food was ok, breakfast buffet wasn't great, frankfurter type sausages, but we had freshly cooked omelettes or poached/fried eggs which were lovely. We ate out 3 nights to experience the greek cuisine and a bit of variety .Hard to get a sunbed by the pool as small space and limited number, I refuse to get up early on holiday to "reserve" one. Couldn't fault the restaurant/bar/reception staff. Very friendly and got us everything we needed. Always happy and smiling. I had a back neck and shoulder massage in the spa by Stella, very professional and a very good experience, felt thoroughly relaxed and chilled out afterwards, worth the 60 euros! Hotel was well positioned for walking to bars/restaurants and the old town. Definitely recommend the Hercules restaurant just along the seafront, do the best Cretan salad and the staff there are so nice and friendly. Only niggle we had was the coach transfer don't drop/pick you up directly outside the hotel due to the narrow road so have to either go through their sister hotel, Minos hotel via a bridge, or walk 5 minutes up the road, it was a bit confusing. All in all would recommend the Minos Ambassador and Crete, lovely people, lovely climate and food. Never seen so many motorbikes/scooters as there were in the area, was quite amusing. Took a trip on the little train tour around the old town, great value at 10 euros per person. Will definitely go back, but maybe Chania next time and self catering as don't like being beholden to set meal times in hotels, and we have seen Rethymnon now which is a lovely town. Thank you for a wonderful, relaxing, chilled out week. Did us the world of good ♥️

What is the criteria for a good hotel ? Location, good facilities, comfortable room - but above all else great staff. Sofia and her team, at reception, from the moment we arrived, ensured our stay was enjoyable and trouble free. Maya, Karmen, Elin and Stephanos were lovely and super efficient. Will we return ? Definitely.

This hotel is well designed and managed but if I could - I'd award 4 and a half stars because I think they could and should look after their staff a little bit better as the majority of them are excellent - polite and helpful without being intrusive. They work very long hours. I had a really pleasant stay there for a week with not a single complaint until my last day. The suites are spacious and spotless. They are cleaned to a high standard every day, and I appreciated that towels are replaced daily. Beach towels are provided. The beds are very comfortable. Balconies are covered but still sunny and are a welcome respite from the heat. The showers in the suites are excellent. Of note is that a fairly good hairdryer is in place in a drawer of the vanity unit and there's a magnifying mirror as well as a large mirror over the sink. The wardrobes have space and plenty of hangers. It's clear there has been attention to detail. Lifts to all floors are frequent and fast. We received a welcome gift of good quality sparkling wine and dried fruit, which was very much appreciated. Bottled water is always replaced daily. These are all the excellent points about accomodation. The rooftop swimming pool is small but it's well maintained - the water temperature is ok and it's very clean. Anyone with mobility issues should note however that it's not accessible. The ladder into the pool requires a bit of dexterity as the steps are not evenly placed. I think this could be improved. Sunbeds are plentiful and mercifully people don't reserve them! Many are under a canopy for those who don't want to lie under the full glare of the sun - this worked really well for me. There are plenty more beyond this for sunworshippers. Breakfasts in hotels - even those with 5*- can be a bit hit or miss, overall this hotel did a good job. There is table service for tea, coffee (comes in a pot thank goodness!) and freshly squeezed orange juice. Eggs are served to order and most days were really good. Everything else is presented buffet style and the standard overall for cooked and cold selections was high. Fresh fruit especially was always plentiful and a good choice. The coffee could be better but it was acceptable. The fact that it is served at the table is really a winner. Every day there was a choice of different breads and cheeses. It's a similar story with dinner - some parts are buffet style but main courses are served at table. In comparison with other similar hotels, food here is definitely of a very good standard and the dining area is nicely arranged. The possible negatives are: -Anyone looking for tranquility should note that it's close to a really busy road. After a day or so, traffic noise really didn't bother me, but if you're looking for absolute quiet ask for a room on an upper floor away from the road - you won't get a sea view in these but they'll possibly be quieter. On the upside it's a 5 minute walk to the promenade and all its bars and restaurants, and perhaps a 30 minute stroll along this route to the old town. So the location has many pluses as well as the minus of traffic. -During the day corridor lights are turned off -making them very dark. While I appreciate the environmental and cost reasons for this, it wasn't at all safe for anyone with compromised mobility - some light is definitely needed. -On the whole the bar staff did extremely well throughout the day and delivered drinks to wherever you were in the bar or poolside. At busy times in early evening however, there was still usually only one person serving which caused long waits. We had to abandon having a last drink on our last night because of this, because the bartender was distracted by making a big order of cocktails - we couldn't wait any longer for service. This wasn't his fault and he did apologise - but dining room staff could and should have been sent to help him. It slightly spoiled an otherwise first class experience over a week. -The hotel couldn't provide a late checkout for people with night flights. Although polite excuses were made, I got the definite impression they just won't do these - so it's probably a waste of your time to ask. They do provide a nice shower room and accessible luggage store on the ground floor for anyone with this dilemma, so this wasn't the end of the world but just the same, this wasn't great and not really 5*. It's a drive of about 80 minutes from Heraklion airport to the hotel- though probably longer at peak times. We only stayed a week so didn't take any excursions, but these are easily available - to Chania and various picturesque beaches. I'm not interested in the spa - the indoor pool there looked perfectly nice but to reach it you have to encounter spa staff. I had the impression treatments were a little expensive. Overall this hotel was a good experience and I'd stay there again.

Myself and my boyfriend had a fabulous holiday....however there were some issues from the start. Cons: We arrived after 11PM on Sunday evening and did not receive our welcome drinks on arrival and had to immediately pay 70 euros for tax. Our room was on the ground floor and when we were showed to our room, we opened the balcony doors and there was a prostitute standing outside of our room! We also had an awful view of a wood shed instead of the Seaview we thought we would get. We didn't feel safe being on the ground floor where anyone could climb over our balcony. The shower door knob was broken with sharp metal bits hanging off which cut my boyfriend's hand when he touched it. The next morning, we asked to change rooms and so they gave us a nicer room on the top floor. We finally got our welcome drink the next evening after complaining. I had emailed the hotel and messaged on Facebook and Instagram about 6 times saying it was our Anniversary and Birthday trip so was there any upgrade or extras they could provide as we haven't been broad since 2019. We received absolutely no response and when I queried it, they said I had emailed the wrong email address!? I got the email from their website! Shocking. At dinner, we asked for tap water because in the UK, we get unlimited free tap water and jugs put on the table. They do not provide tap water so we had to spend a lot of money buying 3/4 bottles of water for the first couple of days which was annoying. So instead, we saved our empty bottles and filled them up with tap water from our hotel room and put them in the fridge so we had 6 bottles of water each day. At breakfast, we accidentally put too much food on our plate from the buffet so we wrapped a couple of croissants in our napkin to take back to our room so we didn't waste food as we wanted to eat them later but we just were too full. The old lady serving us said we couldn't do that and told us off infant of everyone in the dining room. We were quite embarrassed and annoyed. My boyfriend then got told off later that evening at dinner by the same old lady for bringing a bottle of water from our hotel room to the dining room to drink. We didn't want to buy another bottle of water at dinner when we had 3 in our hotel room fridge! Ridiculous. This was Day 3 out of 7. We were fed up so we complained to the manager who was understanding and listened but of course had an answer for everything and it felt like he was in the right. We got no apology or compensation for anything. We met two ladies also from the UK who explained to us that they had also been given the same room 2 days prior to us arriving and also complained about the terrible wood shed view and shabby room. They were then moved up to the top floor. We all agreed that the free 15 minute massage was the worst massage we'd ever had and that we felt less relaxed than before and one of the ladies ended up in hospital with a bad neck. The girl who gave us massages was very young and inexperienced. None of us booked any treatments after that, especially as you have to pay to use the Spa! Showers were freezing in the evening probably when everyone was getting ready for dinner. Unacceptable. We only got a turn down and free chocolates and fresh towels 2/7 days. Pros: The food and staff were wonderful. Friday is a phenomenal chef and took the time to chat to us. Maya, Karmen and Stefanos on Reception were lovely. John was amazing. We appreciated Titus, Anastassia and Argyro our incredible waiters. And finally the biggest praise goes to Antonis who makes the best cocktails on the bar. We had some great conversations with him each evening and he made our stay so much better. Thank you to the staff for wonderful service and food.