Vantaris Garden

The beach was a highlight: wide, fine sand with only a few pebbles at the water's edge. One beach chair costs 5€ per day, and the umbrellas don't give much shade. Drinks from the bar taste good when charged. The hotel was comfortable overall, though V Palace seemed more comfortable, while V Garden was great value. Vantaris Palace and Vantaris Garden share a tunnel under the busy main road. V Garden is across that road from V Palace, and half-board meals are served at Vantaris Palace. The food was great, with plenty of variety and good flavor at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast included freshly squeezed orange juice, a chocolate fountain, and water. Drinks weren't included with lunch or dinner, not even tap water. Bottled water was 5.5€ for 0.75ml or 3€ for 1L, and a glass of dispenser "juice" was 4€. At Vantaris Garden, our comfortable room was quite large, with comfortable beds and sheets that looked clean. The furniture had lots of marks and needed a good wipe. The fridge was incredibly small, barely fitting 1.5l bottles of water. The AC seemed well maintained, but kept stopping by itself after a while, even when left on. We had room service every day, thank you. A mosquito net on the window or door was a big plus, and not something you see often in Greece. The balcony facing "the sea" also faced the busy, noisy Rethymno-Chania main road, so it was hard to sleep with the window or door open. The bathroom was mostly fine, with some mould here and there that could be fixed with chlorine products. The towels were awful. The bathroom towels were faded gray from long use and smelled strongly of washing powder, and the beach towels were also very overused. Vantaris Garden's beach towels were different from the new, nice-looking ones at Vantaris Palace, which added to the discomfort. One frustrating issue was the transfer. Kalamaki Travel's bus dropped us 400m from the hotel at an intersection, saying it couldn't take the road by Vantaris Garden. We had to drag our luggage through dust and rubble on a road under construction, only to discover check-in and check-out are handled at Vantaris Palace across the road. The bus could easily enter there, drop luggage, park, and turn around, and Vantaris Palace even gives guests a ride to Vantaris Garden when checking in or out with luggage. I found it extremely annoying and inadmissible that the local agent, KALAMAKI TOUR, hadn't considered this.