ZeppelinFan950
October 29, 2023
We visited Giannoulis Grand Bay Hotel at the end of September/beginning of October and enjoyed a very relaxing week in Kolymbari. This is not the location or hotel to go to if you are seeking a lively action-packed holiday, but if you are looking for an adults only all-inclusive hotel situated right on the beach with excellent food and drinks, friendly staff and comfortable accommodation then you will not be disappointed. We booked a sea front first floor junior suite (room 328) which gave us a very large room with comfortable bed, balcony and good-sized bathroom with lovely toiletries, and a powerful shower set over the bath with a Perspex screen. No awful shower curtain here. We did need to ask for a shower mat to go into the bath which was swiftly provided. The room was clean and bathroom towels and swim towels were changed daily, or even twice daily, if necessary. There are a variety of rooms on offer, several swim up rooms with private or shared pools, some with a sea view and others set behind the two sea front blocks. You just need to choose which room best suits your needs and budget. The main pool is on the sea front with sun loungers by the pool and plenty more on the beach. The main restaurant has indoor and beach front seating, the buffet offerings for breakfast, lunch and dinner were very varied, with a large salad bar, traditional Greek dishes as well as chips, pizza, etc. Desserts, cakes, ice cream and fresh fruit all available. We certainly did not get bored and although we had planned to eat out a few times at the nearby tavernas we did not as the buffet selection was excellent. The beach front location is delightful, the beach itself has small pebbles so take swim shoes if you plan to swim in the sea. The breakwaters in the bay meant the sea was calm most of the time, although we did have a couple of windy days when the sea was rough and several kite surfers arrived to entertain us. The village itself is rather run down, but has a lovely little harbour, plenty of traditional sea front tavernas and a few shops. We booked a half day boat trip from Kolymbari harbour which took us along the coast with two swim stops for snorkelling with all equipment provided. For a few Euros you can take the bus to Chania to see the beautiful Venetian harbour, the bus runs regularly and stops outside the hotel. We travelled with Tui who did not have a visiting rep, but the JET2 rep was very friendly and happily arranged a trip for us on one the road trains where we visited an orange plantation, nunnery and winery with wine tasting. If you book a Tui transfer you might find (as some in our party did) that the transfers to and from the airport took over an hour with numerous stops for other travellers. However, we arranged Easyjet flights (as the flight times suited us better) with our Tui booking and only had to share our transfer minibus with another couple of holiday makers. This is a small hotel with just under 80 rooms and only had entert