Caravel Zante

My wife and I just got back from a 10-day holiday at the Caravel, and whilst it was a lovely holiday, there are a few areas where we feel the hotel could improve and some experiences we wanted to share which others may find helpful.

Firstly, the main positive points. The location is amazing; you are right on the beach, and the view from the majority of the hotel is stunning. You are also very close to numerous bars, restaurants and shops, all within close walking distance.

The service throughout the hotel is also very good. Some staff go out of their way to be friendlier and more talkative than others, but overall, we had no complaints.

We also enjoyed our room; we were in the newer block (the 800's) and had a swim-up room, which was a real positive, as we got a good amount of sun throughout the morning, and we did not have to struggle to get sun loungers (on some of the days they were all gone, with the classic leaving-of-the-towels trick in full force). The room itself was fine, though perhaps a little bland.

We also enjoyed the spa; the staff were helpful and friendly, and we had a fantastic treatment from Alex and Dimitra.

Overall, we did not have any bad experiences as such, but like many reviewers have mentioned (and numerous guests we spoke to commented), this is definitely not a 5* experience.

Areas of the hotel clearly need some sprucing up. There are several very obvious marks or patches on walls and ceilings (including the restaurant) which make the place look tired and dated. The sun loungers and some other furniture also look like they need to be replaced, and whilst we enjoyed our room, the decking also looks very tired and worn.

The food also could benefit from a review. It was nice but very repetitive and not to the same level of quality and choice that we experienced when we stayed at a previous TUI Blue in Crete last year. There are also some small touches that again highlight that this is not a true 5* experience. On our visit to the culimarium, my wife ordered her dessert, and it was served in the same type of glass as the juice is served in with breakfast. Not a big deal, but not exactly representative of how they market themselves. Likewise, often in the restaurant, cutlery and glasses were either missing or inconsistently laid out.

There is also an issue of noise, especially in the morning from around 9am onwards. The corridors echo quite a lot; we were woken up daily by the noise of the staff talking loudly or communicating via radio. That's understandable; they do have a job to do, but if you are a light sleeper or want a lie-in, that's not especially possible, and it was considerably louder than we had experienced at other hotels.

However, we would like to highlight the cleaner that we had (unfortunately we did not catch her name) who cleaned the ground floor in our block; she was great, super friendly and did a fantastic job.

I appreciate this sounds like entitled moaning, but that's genuinely not our intention. I am not one for leaving tons of reviews, and my wife used to work for a hotel, so she has a lot of patience and understanding for how hard it is. We just wanted to share this feedback as it was echoed by numerous other guests we spoke to, in the hope that some tweaks will be made ahead of next season.

It is a lovely hotel but fell short of the standards that would have truly made this the high-end experience it markets itself as. We would recommend the Caravel, but would likely not return.

Tried a full body massage using Raki at the spa Nora did an amazing massage, feeling fantastic

Don’t normally go for spa experience but thought we’d give it ago. Head, shoulder & back massage Wow feel super relaxed now, all knots gone Dimitra was amazing, checked to make sure everything ok throughout Atmosphere was relaxing