Golden Bay Boutique Hotel & Bungalows

Lovely hotel - spacious rooms and comfortable beds. We had a studio with shared balcony - would have been nice to have a private one. The staff are amazing - we were greeted with such a warm welcome by George and Hanni. Joanna in the pool bar is the loveliest funniest lady - she is so friendly and teaches you Greek along the way when you order anything - she definitely helped to make our holiday a fun one. The hotel is a great base for anyone wanting to hire a car and explore the island , which is what most people during our stay seemed to be doing. Cons - the evening food wasn’t great, we were disappointed as we thought that having the food in the taverna next door would mean that we would have traditional Greek food - sadly not the case. I would probably recommend staying here as Bed & Breakfast for that reason. The local beach isn’t great either - if you’re not hiring a car then I recommend getting on the bus in Gournes and going to Analipsi which is only 15 mins away - such a beautiful beach with lovely beach clubs and traditional tavernas. We also got the bus into Heraklion, 20 mins in the other direction - it’s a lovely city and the bus is so cheap at €3 for 2 of us each way. All in all a great relaxing holiday but if we came back we would hire a car to get out and about a bit more as not much in Gournes itself

Just spent a relaxed and enjoyable week on a tight budget with family at Golden Bay Appartments. We booked bed and breakfast in a family room and travelled from the UK with TUI. It's a lovely place to visit, in a quiet part of the island, right on the sea front and not far from Heraklion. We liked the fact that everythings moves at a gentle pace and is very relaxed. If your looking for night clubs and parties it won't be for you. This was our second visit here and we noted lots of recent improvements with the rooms, bar and pool area. There are plenty of holiday activities if you want them, we did a couple of excellent boat trips and a day out to Knossos. There are a few restaurants in walking distance along the sea front but not much else going on. If you want a relaxing break we recommend a few days by the family friendly pool, plenty of good sunbeds and the bar is open all day for food and drinks. The management and staff are all very friendly and will do their very best to make sure you have good holiday. Recommended. We'll be back. Thank you, Chris, Sadie and Rowan.