We arrived at 2 am in the morning and were greeted very friendly at this time of night. After filling in the paperwork for out 1 week half board stay, we were taken to our room what was on the site of the complex next to the unloading area and the street side.
Because of the late arrival we were given 2 sandwiches and a apple .
We paid extra to have a sea view and if you’re standing up the wall of the terrace you can see a small section of the sea..
The first morning we were woken up at 6 by the garbage collector and a hour later by the delivery men and their lorry’s .
The restaurant had a in-and outside ( covered by a roof ) are and was large enough to hold all guests we thought. At breakfast you can wear what you want, but at evening dinner long trousers for men are needed, you don’t get in with your shorts. Woman can were the tiniest skirts, shorts sleeveless tops, men need to dress up, stupid rule when it’s real warm, but this is the hotel policy and you have to obey it if you wanne eat.
you can sit were you want and some people needed to sit at the same best places each day, meaning that they are standing at the door in the morning and evening hurrying to get in and sit there for 2 hours, just talking up space. Twice were told to come back in 20 min because the restaurant was full!! never had this problem before in a hotel.
Best time to go eat is at 20.30 then main crowds gone and you’ll find a place to sit.
the food in the morning was plenty full, no complaints here, everything you can imagine, from English to American to European breakfast and all was filled continually. Fresh orange juice was 1.20 euro.
Coffee was served in a small can, for tea you could chose your own.
Evening dinner was various all week long, with the basics as pasta and French fries always available.
the choice of fish , meat or chicken was available all week in it’s different forms, also there ‘s a large salad bar. 2 kinds of soup each day that changed every day. As for desert, there were pies and sweets, chocolate mouse, ice and fruits. The food was good, not excellent but nothing really bad to say here. The restaurant people are very nice and helpful although I think they are understaffed at some points, but they do their utmost best to help you get your drinks or clean your table asap, an ++1 for them and I have rarely seen such driven and friendly staff.
drinks are 1.50 euro for a beer, coca cola, a glass of wine cost 1.90 € , in full board you don’t have to pay of course, but we had 3 nights were they did not check our card and so we drinks were for free or was it because we had to wait to go to dinner?
Some guests were disturbed by the cats in the restaurant, but what do they expect in a open place, these people chase them out or kick them en then later on take pictures of these cats in the street !
3 bars in the hotel, drinks were not that great and the cocktails, well it’s better to go and have a drink elsewhere if you’re not in all inn, best bar was the one at the reception.
the room was specious with two beds that were on the small size . a extra pillow is available. the closet was big enough to put your clothes in. there is a big lcd tv with dvd player and about 18 channels, from Italian, German, Polisch and the news channels as cnn..
the room was cleaned everyday and the sheets were change 1 time in the week we were here.

The bathroom as not the standard you see in most hotels with a bathtub but with a big walk in shower what was a ++ for us. The window of the shower could have been a little bigger because it makes the bathroom all wet after your done.
their was only a small sink what is a little hard to put the shaving and other stuff on , but you can put it under the sink.
Our toilet leaked and so the bathroom was constantly under water, what I didn’t mind but there were footprints all over the room if you didn’t pay attention were you stepped.

There is also a internet docking point but that didn’t work, but you can make use of the free wifi that covers most of the hotel, just ask for the code at the reception.
There are 2 swimming pools and a small rocky beach area, what makes me wonder why this hotel is called silva beach . you can make use of a towel service and there is a spa area where you can have a sauna or Turkish bath for about 10 euro.

As stated in other reviews, there are not enough sun beds for all the guests and some get up early to reserve their daily spot and then use it only half the day. There is a sign saying that it is not prohibited to reserve a sun bed, but most people have no respect what so ever and just do what they want.
There is a daily animation team present that do their best to make your stay enjoyable but they do not push you to get involved. At night there are animation nights were most of the guests attended, here too it’s getting in early to get a place to sit.
The shows are very loud and if you have a room at the swimming pool or surrounding the romantic bar, don think about getting to sleep before midnight.
If you like to party, attend animation shows, lay in the sun the hole day, then this is a great place to stay, if you like peace and quite I would suggest to get another hotel.
All things considering this is a nice looking hotel in a nice surrounding smack in the middle of town.

Like an earlier reviewer, we arrived at the hotel very late, in fact after 1.00 a.m. Having read this previous review we were slightly apprehensive about our welcome, but were greeted very professionally and courteously and personally shown to an excellent room with a large shower room overlooking the beach promenade and the sea, even though - because of the reasonable price we had paid through an internet offer - we were expecting to be given a "side-sea" view. This unexpected bonus may have been due to the hotel being about to close down for the end of the season, or to an e-mail I sent to the Aquis Group Customer Services prior to our visit expressing my concern about the review in question and our late arrival.

First impressions of the hotel, though it was dark and drizzly, were very pleasing. Instead of the expected high rise building, the architect had created a "village" feel, a complex of small 2 storey blocks with interlinking stone pathways and attractive planting, reached from the main foyer which itself was set back slightly from the main road. There was a huge pool with an adjoining bar and a second smaller pool across the beach road, much much quieter, good for reading and resting.

I understand that where the hotel was sited and which we thought of as Hersonissus was an in fact only a part of it, an area called Limone(?), noisy, busy ribbon development town, very traffic-y, shops and restaurants still open and trying to make the most of the last week of the season. Fortunately when in grounds of the hotel you were not at all aware of noise and traffic. We were told that most tourist places would be closed until the spring. However, there was a pleasant walk to the harbour along the beach road and through what was once the original part of the town and, not being enthusiastic shoppers, this is the way we tended to go. We only managed to go on one trip over the mountains to the south coast which was lovely, as the Cretans were also on strike supporting the public servants' strikes on the Greek mainland, which meant for 2 days no buses, no taxis, no deliveries of petrol - more walking for us!

The food in the restaurant was buffet style, hot and cold, plenty of choice. The bread was gorgeous, lots of variety and freshly baked, the salads were amazing. It looked superb and, as soon as the contents of any of the dishes were nearly finished, the staff replaced them with freshly cooked dishes. The staff were brilliant, more so considering some of them would be out of work until the spring unless they managed to find work in Heraklion and one might have expected them to be a bit demotivated. We didn't eat at the Olive Tree, again because it was closed for the last week.

We had been asked by the travel company, before we left the UK, if we would accept being moved to another of the Aquis hotels (Aquis Zorba Village) and we had agreed. We later found that others who had been asked to do this said no, put us in the other hotel for the whole week. We would also have preferred this, as it would have been less disruptive, also the last day before we were moved from the Aquis Silva all the pool furniture was being taken away, there was a slightly desolate feel as though we were a bit in the way. As mentioned we would have preferred the Aquis Zorba as it was (though one of many hotels) right on a wonderful beach and we prefer the quiet to the shopping/business of the town. Others found this area too quiet - it just shows how different we all are. This hotel was similar in style to the Silva, well landscaped, superb service and food, they've obviously got an excellent Group ethos.

I last visited Crete 35 years ago. Sadly I wouldn't go back to this area again as it is now so built up, would only go to the west or south coast, but for an unexpected and economic late holiday, Aquis hotels provide excellent service and value for money.

As September 2011 drew to its close we again packed our bags for our departure to Crete from Bristol on the 1st October. Our Easyjet flight was again comfortable, enjoyable and without any problems. The coach trip from the airport to the hotel was good and reception including production of our photo ID for all-inclusive purposes was fast. We did upgrade our room for reasonable cost and had a suite on the front overlooking the sea. Great location and apartment which is a feature of the hotel, where the layout is like a traditional village with "houses" located around and on the seafront with a central restaurant, two pools, three bars and fitness centre. The food was really good, the apartment cleaning and services of a very high standard and the staff very friendly and always helpful. The local town and facilities were very much tourist orientated but in the Hotel area this was not evident and it was individual choice to use the many restuarents and and shops. With the excellent all inclusive package of food and drinks we were not tempted to go outside so much. As our holidays are always "walking orientated" we enjoyed the extensive walkways along the coast and in the very sunny/26degC weather during most of the seven days this was very enjoyable and we managed to walk 65km during this time.. Overall assessment is that it was exceptional value for money and we would not hesitate to go back for a similar deal. Visitors abroad from the UK are sometimes hard to please but in this Hotel there were many nationalities who can be even more fickle (scottish word meaning choosy) Including a balanced mix from Switzerland,Germany,UK.Russia, Latvia,Finland, Sweden,Italy Israel and others who had few complaints that we heard about in this adult only environment. The only downside to this trip was that my driving licence was in the custody of the Scottish Procurator Fiscal(court system) as the local police caught me trying to leave Scotland at high speed on the motorway a few weeks before. This prevented us from hiring a car for a couple of days and exploring further afield. Again many thanks to Easyjet, Querty Travel and the Aquis Silva Beach Management and Staff

We took advantage of a internet offer that looked to good to be true, but in the end had a superb stay at this comfortable hotel right on the beach. It is very well placed on the edge of the town to be quiet enough to relax in but just a short stroll if you want all the main attractions.
Our arrival was not too encouraging as a whole coachload of us arrived together from the airport (early hours of the morning due to the strike of the Greek Air Traffic Controllers) to be greeted by one lady only on reception. Booking in took an exceptional time, but she was very efficient remaining unflustered and everyone stayed calm.
This was our first experience of fully inclusive so we were somewhat pensive as to the quality of food, drinks etc. We did not have to worry as everything although not gourmet was very acceptable buffet style. The local wine and beer was OK, but the cocktails were superb with all well known proprietory brands being used.
The entertainment team were not the best we have seen, but made up for it a lot with great enthusiasm.
We found out that the hotel was closing for the season the day after we left which explained some of the shortages towards the end of the week. Altogether though we had a memorable holiday and will certainly consider going back again