My friend and I stayed here in august 2010, we came to Crete to party but didn’t want to stay anywhere in Malia as the hotels are cheap and too basic there. Stalis is in the middle between Malia and Herssonisos, so you have a choice where to go at night. What's good about cactus beach: clean renovated rooms; a/c works very good; our room was on the ground floor and we had a wide terrace overlooking the road and the sea, the territory is small but cozy and very green with beautiful flowers and actually lots of giant cactuses :))) the beach is very nice, water is blue and clean. Some greek friends said that between Malia and Hersonisson Stalis has the best beach. Seems to be true. The food at the restaurant is average, greeks can do better, there are lots of good restaurants and bars around in Stalis serving better food.
What's bed: a lot of families with kids, not the best experience for the party animals suffering the hangover in the morning. If you stay in the room with the sea view, you will face the evening live music in the bar across the road. Every given night the men had the exact same track list in the same order; it was fun only during first 3 nights. It was loud we could listen to our own music on our wonderful terrace! We were there for two weeks and the guy is doing it every other night during whole season, I am really sorry for him :)))
Another thing that really unpleasantly surprised us was the staff. People at the reception and at the restaurant didn't really care, I am not asking for a special treatment at this sort of hotel, but a smile or just a simple "Hello" is not too much to ask, isn’t it? BUT night shift at the reception was really polite and fun, the nice old men ordering taxi for us every night was really sweet, unfortunately I don't remember his name. The animation is there for families, it's loud but if you are not interested you can easily avoid it, they are ok!
Well, it is not 4* service, but 3+ for sure and with a better cook and nicer staff can be really cute 4* hotel for families and picky party animals.
As for the rest, Crete really worth renting a car for 3-4 days, so you get a real impression of the island and people. Spending time only at the beach won't give you even the 3d of the experience!

Stayed all inclusive through Olympic Holidays. Our room was at the top of the complex however on arrival we were advised our cases would be brought to our room by the conceierge. They arrived within minutes of us reaching the room. The room was large with a long terrace facing the pool and within ten yards of the pool bar. The room was spotless and any problems are dealt with quickly. We found the staff to be courteous and professional, they may appear to be more formal than other Greek apartments we have stayed at previously, however we put this down to the fact that most of the guests were German and there maybe a greater expactation of a more formal service required, if you engaged in conversation and British with them and they realised you were British they did react in what we would call a more Greek manner. There is entertainment which is ok. The food consists of a Buffet which was superior to other places the choice is wide and changes daily, there is a chef in the buffet who cooks items such as steak, fish etc each night. You can also eat a a tratorria on site and a Greek restaurant once a week bothe were very good. The all inclusive runs from 10am to 11pm the choice of drinks is fine, between 3pm and 4pm coffee and cake as well as ice cream is served apart from that there are no snacks available however the dining room does not close for breakfast till 10am the reopens for lunch at 12.30 and closes at 2.00 so it is not as though you should be desperate to eat in the meantime, there is a mini market on site where you can buy snacks if you wish. The only negaitve was the lack of information given about what is available in the all inclusive. You are given a map and bullet points of opening times but you are not told you have to pre book for the trattorria and taverna which caused us a little embarrassment when we turned up and asked for a able without booking. We were also not told that the taverna doubles as a bar for guests on the beach. However all in all this is a clean professionally run hotel well placed for the rest of the amenities in Stalis. If you are looking for a holiday where you will mix with the majority of British guests then this is not for you, if you are looking for a peaceful hassle free holiday with almost everything you want on site then this is for you

We book through Neckermann/Thomas Cook. The restaurant was fine and buffet food quite varied for the mass catering they were doing, staff in resturant friendly, pools OK, but the room was a HUGE disappointment and nothing like the brochure pictures. Quite dark, cramped, basic, tatty and dilapidated and really really filthy. We found dirty clothes belonging to the previous occupants in the room, the bathroom really needed to be scrubbed with bleach and flooded everytime you took a shower as the tray so small and cracked, and there were dirty black fingerprints all over the tables,doors and fridge which I think could have been removed if someone had bothered using a cleaner and some elbow grease. Cleaning staff basically just swept the room and no actual cleaning occurred. The air con didn't work and further dripped regularly onto the bed below it - we complained but nothing was fixed or improved. Soft furnishing and towels were aged and fraying. We worried about the security of our room when a small amount of money and some of my teenage daughter's clothes disappeared from the room. We did inform the reception, but they were blase. All the entertainment was in German. Balcony was too small to hold the patio furniture they had tried to fit onto it, so you couldn't actually sit there, and overlooked a patch of waste ground. Would NEVER go back, and were really glad we had opted out of the all inclusive. The bars were lacking in atmosphere and charm - we went elsewhere every evening

We booked the Cactus Beach through Thomas Cook thinking that we would be guaranteed a decent hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel is probably a two-star (but advertised in the Thomas Cook brochure as a three-star). Upon arrival we were very depressed to be given a small, dark room in the centre of the complex. Within a few hours the evening entertainment had begun meaning our young daughter had no chance of sleeping because of the noise. We complained and were moved far away to a quiet annex of the hotel but this time the smell of cigarettes started coming through the air conditioning. A final move gave us a decent room (room 815).

The guests are mainly from Germany and Russia and the main language for the entertainment is German. the same goes for the kids club which, due to the language barrier, had little to offer my five-year old. Also, there is no gym (even though Thomas Cook advertised one) - you have to go to the hotel next door (the Cactus Royal) and pay 10 Euros for a day pass.

Food from the buffet restaurant wasn't bad but became very repetitve. All inclusive covered soft drinks, local beer and raki. The two a la carte restaurants (Italian and Grek) were absolutely awful.

The hotel is very close to the beach (very clean but became quite crowded) and the sea was lovely. The hotel's swimming pools were also clean but very, very small and crowded.

Outside the hotel, Stalis (Stalidha) is a fairly quiet resort good for families. There are enough of restaurants and bars to keep you happy. The Anatolia restarant was expensive but the quality of food and service was superb (ask for Andreas - the maitre'd and son of the owner). Also recommended is the Africa Bar which serves very generous cocktails and has a great barman (Dejan) from Serbia.

Overall, I had a nice holiday and would return to Stalis but not to the Cactus Beach.

Nick
London