Aquila Atlantis Hotel
Aquila Atlantis Hotel is a 164-room city hotel from 1968, a minute’s walk from the Archaeological Museum, with a rooftop pool over the Venetian harbour and a second pool in its atrium. It is sixth of 47 hotels in Heraklion on Tripadvisor at 4.5 across 1,511 reviews, with 8.7 out of 10 on Booking.com across 1,329. Our verdict lands at 8.0 out of 10: the closest of the city hotels to the museums, held back by aircraft noise and a rooftop that promises more than it delivers. We earn a commission if you book through the links on this page, which never decides what we write.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Aquila Atlantis Hotel |
|---|---|
| Address | Ygias 2, Heraklion |
| Type | Hotels |
| Style | Five-star city hotel from 1968, renovated 2013, bathrooms refitted 2026 |
| Signature | Rooftop pool over the Venetian harbour, plus a semi-covered atrium pool |
| Keys | 164 rooms and suites, 24 to 26 sqm, up to a 90 sqm Grand Suite |
| Dining | Ariadni restaurant with live piano in season; Akali lobby bar; pool bar |
| Location | 1 to 2 minutes to the Archaeological Museum, 7 to Lions Square, 9 to the harbour |
| Nearest airport | Heraklion (HER), about 6.3 km, roughly 8 minutes |
| Booking.com rating | 8.7/10 (1,329 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.5/5 (1,511 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.0/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 22, 2026.
Location
Aquila Atlantis Hotel is located at Ygias 2, Heraklion, in Heraklion Town. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Aquila Atlantis suits, and who should skip it
Aquila Atlantis suits museum and old-town visitors who want a large room with a proper bathroom and a harbour view, and conference guests needing space for up to 850. Skip it if aircraft overhead will spoil your stay, if you want warm water on a roof terrace, or if you will not check which way your room faces. The lists below come from recurring themes across its 1,511 Tripadvisor reviews and 1,329 Booking.com reviews.
Advantages
- The Archaeological Museum is 1 to 2 minutes away on foot, the closest of any hotel in this programme, with Lions Square 7 minutes and the harbour 9
- Bathrooms are singled out for praise, unusually: marble, large, rain showers with real pressure and full-size baths, and the hotel announced a full open-plan bathroom refit in February 2026
- Cleanliness 4.8 on Tripadvisor and 9.1 on Booking.com, with daily housekeeping noted
- Rooms are generous at 24 to 26 sqm, and the Grand Suite runs to 90 sqm with a spa tub
- Harbour View categories look straight over the Venetian port and Koules fortress
- Ariadni serves an extensive buffet with live piano and vocals in spring and summer, and there are 6 conference spaces for up to 850
- Certification is real here rather than claimed: Green Key, Travelife, ISO 14001, ISO 50001 and ISO 22000, plus a place in the Top 100 Sustainable Hotels and Resorts of the World for 2024
Disadvantages
- Aircraft noise: the hotel sits under the airport approach and concedes in writing that it is unavoidable here
- The rooftop pool is Booking.com’s only listed complaint, with 45 mentions of cold water, a small deck and too few umbrellas
- Some rooms face only the internal atrium, which is the source of the view disappointments in the review file
- The building is older and shows it in places, as one 2026 guest put it, starting to look a little tired
- Only a few free spaces on site; otherwise a nearby underground car park at about 10 euros a day
- A government environmental tax of 15 euros per night applies from April to the end of October
The rooms: 164 keys, and three different outlooks
Aquila Atlantis runs 164 rooms and suites, from 24 sqm Classic doubles through 26 sqm Superior, Deluxe and Executive Harbour View rooms with balconies to 36 sqm Junior Suites and a 90 sqm Grand Suite, with marble bathrooms and parquet floors throughout.
The one thing to get right is the outlook. Rooms face the city, the harbour, or the hotel’s internal atrium, and the atrium rooms are why view complaints appear at all. Book a Harbour View tier by name and ask for a high floor, which also helps with the aircraft. The bathrooms are the surprise here: guests who complain about small bathrooms elsewhere in Heraklion single these out as the largest they found in Greece.
Two pools, Ariadni and the roof terrace
There are two pools, an open rooftop pool with an unobstructed view over the harbour and Koules, and a semi-covered pool in the atrium, both running April to October and neither heated.
Be realistic about the roof. The view is genuinely the best of any hotel pool in the city, but the water is cold, the deck is small and under-furnished, and one recent guest described a large terrace with a single table and a few chairs. The hotel’s own reply to that guest treats a rooftop bar as a future idea constrained by the building’s protected character, its own at-a-glance page counts one restaurant and one bar, and one guest found the roof locked inside the advertised season, so do not book expecting a rooftop bar. Ariadni handles breakfast and dinner with buffets and a la carte, spilling onto a patio with live piano in season, the Akali lobby bar covers the evening, and there is an Aegeo spa and a gym alongside 6 conference spaces.
How to get there
Aquila Atlantis sits at Ygias 2 in Heraklion, about 6.3 km from Heraklion airport (HER), roughly 8 minutes by road, with Knossos 5.9 km south.
Three transport options cover the trip, and each fits a different stay. A taxi covers the airport run in 8 minutes and should cost nothing like the figure quoted on the hotel’s own location page; our guide to taxi and airport transfer services in Crete lists the operators and typical prices, so check before you agree a fare. A hire car suits touring but parks off site at about 10 euros a day, and our car rental in Crete page compares local rates. On foot you are 5 minutes from the main bus station and 11 from ferry check-in, and 2 minutes from the museum, which is the real reason to stay here.
The Crete Locals review
Aquila Atlantis earns an 8.0 on the strength of an address and a floor plan. Nothing else in this programme puts you a minute from the Archaeological Museum, and few city hotels anywhere draw spontaneous praise for their bathrooms. Rooms are large, cleanliness scores 4.8, staff 9.2, and the harbour views from the upper Harbour View tiers are the equal of anything in Heraklion.
Two things keep it a point behind GDM Megaron at the same price. The first is noise: the hotel lies under the approach to Heraklion airport and says so itself, describing occasional aircraft noise as an unavoidable part of the location. About a tenth of reviews raise it. The second is the gap between the marketing and the terrace. The rooftop pool is sold as a destination and arrives as a cold, small, sparsely furnished deck with a magnificent view, and the rooftop bar that the copy implies is, on the hotel’s own account, still an idea.
The building dates from 1968, was last comprehensively renovated in 2013, and had its bathrooms refitted in 2026, which explains a hotel that draws praise for its bathrooms and complaints about tiredness elsewhere in the same breath. That is not a criticism so much as a description: you are booking a large, comfortable, well-kept older hotel in the best museum position in the city, not a new-build. Check the room’s aspect before you arrive, because the atrium-facing rooms are the ones guests regret.
Book Aquila Atlantis for a museum and old-town stay of two or three nights: a high Harbour View room booked by name, the roof at sunset rather than for swimming, and dinner at Ariadni when the piano is playing. Entry rates run about 163 euros a night in July and August, with harbour categories from roughly 196, and remember the 15 euro nightly environmental tax in season.
