Arina Beach Resort
Arina Beach Resort is a 313-room, all-inclusive family resort on 40 acres of Blue Flag beachfront at Kokkini Hani, 9 km from Heraklion airport. It is the family end of the S Resorts group that also runs Lyttos Beach, and it posts 4.8 out of 5 across 1,484 Tripadvisor reviews with 8.9 out of 10 on Booking.com across 555, ranking first of 11 hotels in Kokkini Hani. Our verdict lands at 8.5 out of 10: an unusually well-run family machine, with sunbed scrums and mid-range included drinks the honest small print. We earn a commission if you book through the links on this page, which never decides what we write.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Arina Beach Resort |
|---|---|
| Address | Kokkini Khanion |
| Type | Air conditioning · Babysitting/child services |
| Style | All-inclusive family beach resort, part of S Resorts |
| Signature | Water park, 4 adult pools and desalinated saltwater pools on 40 acres |
| Keys | 313 rooms across 13 categories, including swim-up and private-pool |
| Dining | 4 restaurants and 5 bars: Ariadne buffet, Avra, Sunset Asian, meat and fish grill |
| Beach | Private sandy Blue Flag beach, shallow water, beds and towels included |
| Nearest airport | Heraklion (HER), about 8.8 km, roughly 11 minutes |
| Booking.com rating | 8.9/10 (555 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.8/5 (1,484 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.5/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 22, 2026.
Location
Arina Beach Resort is located at Kokkini Khanion, in Kokkini Hani. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Arina Beach suits, and who should skip it
Arina Beach suits families with children who want a shallow sandy beach, a water park and a buffet that changes nightly, all within 11 minutes of the airport. Skip it if you want to walk to tavernas and shops in the evening, if you drink wine seriously, or if you need a quiet adult resort in August. The lists below come from recurring themes across its 1,484 Tripadvisor reviews and 555 Booking.com reviews.
Advantages
- Cleanliness scored 4.9 on Tripadvisor, the highest subrating here, with grounds swept daily
- Staff are the most praised thing on file, named individually in review after review
- The buffet changes nightly across 4 restaurants, and Booking gives it an Exceptional Breakfast badge
- Private sandy Blue Flag beach with shallow water, beds, umbrellas and towels included
- 4 adult pools, 2 children’s pools, a water park and an indoor heated pool, with the main pools desalinated salt water
- Airport is 8.8 km away, about 11 minutes, and direct bookings of 5 nights or more include the transfer
Disadvantages
- Sunbed competition is the top operational gripe: guests describe a queue from 08:00 and ask the hotel to enforce its own no-reservation rule
- Nothing is walkable, and taxis are dear: about 17 euros to the aquarium, around 40 euros one way into Heraklion
- Included drinks draw the sharpest criticism: the house wine, warm self-tapped beer, and coffee in paper cups even at the fish restaurant
- Guests dispute the 5-star billing, and the resort’s own parent group describes it as four-star
- Unrenovated room categories feel dated, with the annex singled out
- Wasps around the pools in high summer, occasional seaweed, and spa staff selling treatments poolside
The rooms: 313 keys across 13 categories
Arina Beach runs 313 rooms across 13 categories, from sea-view doubles in the main building to beachfront bungalows, swim-up family rooms and 5-bed maisonettes with their own pool.
Two categories have private pools and one is swim-up, so book those early if they matter. The practical advice from the file is to avoid the annex unless price is the deciding factor, because the dated-furnishing complaints cluster there, and to ask for a renovated category by name rather than trusting the star rating. Note also that our records long showed this resort at 268 rooms; the hotel’s own description says 313, and that correction is part of this review.
The water park, the beach and the Aegeo spa
Water is what this resort sells: a water park with adult-size flumes, a splash park for toddlers, 4 adult pools, 2 children’s pools and an indoor heated pool at the spa, and the main pools are desalinated seawater rather than chlorinated fresh.
Dinner rotates through Ariadne’s main buffet, the Avra a la carte, Sunset for Asian and a meat and fish grill, with 5 bars including two at the pools and one on the beach. Entry to the spa area with its indoor pool and sauna is free, treatments are charged, and the reviews for the therapists are among the warmest on file. The rest of the estate covers 2 tennis courts, beach volleyball, a games room, a mini-market, a 120-seat conference room, a kids club for ages 4 to 12 and a resort doctor who visits twice daily.
How to get there
Arina Beach sits on the old Heraklion to Agios Nikolaos road at Kokkini Hani, about 8.8 km from Heraklion airport (HER), a drive of roughly 11 minutes, with Heraklion city 15 km west.
Three transport options cover the trip, and each fits a different stay. A pre-booked transfer or taxi is the shortest airport run of any resort in this programme; our guide to taxi and airport transfer services in Crete lists the operators and typical prices. A hire car earns its keep here precisely because nothing is walkable, and our car rental in Crete page compares local rates. The north-coast bus stops on the main road above the resort.
The Crete Locals review
Arina Beach earns an 8.5 for running a big family resort with genuine discipline. A 4.8 across 1,484 reviews is rare at this size, and the distribution is the reason to trust it: 1,251 excellent against 17 poor or terrible. Cleanliness at 4.9, a nightly-changing buffet, a shallow Blue Flag beach and a water park cover the brief for families completely, and the staff are named so often in reviews that the warmth reads as policy rather than luck.
The gap between 4.8 on Tripadvisor and 8.9 on Booking is where the honest reading sits. Booking guests, who tend to arrive without a tour operator’s framing, mark value at 8.7 and location at 8.8, and the complaints behind those numbers are consistent: included drinks that feel like quantity over quality, a main restaurant that runs like a cafeteria at peak, and sunbeds gone by half past nine. The 5-star label is disputed by guests, and notably by the resort’s own parent group, which calls it four-star. Judge it as a very good four rather than a thin five and it looks better, not worse.
The one structural drawback no refurbishment can fix is the setting. Kokkini Hani puts you 11 minutes from the airport and nowhere near an evening walk, so the resort has to be the holiday. For families that is often the point; for couples it is the reason to look at Anissaras or Elounda instead.
Book Arina Beach for a family week in June or September: a renovated sea-view category or a beachfront bungalow, the Avra a la carte reserved on arrival, and an early start if the sunbed by the water park matters to you. Add a hire car for Knossos and Heraklion, which are both close enough to do before lunch.
