Enorme Santanna Beach
Enorme Santanna Beach is a 57-room beachfront hotel at Ierapetra, on the south coast of Crete, and it is the only hotel in this batch on that side of the island. Enorme Santanna scores 9.1 on Booking.com across 1,062 reviews and 4.6 on Tripadvisor across 260, ranking 6th of 28 hotels in Ierapetra. One warning about the private-pool rooms is worth more to a prospective guest than anything else on this page, and it is in the rooms section below.
Crete Locals has no commercial relationship with this hotel. We earn a commission if you book through the availability links on this page, which costs you nothing and does not change our assessment; both ratings were read on the date in the table.
Hotel information
| Hotel | Enorme Santanna Beach |
|---|---|
| Address | Eparchiaki Odos Ierapetras - Sitias unnamed |
| Type | Air conditioning · Airport shuttle |
| Style | Modern beachfront hotel at Ierapetra, on the south coast |
| Signature | The warmest corner of Crete, with a swimming season that runs later into autumn |
| Keys | 57 rooms, including categories with a private pool |
| Private-pool warning | Guests report bean bags instead of loungers, and no parasol in any room; shade is only at the two public pools |
| Ranking | 6th of 28 hotels in Ierapetra on Tripadvisor |
| Nearby | Ierapetra town for tavernas, plus Myrtos, the Ha gorge and boats to Chrissi island |
| Setting | A working Cretan town rather than a resort strip |
| Airport | Heraklion (HER) about 105 km northwest, roughly an hour and three quarters |
| Booking.com rating | 9.1/10 (1,062 reviews) |
| Tripadvisor rating | 4.6/5 (260 reviews) |
| CreteLocals score | 8.2/10 · read the verdict |
Booking.com and Tripadvisor scores checked on September 25, 2026.
Location
Enorme Santanna Beach is located at Eparchiaki Odos Ierapetras - Sitias unnamed. The map below shows the exact spot; Google Maps and Waze give turn-by-turn directions.
Who Enorme Santanna suits, and who should skip it
Enorme Santanna suits travellers who want the south coast, a modern hotel and a long swimming season, since Ierapetra is the warmest part of Crete. It suits guests with a hire car, because the town is a short drive and the rest of the south coast opens up from here. Anyone booking a private-pool room should read the shade warning first, and anyone wanting a lively resort area should stay on the north coast.
Advantages
- 9.1 on Booking.com across 1,062 reviews, a large and steady sample
- Beachfront position on the south coast, with the longest warm season in Crete
- Modern facility, described by guests as clean and well presented
- 6th of 28 hotels in Ierapetra on Tripadvisor
- Two public pools with proper sun shades and loungers
- Ierapetra town a short drive away for tavernas and shops
Disadvantages
- Private-pool rooms come with bean bags rather than sun loungers, per guest reports
- No parasol is provided in any room, so a south-facing terrace has no shade at all
- Some rooms sit beside the restaurant, which guests notice
- 11 of 260 Tripadvisor reviews sit at Poor or Terrible
- Ierapetra itself is a working town rather than a resort, which not everyone expects
- The south coast is a long transfer from Heraklion airport
The rooms: 57 keys, and the private-pool warning
Enorme Santanna has 57 rooms including categories with a private pool, and the private-pool rooms carry a problem that no photograph shows. A guest who booked one for a birthday found no sun loungers beside the pool at all, only two bean bags, and no parasol, because the hotel does not place parasols in any room: they are provided only at the two public pools. With a south-facing terrace, that means an unshaded private pool you cannot comfortably lie beside.
The guest was offered a different room on the third day and declined, having found that other private-pool rooms had the same seat cushions and the same absence of shade. Ask the hotel directly what furniture and shade come with a private-pool room before you pay the supplement, and get the answer in writing. Ask also about proximity to the restaurant, which the same guest raised.
The south coast, and why the season runs longer here
Ierapetra is the southernmost town in Europe and the warmest corner of Crete, which is the strategic reason to book here. The swimming season runs later into the autumn and starts earlier in spring than on the north coast, and the light and the temperature in October are noticeably different from Chania or Rethymno on the same date.
The trade is that Ierapetra is a working Cretan town with a greenhouse economy rather than a tourist strip, and guests describe it as nothing special to look at. That is fair, and it misses the point: what the area offers is Myrtos and the villages west along the coast, the Ha gorge and the crossing to Chrissi island, and a beach in October when the rest of the island has cooled.
How to get there
Fly into Heraklion airport (HER), about 105 km northwest, roughly an hour and three quarters across the island via Agios Nikolaos. Sitia airport (JSH) is closer but has very few flights.
Pre-book a transfer if you are not hiring a car, since this is one of the longer runs from the airport; the operators and fares are in our guide to taxi and transfer services in Crete. Hire a car for a stay on the south coast, because the distances here are real and the rewards are Myrtos, Chrissi island and the Ha gorge; check the terms in our car hire guide for Crete. Ierapetra town is a few minutes away for dinner.
The Crete Locals review
Enorme Santanna earns 8.2 from us. The core of the hotel is sound: 9.1 across 1,062 Booking.com reviews is a large, well-evidenced score, the building is modern and clean, and the beachfront position on the south coast is a genuine advantage for anyone travelling in the shoulder months.
The deduction is for a decision the hotel has made deliberately, and it is the most useful thing we found in the whole review record. Private-pool rooms carry a supplement everywhere in Crete, sold on the understanding that you can use the pool as you would a private terrace. Furnishing them with bean bags and no parasol, while keeping loungers and shade for the public pools, inverts that: guests pay extra for a pool they cannot sit beside in the middle of the day. One guest described being shocked on arrival, and the hotel’s answer was to offer a different room with the same arrangement.
That is a fixable problem and a small one in absolute terms, which is why the score stays above 8. Everything else, cleanliness, the pools, the beach, the staff, comes through the record in reasonable shape, and Ierapetra’s climate is a real reason to choose this coast in May or October.
Book Enorme Santanna for a south coast week in the shoulder season, with a hire car, and book a standard sea-view room rather than a private-pool category unless the hotel confirms in writing that yours comes with loungers and shade. Book on the north coast if you want a resort town and a shorter transfer.
